If you were lose your digital calendar and had to manually add all of your recurring events back onto it, how many would you want to restore?

It’s not a question of how many do you think you must restore. Nor is it a question of how many you ought to restore. How many do you feel like you want to restore?

That feeling matters. Our brains will remind us, incessantly, of every perceived obligation. That’s its job. Perceived obligations no doubt came with your job. But the lingering sensation that you don’t want to attend them means something.

Perhaps you find no value in that meeting. Perhaps you find the attendees and their interactions exhausting. It’s entirely possible that they feel the same way and yet think they are obliged to attend only because you continue to attend.

You can break the cycle. Say something else more important came up. Add your contribution by email or message or video recording instead. See what happens. Everyone may silently thank you for setting them free, especially your future self.