Save time when trying to schedule a meeting

I learned about this time saving tip from Merlin Man and think it’s brilliant.

Normally, in your office environment, you might be able to schedule a meeting with coworkers using MS-Outlook’s calendar to see when they appear to have available time. Outlook permits users to accept, decline or recommend alternate date/time. Unfortunately, these features typically don’t work when arranging a meeting with a group of people outside your network (i.e. clients, partners, vendors).

The simple solution is Doodle. Doodle allows you to structure a simple poll based on the dates/times you recommend. Then you send the link to your team mates and they vote on when they are available to meet. Finally, you review the results and issue your meeting invitation the way you normally would, knowing that the participants are less likely to decline.

Benefits:

• Simple interface.
• Anyone can access it remotely, via a Web browser.
• It’s free.

Limitations:

• You can only vote on date/time. It would be great to have flexibility to turn the columns into poll topics to vote on.
• It doesn’t integrate into your calendar application.
• Keep in mind this is a third-party, insecure tool, so don’t post anything too confidential.

In summary, Doodle is great, free tool for arranging meetings with your distributed work force, teammates, family, friends, etc. It’s not just for the office. Use it to schedule the best day to meet your friends after work. Find out the best day to have family come visit. Poll your friends to pick a date for a get-away trip. Check it out for yourself.

Enjoy!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.