Coming from the same industry (but as a designer) I have had something similar.
I had 3 daily stand ups, 1 bi-weekly team meeting, a weekly 1-1 with my manager and I was asked by my manager to write an email at the end of each day to tell him what i'd worked on with links to work where applicable (he wasn't always in the office hence the method of communication).
The stand ups, bi-weekly meeting and weekly 1-1 where normal, and are normal in many companies, so when this was introduced the team really didn't take it well as it was micro management at its finest, and time off billable project work.
You are right in saying that it adds another meeting you could do without, which is time not spent on project work and less productive (work on billable/paid projects) for you. We did raise it, this email took around 30 minutes to write and 4 of us had to do it. It would take 2 hours (collectively in the team) a day of productivity off the design team just write this email. Something he took onboard but still wanted us to do it. Not the easiest thing to explain to a Project Manager or a timesheet system.
As it turned out there where a few things in play that caused this:
- He was asked to add pressure on to the team to increase productivity by the directors as it was a busy period. This for some reason was his method (illogical as it sounded) he would assess what work we where doing vs what he thinks we should be doing. This back fired massively, it stressed the team out alot.
- He distrusted one of the people in my team and thought he wasn't pulling his weight as much as the rest of the team where because he wasn't filling in time sheets properly. But couldn't ask just him to do it as its singling him out and become obvious what he was doing.
- He wanted to assess the overall productivity of the team, how much time we spent on paid work as apposed to marketing or internal projects.
So this was his strange method to address all 3 at the same time. It could be something similar with your boss.
Firstly this isn't really normal practice and when its done its generally a temporary measure, BUT there more often than not additional factors to this:
- assessing the team
- distrusting a team member
- micro management
- assessing work loads
- making sure things are running smoothly if there are tight/alot of deadlines
- a request of their management
- assess the team welfare
- someone has raised an issue
...This list could go on. Im sure your boss has his reasons.
Secondly ask your boss in your 1-1 why this is occurring and why it has been put in place, caveat that with you are worried about your time not being spent on projects. As we did, I asked by putting a logical case forward of asking why he was taking 2.5 hours a week off me (and each of the team) to do this, and he was honest.
More often than not there is an underlying reason for this, and there is no bad thing about asking why, its a change and they cant reprimand you for it. As long as you ask in a professional manner and not make it look like you are just complaining about it.
There is also nothing wrong with asking colleagues (if you can) if they are having to do the same, this answer will give you alot of information.