Assess whether your meetings justify the time they consume. This calculator combines meeting duration, preparation and follow-up time, effective meetings, and hourly time value to estimate meeting load, cost, and recoverable focus capacity.
Enter meeting hours, preparation and follow-up time, the percentage of meetings that produce useful decisions or actions, and your estimated hourly time value.
Use the result to decide which meetings should be shortened, declined, delegated, or replaced with asynchronous communication.
The main result is meeting effectiveness after accounting for direct and indirect time. A low score indicates that a large share of meeting time is not producing sufficient value.
Hourly value is a planning proxy, not necessarily salary. It can represent opportunity cost or the value of alternative focused work.
Ten meeting hours plus four preparation/follow-up hours at 70% effectiveness produce 4.2 low-value hours. At $50 per hour, total meeting time costs $700.
The appropriate amount varies by role, but meeting load above roughly 25% to 35% of work time can significantly reduce focus capacity.
Add meeting, preparation, follow-up, and transition time, then multiply by the hourly value of each participant.
Consider declining meetings without a clear agenda, decision, required contribution, or outcome that cannot be achieved asynchronously.
A productive meeting has a defined objective, necessary participants, time control, documented decisions, assigned actions, and accountable owners.
Batch meetings into defined windows, shorten default durations, reduce attendees, and replace information-only meetings with written updates.
| 85%–100% | Highly effective |
|---|---|
| 70%–84% | Useful |
| 50%–69% | Mixed value |
| Below 50% | Low value |