Guides

How to Spend Less Time in Meetings and Still Get More Done

In 2025, the most effective leaders aren’t scheduling more meetings - they’re getting really good at asynchronous collaboration. Here's how they're doing it.

Rob Mark

5 min

How to Spend Less Time in Meetings (and Still Get More Done)

It’s 3pm, and you’ve been in meetings since 9 only to realize your real work still hasn’t started. Sound familiar?

Meetings aren’t inherently bad. But when they become the default for every question, idea, or decision, they start to crowd out the one thing we all need more of: uninterrupted time to think and do meaningful work.

In 2025, the most effective leaders aren’t scheduling more meetings - they’re getting ruthless about which ones shouldn’t happen at all.

The key? Getting really good at asynchronous collaboration.

What does “asynchronous collaboration” actually mean?

Async isn’t about slowing things down. It’s about speeding up clarity without requiring everyone to be online at the same time.

Effective asynchronous collaboration is three things;

Thoughtful, not reactive
Written or recorded, not spoken live
Accessible and documented, not buried in a call that no one remembers.

More asynchronous communication and less meetings actually leads to better decisions as well as better communication and more effective time management.

Why Asynchronous Collaboration Works (Especially for Leaders)

The more senior your role, the more you're paid to make decisions, not attend meetings. Asynchronous collaboration gives you and your team space to do real work - and it creates a transparent trail of decisions, ideas, and actions that don’t disappear when the Zoom call ends.

The two most important reasons why asynchronous collaboration leads to higher performance for leaders and organisations are;

People have more time to think before responding
It forces clarity of thought because writing reveals vagueness

But in addition to the higher operating performance you also benefit from fewer meetings through more autonomy, more focus time and more momentum.

How to Lead Async-First (Without Killing Momentum)

Switching to async-first leadership isn’t just about using different tools — it’s about creating a culture that values clarity, autonomy, and trust.

Here’s how to start:

1. Set the expectation

Make it clear to your team: Not everything needs a meeting. And then model it.

Instead of defaulting to:

“Can we jump on a quick call?”

Try:

“I’ve outlined my thoughts in this doc and tagged you in a few comments. Can you add your input by end of day tomorrow?”

The more you do this, the more others will too.

2. Be clear, not brief

The biggest risk with async is ambiguity. In live conversations, you can clarify on the fly. In async, you need to get it right the first time.

Be explicit:

❓ What decision is needed?
👤 Who owns it?
📆 By when?

For example - “We need to decide which CRM to go with. I’ve outlined 3 options in the doc and tagged @Alex to review pricing. Let’s make the call by Friday.”

When your team is using a Task Management app like Briefmatic you’ll move even faster with aysnc collaboration as items you're tagged in immediately appear in your todo list ready for prioritization and time blocking if required.

3. Default to public, not private

Use shared docs, task boards, and Slack channels — not DMs or buried inbox threads.

This creates:

Context everyone can refer back to
Transparency across the team
Knowledge continuity for when people join or leave projects

Async works best when it’s visible to everyone who needs to know.

4. Make collaboration visible

One danger of async is the feeling that “nothing is happening.” But great async collaboration doesn’t mean silence, it means progress that’s visible.

This is where tools like Briefmatic come in:

Assign tasks clearly (with owners and due dates)
Show progress at a glance on your task board
Turn async feedback (like a comment in a doc or a saved Slack message) into a real, trackable task on your todo to drive momentum.