Imagine 23 hours a week devoted to meetings. Some encounter that.

Anyone familiar with the term “meeting-poor?” It refers to being involved in so many meetings at work, the church, the neighborhood gathering or some other “organized” venue that too little time is left to get something productive done?

How many times have you sat in a session drumming your fingers, listening to theories, doodling and wishing you could get going on something far more important? If you do, you are not alone. Is somebody too enamored with the sound of his or her voice, or is there relevant activity occurring?

Get this statistic: Professionals spend an average of 23 hours a week in meetings, according to the Wharton Center for Applied Research. The survey adds that workers consider only 58 percent of that time valuable. That leaves the other 42 percent — almost 10 hours — to get out, get busy and get productive. Consider, too, the stop-and-start element that weakens such input — time lost when you leave for a meeting and the time needed to get back into harness.

There are countless ways to deal with this malady. Sometimes a key solution is for someone to speak up about the amount of time being wasted and ask the question: “Can we put this time to better use?”

Another device is to time the sessions and let the people in charge know how many hours and minutes apply and how they could be used better.

Says the Wharton survey: “Set aside time periods and stick to them. Say you have only so many minutes available. When time’s up, quietly take leave. Truth is, many others want to get out as well.

One analyst says too many suffer from “politeness disease” — nobody wants to appear rude or aggressive so people sit in a session bored or silent. It’s suggested that the antsy meeting-goer say something like, “I’m wondering if everyone else would like to take some time to think about this issue on their own.” One wit interpreted this another way: “My rear end has gone numb in this chair.”

People, we are told, should be flattered they are asked to sit in on meetings because the fact they are summoned indicates they are important enough to be asked for input. Yet where is the point of no return, and how much better could those 23 hours per week be used?

Think how much better off everyone would be if that figure could be cut at least in half.