Hey there, Quick reminder: I'm hosting a remote work Q&A event to answer all your questions live tomorrow, Wed, Sep 25th! Register for free here and join me. Can't wait to chat!
Now, back to our Q&A series, where I answer popular remote work questions, explain why common advice doesn’t work, and share what I recommend instead. Reply to this email if you have a question you'd like me to cover next! TLDR below 👇 | Read this on the web | Subscribe Last year, my company did a calendar reset (deleted all team meetings to start fresh), and that helped for a bit, but now my calendar is back to being a mess again. What do I do? As a proponent for async-first work, people automatically assume I love calendar resets, but nope. This exact scenario is exactly why I don’t. It’s a huge tease to get a taste of what work is like when you have space to do it, but this space is immediately ripped away because calendar resets do nothing to change bad habits. The person who only knows how to get anything done in meetings has no new training. The teams with no processes for collaborating async still need calls to work together. And the managers who use meetings to gauge whether work is getting done are now frantic. Calendar resets are aspirational but not rooted in reality. It’s like when a person who is tired of their mess spends one day just tossing everything. Next month, they’re back to living in a pigsty because it wasn’t the stuff that made the place messy. It was the person and the habits. There are two key skills to learn when trying to reduce meetings:
People frequently jump right to skill 2 and then wonder why their calendar is a mess again a month later. You need both skills to maintain a healthy calendar. It can be tempting to overhaul everything overnight when you’re feeling overwhelmed, but I’d like to encourage you to instead focus on these small steps this week:
Start with just these three items. Keep what works and toss what doesn’t. As with anything, the more you practice, the better habits you’ll build. And this time, when you clear your calendar, it’ll be for good. If you’re dealing with a similar problem, join the Work Forward Society waitlist to receive actionable tips to get rid of your bad meetings. TLDRWhen trying to reduce meetings, it's important to understand two skills:
Don't jump right to skill two and then wonder why your calendar is a mess again a month later. Quote of the WeekMeetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer the meetings the better. - Peter Drucker In Other NewsEmployees voted on the worst workplace jargon. Here’s the number-one phrase that annoys your coworkers
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Hey there, In case you missed it, the Work Forward Society community is now open to new members! Sign up within the next two weeks for special savings and bonuses. Let's make 2025 your year of less meetings and more real work. Join The Work Forward Society → Let’s explore an underutilized indicator of a great remote manager—valuable for both companies looking to hire and applicants seeking a great leader. Retention rates are typically the go-to metric to use, but I think an even better...
Hey there, we're taking a short break this week from our 'Ask a Remote Manager' series to share about something new I'm building for you. In case you missed it, you can catch up on the last four Q&A topics we covered here: What's the truth about ghost employees? What are your top 5 must-haves for remote workers? How do I find a great remote job? How do you communicate without bothering people in other time zones? Now, time for an exciting announcement! ⬇️ 2025 is almost here, and people are...
Last week, the internet exploded with a new attack on remote work, focused on the concept of "ghost employees" or workers who disappear from their responsibilities while still collecting a paycheck. As someone who has spent the past six years helping remote teams be as effective as possible, I want to set the record straight. Here's the truth: ghost employees are an outlier, not the norm. TLDR below 👇 | Read this on the web | Subscribe The Real Problem As I've said again and again, the far...