The magic of meeting-free Thursdays

It’s Thursday morning. Slack is quiet. Your calendar is clear. Your brain? Finally, it has the space to breathe, build, and (hopefully) focus.

Welcome to one of bunny.net’s most recent rituals: meeting-free Thursdays.

Why we do this

At bunny.net, we believe that deep work is sacred. Whether you're solving tough engineering problems, writing docs, or designing something delightful, uninterrupted time is the secret sauce behind our best work. That’s why every Thursday, we opted for zero internal meetings across the company.

Where it started

Meeting-free Thursdays did not come from a top-down mandate. They came from feedback. During one of our quarterly employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) surveys, we noticed a theme. People across the fluffle were craving more focus time, less meeting fatigue, and space to actually do the work they were hired to do. So we ran an experiment. One meeting-free day each week, starting June 23. To kick it off, we paired it with a “meeting purge” challenge, a one-week calendar cleanse where teams removed every recurring meeting and only brought back what truly added value.

The meeting purge was simple but effective. Everyone was encouraged to clear their calendars of all recurring meetings for one week. No exceptions. Then we observed. What did we actually miss? What needed to come back, and what could be replaced with async updates, shorter sessions, or nothing at all? It was a rare chance to start fresh and reflect on what time really means in a high-performance, remote-first environment.

We encouraged everyone to ask a few simple questions before adding meetings back:

• What's the purpose of this meeting?
• Can it be async?
• Can it be shorter?
• Does everyone really need to be there, or can they just be updated afterward?

The message was clear. You don’t need to attend every meeting just because it’s on your calendar. And no one should take it personally if someone opts out. It’s not about doing less. It’s about doing what matters.

The paradigm shift

Another unexpected benefit has been cultural. Knowing the entire company shares the same quiet day creates a sense of unity and trust. No one worries about missing out or falling behind, because we’re all aligned. It lowers the background stress of constant availability and builds a culture where protecting each other’s time is the norm, not the exception.

We're witnessing a bit of a paradigm shift in how we think about respect at work. Protecting your own time is important, but protecting your teammate’s focus time is just as valuable. It reminds us that momentum is collective, and the best way to move faster together is to give each other space to think.

The results

Some meetings quietly disappeared. Others came back leaner, clearer, or moved to async updates. Teams started asking better questions about how they collaborate, and what really deserves time on the calendar.

Meeting-free Thursdays didn’t solve everything. Some people still have external calls or use the time differently, and that’s totally okay. They’re not mandatory; they’re just an option.

We’re still learning, too. But one thing’s clear: at bunny.net, we don’t protect meetings. We protect momentum.

What it looks like

Teams have the freedom to shape the day around what they need most, whether that’s heads-down building, async updates, or quiet hours in Slack Do Not Disturb mode.

"As a software engineer, I don’t have many meetings to begin with, so the change isn’t huge. However, Meeting-free Thursdays still make a difference. They give me a chance to reset. Sometimes I’ll go out for lunch, get some fresh air, then come back and dive into code with a clearer mind."

And for leaders too, the day can unlock a different kind of value, giving them time to think strategically.

"Every Thursday I dedicate to high-impact work, which can change how teams work. For example, it can be automation of a manual process that consumes time for many people or changing the way we work to be more efficient. Meeting-free Thursday allows me to forget about all the noise and think strategically."

"I love Meeting-free Thursdays. Having one clear day in the week gives me space to go deep on tough problems without constant context switching. It’s also a great reminder to the team that it’s okay to protect focus time. It works much better when the whole company is doing it on the same day, as you don't have to bat away meeting requests."

"It’s the one day I get to turn off Slack without guilt."

That focus does not stop with engineering. Business teams turn Thursdays into a chance to breathe, think, and get real work done without interruptions. It works because everyone shapes it to fit their needs. It sticks because we do it together.

“Thursday has quickly become my favorite day of the week. In People Ops, priorities shift and surprises pop up, so my to-do list can grow pretty fast, but with Meeting-free Thursdays, I know I have a day set aside to catch up and clear the deck. Name a better feeling than powering through your to-do list and checking off every task? I’ll wait.”

Meeting-free Thursdays give us room to think. And we protect that room like it matters, because it does.

What it’s not

This isn’t a day off. It’s not an excuse to go silent. And it’s definitely not about less collaboration. In fact, by Thursday we often want to collaborate because we've had time to prepare, reflect, and do the deep work that makes discussions more meaningful later.

Meeting-free Thursdays give us something more valuable than time back. They give us the freedom to decide how to spend it.

We’re not trying to force focus. We’re creating space for teams to find it on their own.

Progress, not perfection

There’s something powerful about knowing the whole company is aligned around focus. It sets a tone. It builds respect. It reminds us that our time and energy matter.

But let’s be real. It’s not perfect, and it doesn’t work for everyone the same way. Some roles, projects, or the nature of a job make full meeting-free days tricky. Sometimes, the best way to solve something is still to hop on a quick call.

Not every role can go fully meeting free, and that’s okay. The impact still spreads.

"Being on the sales team, meeting-free Thursdays don’t always work for me. However, the new perk allows me to focus on customer-facing items on Thursdays and to let our talented engineers get to work on delivering what matters most for our partners and our customers."

And that’s exactly the point. Meeting-free Thursdays aren’t about rigid rules. They’re not mandatory either. They’re about intentionality and about giving space where we can, while trusting our teams to do what makes sense to them. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s progress.

And what made it stick? It wasn’t just process. It was leadership that backed it up.

Modeled from the top

Our COO, Yumika, earned a “Let’s take this offline” award for showing how powerful async communication can be. Her example didn’t just support the change. It set the tone for it. It showed the fluffle that deep work isn’t just encouraged. It’s modeled from the top.

One small shift, big ripple

Thursdays are meeting free. But the mindset? That’s every day.

Building anything great, especially a faster internet, takes focus, trust, and time to think.

That’s what Meeting-free Thursdays protect. And that’s why we’re keeping them.