Meetings the great productivity killer of the modern workplace. For many professionals, they're a necessary evil, but one that's spiraling out of control. The average employee now spends a significant portion of their workweek bouncing from one meeting to the next. According to a 2025 Microsoft study analyzing data across 31 countries, workers are interrupted every two minutes by meetings, emails, or notifications. And a prior report from 2023 revealed that inefficient meetings are the top reason employees don’t have enough time to focus, with 68% blaming meetings for a lack of deep work.
One employee, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of meetings filling nearly 19 hours a week, decided to experiment with a new method: meeting stacking. The idea is simple but powerful. Instead of having meetings scattered across each day, they stacked nearly all of them into just two days of the workweek. This allowed the remaining days to be dedicated to actual productive work thinking, writing, building, and executing without constant interruptions.
Implementing this strategy required clear communication with the team. It wasn’t about refusing meetings altogether, but about setting boundaries and being transparent about the goal. Of course, flexibility remains essential. If a manager needs to meet outside the stacked days, that takes priority. But overall, the structure is respected.
The results were immediate and powerful. With heads-down workdays free from interruptions, this new structure brought clarity and deeper focus. Instead of constantly switching between tasks and meetings, there was finally room to complete the day’s to-do list without having to stay late or catch up during off-hours. The cognitive shift alone was worth it.
This strategy is resonating in a broader workplace culture that is rethinking what productivity should look like. The traditional 9-to-5 filled with constant meetings no longer serves knowledge workers well, especially in remote or hybrid environments. And while the tech platforms we rely on make scheduling easier, they’ve also made it dangerously simple to overload our days with back-to-back calls, leaving little room to do actual work.
Meeting stacking isn’t just a productivity hack it’s a cultural shift. It acknowledges that deep, creative, meaningful work can’t be done in fragmented 15-minute blocks squeezed between Zoom calls. It also recognizes that human beings need mental space to be at their best.
For those struggling to get through the day, constantly toggling between meetings and incomplete tasks, meeting stacking may be the quiet revolution they need. It doesn’t require new software, flashy apps, or expensive coaching just a calendar and the discipline to take back control of your time.
