---
name: mohitagw15856/recurring-meeting-pruner
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/mohitagw15856-recurring-meeting-pruner@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: 75616e6fc248
---

# Recurring Meeting Pruner Skill

The [standing-meeting-audit](../standing-meeting-audit/SKILL.md) fixes a *team's* meetings; this skill fixes *yours* — the personal version, where the question isn't "should this meeting exist" but "should it contain me." Most personal calendars carry meetings attended by inertia: invited once for a project that ended, kept for fear of missing something, present as a spectator. The prune audits your actual role in each (decider, contributor, informed, or furniture), applies the four exit moves, and scripts the departures — because leaving well costs one message, while ghosting costs standing.

## What This Skill Produces

- **The personal audit** — every recurring meeting: your honest role, your last contribution, what you'd lose by absence
- **The verdict per meeting** — stay / leave (with script) / delegate / downgrade-to-notes / halve (alternate weeks)
- **The exit scripts** — the graceful leave, the delegate handoff, the notes-instead request
- **The after-shape** — the reclaimed hours and what they're re-blocked for (unblocked reclaimed time evaporates)

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **The recurring load** — the standing meetings with length/frequency, and the honest role in each ("I speak in maybe one in four")
- **The fear inventory** — what absence risks per meeting (missing decisions? visibility? offending the organizer?) — each fear gets addressed by the move chosen, not dismissed
- **The political weights** — whose meetings can be left cheaply vs. whose exit needs care (the boss's staff meeting prunes differently than a peer's sync)
- **The purpose of the reclaimed time** — what the hours are *for*; pruning without a destination refills within a month

## Framework: The Prune Rules

1. **Audit by role, honestly:** for each meeting — when did you last contribute something only you could? Do decisions there need you, or reach you fine in notes? Four roles: *decider/contributor* (stay, maybe halve), *informed* (notes will do), *represented* (delegate), *furniture* (leave). Most calendars are 30–50% the last two.
2. **The four moves, matched to the fear:** *Leave* when absence costs nothing real — the script handles the social part. *Delegate* when the team needs representation but not specifically you (a growth gift for the delegate — framed that way, honestly). *Downgrade to notes* when the content matters but the presence doesn't — "I'll follow via notes; ping me when an agenda item needs me." *Halve* (alternate instances) when contribution is real but not weekly — the compromise that organizers accept easiest.
3. **The scripts carry respect for the meeting:** "I'm pulling back to notes on this one — the updates serve me fine and I'll join whenever [topic] hits the agenda. Ping me anytime I'm needed" — the exit affirms the meeting's value for its members while ending yours. Never the honest-but-fatal "this isn't a good use of my time."
4. **Visibility fears get a real answer:** if a meeting is genuinely where you're *seen* (some are — the skip-level's staff meeting), that's a stay-reason to weigh openly, not a guilty secret. The prune is honest accounting, and "presence as career strategy" is a legitimate line item — just a priced one.
5. **Re-block or relapse:** the reclaimed hours get immediately blocked for their purpose ([deep-work-blocking](../deep-work-blocking/SKILL.md) territory) — a visibly empty calendar slot is an invitation the organization always accepts. And the guard: every *new* recurring invite gets the role question before acceptance — "what's my role there?" asked once at the door beats the audit done yearly.

## Output Format

# Meeting Prune: [name] — [N] recurring, [H] hrs/week

## The Audit
| Meeting | Role (honest) | Last unique contribution | Absence cost | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|

## The Moves + Scripts
[Per exit: the move · the script, verbatim · the delegate's briefing where relevant]

## The After-Shape
[Hours reclaimed → re-blocked for [purpose] · the new-invite door question installed]

## Quality Checks

- [ ] Every role verdict cites the last-unique-contribution evidence
- [ ] Each fear was matched by its move, not waved away
- [ ] Scripts affirm the meeting while exiting it
- [ ] Visibility-stays are named as strategy, priced honestly
- [ ] Reclaimed time is re-blocked before the week ends

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not ghost — fading attendance without the message costs more standing than the meeting cost hours
- [ ] Do not leave with a review of the meeting's worth — exit your seat, not their format
- [ ] Do not delegate as dumping — the handoff includes the brief and the framing, or it's just displacement
- [ ] Do not leave reclaimed slots visibly empty — nature and calendars abhor a vacuum
- [ ] Do not prune once — the door question on new invites is the system; the audit is just the reset