Find a Meeting Time Using www.Doodle.com

General Overview

Whether you're an instructor, a student, or a staff member, part of your responsibilities inevitably involve meeting with other people for collaborative work or discussion. And there aren't many things more tedious or unnecessarily difficult than trying to find a meeting time that works for everyone.

If you've ever had to suffer through a dozen back-and-forth emails or text messages among a group of people about who's going to be free at what time and for how long, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Email is great for many things, but this task just isn't one of them.

Fortunately, online tools exist for simplifying and automating this task. One of those tools is Doodle.com:

First, somebody in your group should take on the job of setting things in motion: steps 1 through 7 explain this process.
Next, everybody in the group needs to keep things in motion: steps 7 and 8 explain how.
Finally, the person who set things in motion should let everyone know what time the meeting is: see step 9

Step 1: Go to www.Doodle.com and click on "Schedule Event"

Step 2: Fill in the necessary information about your meeting

Provide a clear description of the purpose of the meeting.

Step 3: Review the calendar of dates in the future

Dates in the past are light gray, while dates in the future are dark gray.

Step 4: Click on every date that might work for a meeting

The dates you choose will turn green, and a list will appear on the right.

If you change your mind about a particular date, click on the red X next to it to delete it.

Step 5: Fill in the time slots on those dates that might work for a meeting

In each slot, enter both a start time and an end time.

To avoid confusion, be sure to specify "am" or "pm."

Step 6: Share the "Participation Link" with your team members

You can click on the words "Participation Link" and then copy that address for emailing.

Or you can click on "let Doodle send out the invitation" and follow the instructions.

Step 7: Team members click all the times that work for them and then click "Save"

When team members are choosing times, they should not just choose their favorite time.

Instead, they should choose all of the times that they would be available for a meeting.

Step 8: Once a team member has specified available times, anyone can view the results

Step 9: After all team members have indicated their available times, you'll know the best meeting time(s).

In this hypothetical example, Tuesday at 10am is the only time that works for everyone on the team...

...so that's the time your team will meet!

It's possible, however, that there will be more than one time when everyone can meet. If that's the case, then the meeting organizer should just pick one time.

It's also possible that there is no time that everyone can meet. If that's the case, I recommend that the meeting organizer do one of two things:

  1. Start over with a larger selection of possible times, or
  2. Pick a time when most people can meet and fill in the absent team member by email or some other means.

Created by George H. Williams.
Please send any questions or feedback to George.H.Williams@gmail.com

Creative Commons License

This work is published with a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
.