I talked about it here, here, and here.

It’s my #1 recommendation to any startup who wants to improve culture, morale, productivity…without breaking the bank on super-awesome-but-not-free benefits (which also have their place!).

At Pardot, we called it Freestyle Friday.

At Rigor, it was Yoursday Thursday.

At both companies, it was sacred and beloved.

It’s a No-Meeting Day!!!!

Here’s how it works, why it’s awesome, and why, as a founder, you should implement it ASAP (without worrying that people aren’t working)!

How It Works

• Pick one day per week, same day every week, with no regularly scheduled internal meetings.

• This means no All-Hands, 1:1s, daily syncs, or other “regular” cadence meetings.

• The spirit of the day means that you try to avoid other internal meetings and even external meetings BUT (before the founder or VP of Sales totally freaks out):

  • if a customer wants to meet, meet!

  • if there’s time sensitive or important ad hoc internal meeting, please meet.

• The goal is to allow people deep work, flow, focused uninterrupted time to WORK!

• Also a great day to encourage/allow remote work.

• Side Benefit: your team will also start using that day for doctor appointments, home repair visits, and other non-work-things-during-the-week that now get consolidated into the same day!

Why It’s Awesome

• Your best people are dying to get their work done.

• Moving the company forward in meaningful ways requires deep work and long term projects.

• If the day is filled with meetings and interruptions, people:

  • can’t get important things done

  • context switch and don’t do their best work

  • have to work nights and weekends (usually less productive times)

  • get frustrated or burn out

  • all of the above!

• When you give people 1 day/week of dedicated, focused time:

  • THEY LOVE IT!

  • Projects move forward in meaningful ways

  • Creativity and quality improve

  • More energy and higher morale

• Fun Surprises:

  • people are more present the rest of the week — no doctor appointments, no one is hiding away to get stuff done, it’s easier to be present the other 4 days because you know your deep work day is coming!

  • much easier to coordinate and align on remote work! Everyone teleworks on the same day. No one is missing out on impromptu jam sessions or hot office gossip so people can do their deep work worry-free and without social penalty.

  • Meeting hygiene improves. You hone your meeting radar. What’s worthwhile vs. time-wasting? Can we consolidate or cut?

• THE BEST PART: unlike many other startup or productivity benefits, it’s simple to implement and completely free!

“But What About??” aka Common Founder FAQs

Q: But if we have a no-meeting day, no one will work!
A: Okay, not a question but I hear you. To which I say, if you think no one is working…

• Did you hire the wrong people? (If so, let them go and find people who work without you looking over their shoulder.)

• Do you need to trust your team more? (“No one is working as hard as me” is a common founder hang up.)

• Do you need to give better instructions and goals so people know what to do? (Set the vision and let people operate!)

In my experience, good people LOVE the no meeting day because they can get work done.

Q: But what if you’re a business that has to be in-person to do the job??

A: It’s absolutely true that this isn’t possible for every business. You can’t have a deep work, no meeting day when you’re doing construction, serving food, hosting in-person events, or being an on-site community or security presence.

But I’d guess that you could do something.

It might not look the same as it does at a tech startup.

But giving people time to focus, think, and work on long term projects will almost always serve the business well!

Chick-Fil-A, one of the most successful fast food brands in the country, takes every Sunday off. Jussayin.

Q: But what if this goes horribly and I hate it?

A: Use one of my favorite startup and life strategies: run an experiment! Try it for a month and evaluate. Set expectations with the team that it’ll be an X days trial period.

Q: What’s the best day of the week to do it?

A: No “best” day. What is the current cadence and schedule of the team? When do you have team meetings? Are there regular events like Startup Chowdown that the team enjoys?

We liked Friday as the no-meeting day at Pardot because it was the worst Atlanta traffic day. Post-pandemic and work-from-home revolution, they say that’s Thurs.

I do think having a Monday team meeting or alignment check-in is valuable so people work on the right things!

At Rigor, Thursday was nice because the work would build up as the week continued but you knew a big day of “Get Shit Done” was coming.

Q: But if we do it Friday or Monday, everyone will take a long weekend.

A: See: “no one will work” question above. Also, good news! There’s 3 other days in the work week. 😉

Have you tried a no-meeting day? Any other fave productivity tips? What’s the best free company perk??