Try the following holistic approaches to reduce the quantity and improve the quality of your meetings.

1. Cancel any meeting that doesn’t have an agenda with a clear meeting outcome.

Sound extreme? It’s just practical. Many of my clients share that defining a meeting’s desired outcome, or what they intend to achieve in a meeting, is the most helpful meeting practice they’ve ever adopted. Status update meetings and recurring meetings often lack the desired outcome: People meet out of habit instead of thinking critically about the event.

If you’re not the meeting leader and you receive a meeting invitation without the desired outcome, be proactive and ask the meeting leader to provide one. Remember: If a meeting leader can’t clearly articulate the outcome she’d like to achieve in a meeting, the meeting will likely be a waste of time.

2. Encourage team members to decline meetings if it’s not the best use of their time.

One advantage of a No-Meeting Day is that it gives employees permission to decline a meeting. If a meeting is not the best use of one’s time, allow a team member to decline the meeting and offer alternative ways to contribute. For example, you can ask team members who will miss a meeting to provide thoughts in advance via email or chat.

3. End every meeting with a wrap-up.

A meeting wrap-up clarifies what was — or wasn’t — accomplished. Capture the next steps, decisions and key learnings so what was agreed upon in the meeting does not get forgotten or lost, and there is follow-through on tasks. Wrap-ups provide an opportunity to solidify alignment and celebrate the meeting’s results. Allocate three-to-five minutes on your agenda for the meeting wrap-up.