Are meetings filling up your days but draining your energy? In this episode, host Jo Cowlin uncovers the uncomfortable truth about meeting overload in today’s workplace and why it’s undermining productivity, well-being, and business results.

Drawing on research, lived experience, and her work with driven female leaders, Jo Cowlin breaks down the real (and hidden) costs of poor meeting culture, from burnout and disengagement to billions lost in ineffective practices. But it’s not all doom and gloom Jo shares practical, actionable steps to help leaders reclaim their time, recharge their teams, and turn meetings into energising, purposeful collaboration.

If your calendar looks like an endless wall of meetings, this episode will help you rethink scheduling meetings, protect your most valuable focus time, and create a lasting culture of well-being and impact.

Here are the Highlights:

00:00 Intro: Meetings are wearing us down, but there’s hope

01:21 Back-to-back meetings are sabotaging goals

02:25 Meeting overload crisis: Research and lived experience

03:42  People spend 23 hours a week in meetings

05:18 The human cost, burnout, low energy, and disengagement

08:15 76% feel drained after a day of meetings and what that really means

09:18 People now do “actual work” after hours

09:29 How back-to-back meetings hurt productivity

11:03 Unproductive meetings cost UK businesses billions a year

11:55  Ripple effects: Delayed decisions, duplication, retention risk

13:28 Challenging the productivity myth

15:27 Rethinking meetings: They should recharge, not drain

16:20 Five actions to tackle meeting overload starting now 

Actions you can take now:

• Do a meeting audit: Does this meeting even matter?
• Eliminate back-to-back meetings; build buffer time
• Create meeting-free zones/focus days
• Redesign meeting structure: clear purpose, pre-reads, accountability, energy checks

Meet your host Jo Cowlin

Jo Cowlin keeps it real.

Some people might like to call her ‘a motivational people development expert’ but Jo would rather you didn’t.

Jo is a no-nonsense, straight-talking northerner

She is also a transformational coach, facilitator and game changer. She has a passion for results and is dedicated to helping leaders realise their aspirations without compromising their wellbeing.

She dares individuals to be different by eliminating corporate BS, life coaching, and hand-holding, and instead encourages breaking through barriers to gain clarity and step into personal power for a life without limits.

Resilience and a proactive approach to mental wellbeing is at the core of all of her work which is predominantly aimed at helping leaders and their teams refocus, regroup and rapidly adjust to change. With a background in pharmaceutical leadership and expertise across various sectors, she offers coaching and leadership programs tailored to individual and organisational needs.

When Jo isn’t transforming company cultures, you’ll find her managing her 3 teenage girls’ busy social calendars. She’s a dab hand in the kitchen and true to form, loves to keep her food real. And if she isn’t doing either of those you will find her out in nature walking her dog or lifting a barbell in the gym.

Find out more about Jo here: https://jocowlin.com/

Connect with Jo:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocowlin/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-cowlin/

Produced by winteraudio.co.uk

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