cancelling

I didn't cancel, I declined meetings. There is a very important difference.

i'll add that there you can avoid making people mad at you by communicating why

I usually gave a reason, but when there was a large invite list, or no notice, I did not.

The one time I "got into trouble" was when I gave a reason: "I am declining this meeting because there is no agenda." My manager told me to just have him intervene instead of declining the meeting.