How Many Meetings Do You Have Each Week in Your Job?

As you move up, it seems like meetings consume more of your time. Now, I'm spending less than 10% on hands-on tasks—most of it is about planning, budgeting, and managing day-to-day emergencies. I still enjoy those meetings where my team seeks out advice because that feels more productive than just going through the motions. I wish I could spend less time in meetings, but it’s part of the role at this point!

In my role, I usually have about three standing meetings each week, plus an Architect Forum I attend as the Platform Lead. I also set up additional working sessions when deeper discussions are needed, but I don’t really count those like regular meetings since they’re more informal—it's like just walking up to someone in an office to chat.

This week looks like I have 2-3 hour-long meetings lined up early in the week, but I keep Wednesday and Thursday open to focus on my tasks. Fridays are saved for our sprint planning, which is all a part of the routine. I do find myself on ad-hoc calls pretty much daily, around two times on average. We also have bi-weekly sessions to review our architectural designs; those add to the mix, too.

It really varies for me. On weeks when I'm more involved, I can hit up to 20 meetings. It’s exhausting! I left that last place where it was back-to-back meetings because I just couldn't manage such a chaotic schedule anymore. Now I aim for fewer meetings and push back on unnecessary calls.

Here's what I've seen: some development teams can have crazy schedules, like having daily 2-hour standups. Most teams, though, keep it to a quick 15-minute standup daily. I find ad-hoc calls can vary. Usually, if it’s supervision related, I end up chatting with the team, but I try to avoid too many calls. Typically, if I am face-to-face with stakeholders, it jumps to weekly explanations, especially if working closely with them. It all depends on your role, but I have grown immune to the meeting overload since my last job was all about meetings!