A meeting is the most expensive way to make a decision an email could have made. For a small team, the cost is not just the hour; it is the broken focus on either side of it.
The habit creeps in because meetings feel productive. People talked, alignment happened. But discussion is not output.
The best small teams are almost suspiciously quiet.
Defaulting to Async
Write the decision down and let people respond on their own time. Reserve real-time meetings for the rare problems that need them.
Every meeting you cancel is an hour of building you get back, twice over.