💡 1 IDEA FROM ME
We all know what it is like for someone to reach out and want to meet for coffee, lunch, business, or whatever. And then the flood of emails or texts begins. “Sounds great!” “When is good for you?” “I’m flexible, what about you?” And back and forth it goes. Then, once you pick a time, you have to pick a place, which can lead to even more messages and needed communication.
So much time is wasted setting up meetings either through email, texts, or calls.
I say “wasted” because it can be done much more efficiently, easily, and with as little as one (yes one) message being sent.
Whether it is a meeting someone initiates with me or I initiate with them, my process is the exact same. I send an email with a link to my Calendly offering to meet. Or I reply with a link to my Calendly if they reach out to me.
So, let me walk you through a simple solution to save you a lot of time and energy in scheduling meetings.
I recommend using a calendar meeting app like Calendly. You can sync it to your digital calendar like Google Calendar if that is what you use, as I do. You can also set time frames of availability.
So, for example, if 10 AM on Tuesday two weeks from now may technically be open on my calendar, but I don’t want to take meetings before 11 AM, I would set my Calendly availability to be from 11 AM – 4 PM on Tuesdays, for example.
And if someone wants to meet on a Tuesday two weeks from now, if I send them my Calendly link, they can choose from any of my current open options on Tuesday in the window that I designate.
If you want to save even more time (and reduce all your back-and-forth emails), you can also give options in your Calendly of places to meet, where they will be instructed to pick one after they pick a time.
This option is not available in the free version of Calendly, but if you upgrade to the premium version, and for this feature alone I find it worth it, you can have them pick a time and a place from options you have already pre-selected.
Now here is what is amazing. Virtually everyone ends up picking a time to meet from the options I give in my Calendly. Of course, this does depend on your job and what you do, as you might have to acquiesce to your boss’ schedule. But again, for the meetings you can somewhat control, Calendly works great.
Not only does it very rarely happen that someone asks to meet at a time not already listed in my pre-determined time slots in Calendly, but people rarely pick the “to be determined” option as a place to meet either.
So here is what typically happens. In just one email I can have a time and place scheduled for a meeting. Let me reiterate, all in just one email! Talk about saving time AND making it easier to stay on top of your email. It really is a great scenario.
This method saves me a ton of time. If scheduling meetings is a pain for you, I’d highly recommend you give something like this a try.
📖 1 BRIEF BOOK REVIEW
Attention Span by Gloria Mark
A book about our (shortening) attention span, what is causing it, and ways to confront and combat it.
There was some interesting research and information in this book for sure, but many times it almost felt like reading a textbook.
The information wasn’t necessarily presented as dry as a typical textbook, but there was a lot of it, sometimes it felt repetitive, and could have been broken up a little bit more to make it easier to digest.
Still, it was an interesting read if you want to know more about the topic.
7/10