Scheduling Meetings with Calendly
Olivia Wilkins
Some days, it feels like I spend as much time and energy on scheduling one-on-one meetings as I actually do in one-on-one meetings. Who enjoys playing email tag to find a time to meet? Not me. (And probably not you, either.)
Last summer, I learned about Calendly from a high school student I was mentoring on a summer project. Not to be dramatic, but this tool has been a life-saver. I am so happy my mentee introduced me!
I’ve use Calendly in a couple of ways. I use it to set up times to hang out virtually with a friend or meet one-on-one with a colleague or mentee. I also give out my Calendly link to my students so they can virtually “drop by” my office.
Why use Calendly
If you’ve never heard of Calendly, it is an online tool for scheduling meetings without the back-and-forth emails. But just case you still aren’t sold, here are a couple more reasons why I recommend this tool.
It lessens the burden of setting up meetings. You can save time and energy by not playing email tag, and it does the same for the person with whom you’re setting up a meeting! It shifts some of the initial responsibility to the other person, but it saves both of you work overall.
It is easy for remote drop-ins. If you’re someone who has an open-door policy (i.e. if you’re in your office, you’re open to a spontaneous meeting), working remotely makes it difficult to have drop-in meetings. With Calendly, you can set aside blocks in your schedule where you won’t have any meetings scheduled, but if someone (e.g. a student) wants to “drop in” virtually, they can! AND you can do it without sitting in a Zoom room by yourself, giving you the flexibility to step away from your computer.
It syncs with your calendar. Calendly is compatible with Outlook, Office 365, Google, and iCloud calendars. This means your availability is updated automatically in Calendly, and any new meetings are added to your calendar once set up in the program.
It generates Zoom links. Making a Zoom link for a meeting is easy, but Calendly does this automatically for you!
You can set up multiple location options. You can provide multiple options, including Zoom, in-person, Google Meet, a phone call, or even an “Ask Invite” that allows the attendee to choose a meeting location (helpful if you’re meeting for lunch or coffee!).
It’s FREE. There are premium options that cost a monthly fee, but for most academics, the free version will do just fine.
You can set up blocks of times during which you’re available for Zoom meetings.
Tips for using Calendly
If you decide to use Calendly, there are a few things you should do to get started.
Sync your calendar. It will be so much easier than having to manage, say, an Office 365 calendar AND your availability on Calendly.
Think carefully about your active hours. In your account, you can change your availability (either for one day or recurring) by going to the Availability tab. Click on a date in the calendar, and add blocks of times when you’re willing to have a Zoom meeting. If you synced your external calendar, any other events will be accounted for when people check out the availability on your page.
Consider how far in advance you want people to be able to schedule meetings. Maybe you want to take things week-by-week. Perhaps your schedule is more packed, and you want to give people options for the next 60 days. When you edit your “event” (i.e. type of meeting) you can update this setting under When can people book this event?
Decide how long you want meetings to be. In the free version, you can set up only one type of event. I went with a 60-minute meeting. They can always end early, but then I don’t have to worry about going into a meeting scheduled for 15 minutes when it probably should have been 30.
Set up buffers. I like to give myself at least 5 minutes before and after meetings in case things run tight or if I need a bio break.
If you are teaching and want students to have the option of setting up meetings via Calendly, put a link to your page on Canvas or whatever learning management system (LMS) you use for your class.
Do you have any tips for scheduling meetings? Drop your thoughts in a comment!