Meeting Free Weeks
Ever feel like you can’t get any work done because you are in too many meetings and phone calls? Need a week to catch up or time to dive into a project, manuscript or grant that requires uninterrupted blocks of time? Then Meeting Free Weeks is for you! A week without interruption means a week of productivity and innovative thinking as described in a World View on this in Nature. After successful implementation in my local groups, I launched a global “Meeting Free Weeks” campaign. I have organized the dates of the global Meeting Free Weeks to avoid major genetics and genomics meetings but many other non-genetics groups are also participating. The weeks occur once per quarter and alternate which week of the month to avoid interrupting the same monthly meetings.
-Heidi Rehm
Guidance for implementing Meeting Free Week; join the movement!
Plan ahead! Block the weeks on your calendar now and start moving or canceling meetings per guidance here:
Cancel weekly meetings and don’t schedule new meetings in these weeks
Reschedule monthly meetings to a different week (or cancel) - schedule alternates 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th weeks so monthly meetings are only disrupted 1X/year
For already scheduled meetings, try to move them if possible, but it’s OK to keep difficult-to-schedule meetings
Once the week arrives, ad hoc meetings are allowed at the discretion of the supervisor/team leads, to accomplish work planned for the meeting free week
A nice write-up about meeting free weeks is here: How to Implement a Meeting-Free Week at Your Company
Below is the schedule for 2024-2025:
April 29-May 3, 2024 - 1st week
August 19-23, 2024 - 3rd week
November 11-15, 2024 - 2nd week
January 27-31, 2025 - 4th/5th week
April 28-May 2, 2025 - 5th/1st week
August 18-22, 2025 - 3rd week
November 10-14, 2025 - 2nd week