← Ritual Library

Annually ritual · Seen at Shopify

The Meeting Purge

Periodically delete every recurring meeting from calendars, then only add back the ones people genuinely miss.

Why it matters

In January 2023, Shopify cleared recurring meetings with three or more people from employee calendars — around 10,000 events — with a two-week cooling-off period before any could return. Subtraction is one of the most powerful and underused leadership tools.

How to run it

  1. Announce the purge and the reason: time for deep work.
  2. Delete recurring meetings above a size threshold (Shopify used three or more people).
  3. Hold a cooling-off period of about two weeks before anything is re-added.
  4. Add back only what was missed — with a clear purpose and owner.
  5. Repeat every year. Meetings regrow like weeds.

Watch out for

  • Meetings quietly creeping back without anyone questioning them
  • Cutting the rituals that actually build connection — protect those deliberately

Sources

Keep exploring

Nudge

The Zeigarnik Effect

Unfinished tasks keep tugging at your attention — but you don’t have to finish them to make the tug stop. Writing a specific plan does almost as much.

2-minute read8 Oct 2026
Nudge

The Goal-Gradient Effect

People speed up as a finish line gets closer and slow down when a new goal starts. Long programmes with one distant finish line stall in the middle.

2-minute read6 Oct 2026
Research-backedRitual

End-of-Day Parking

Before signing off, everyone writes one line per open task: the next action, when, and where — so their minds can switch off.

Daily3 minutesAny