Scheduling appointments like a pro

Updated: Jul 12, 2022

Hi! While I have tackled some Google Calendar hacks, it is important for me to talk about sending calendar invites for appointments in Google Calendar because these are desperate times.

Remember when we were kids and we only had a handful of things to look forward to, so we did not need reminders? You did not have to schedule playtime with the neighbors or remember to wear your P.E uniform on Thursdays. Several years later and finding time to hang out with friends requires intentional planning. If you “let’s grab coffee” me and I don’t place the date in my calendar, that meeting is not happening. Not because I don’t want to, but because I will forget. Also, as adults, our activation energy for playtime is much higher once we are under a comfy blanket with the TV remote.

This post is designed to preserve your friendships or help you follow up on those business leads that likely won’t go anywhere.

Scenario

It’s Thursday night and John is out with his friends. They are complaining about the issues of capitalization of MSMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Suddenly, James says the gentleman at the table across runs a capital fund for ideas like John’s. James makes the introduction to the gentleman named Boss (for real). John chats to Boss for 30 minutes and once they both have dry-mouth, Boss suggests a meeting on Monday morning next week at 9 am to “flesh out the details and align”. Visibly excited, John gets Boss’ contact information and bids him goodnight. When John gets home, he types a follow-up email to Boss and schedules it for delivery tomorrow (Friday) morning at 9 am. The email reminds Boss of their conversation, their appointment on Monday morning next week, and lets Boss know John will share a calendar invite for the meeting.

Creating the calendar invite for the meeting

All John needs to send a calendar invite is Boss’ email address, a meeting time, and location.

Open the calendar app

On John’s computer, in the Gmail app, he clicks on the Calendar icon.

Once John clicks the Calendar icon, the calendar opens on the current day. John finds Monday 6th December, clicks on 9 am and the window opens for John to add the meeting details and send the invite.

John starts creating the calendar invite

Adding the meeting details

Here is what the window for entering the meeting details looks like:

As seen above: The meeting title is: “Meeting with Investor” because hope is the opium of the masses. Google makes meetings 1-hour long by default but John can increase the time to account for Uganda (traffic, UMEME, the Boda scratched his car, etc) by clicking on the time below the title. The time section is also where John can set the meeting frequency to either a one-off or recurring meeting. Under “Add guests” John adds Boss’ email address; under location, he adds Boss’ office in Villicon Salley. [Google automatically adds a Google Meet link to all calendar invitations]. To the description, John adds a pithy Agenda. Finally, John edits the alerts or notifications. I like to use the default alerts plus a “2 minutes before” alert for virtual meetings. For the physical meetings, John adds a “2 hours before” reminder so he can leave home early enough. Once John has entered all the details for the meeting, he clicks “Save” at the bottom. Thereafter, Google asks if he wants to send an invitation email to the recipient (Boss). John clicks “Send” because it is important for Boss to get that alert.

The invitation will arrive in Boss’ inbox as an email with all the details you included. The body of the calendar invite email can be seen below. If Boss has any manners, he will RSVP by clicking Yes, Maybe, or No at the bottom:

Body of the calendar invite email

Pros of sending calendar invites

1. Once the invitation is sent, the event is automatically added to both the sender’s and recipient’s calendars. The recipient will receive all meeting alerts unless they decline to attend the meeting by responding “No” to the invitation

The event shows up in the sender’s calendar

2. The flexibility in setting alerts/reminders allows the sender to add several reminders

3. Adding events to your calendar allows you to have an organized daily schedule visible at a glance in your calendar app.

Cons

1. It is yet another thing to track on your phone

Dos and Don’ts for sending calendar invites

1. Before you schedule that physical meeting, ask yourself if it can be an email. If it cannot, ask yourself if it can be a virtual meeting. If it cannot, then schedule the physical meeting. Otherwise, Google Meet is free for the most part
2. For virtual meetings, I recommend adding a “2 minutes before” alert to the defaults because procrastination is a pandemic
3. Please talk to the recipient about the event before you send the calendar invite. This way they are not shocked by the invite and are less likely to ignore it
4. Update Guest permissions to “Modify event” so that the recipient can suggest a new meeting time if your suggested time does not work. I wrote about how to do that in this post.
5. If you make a major adjustment to the meeting details, such as a changed time or location, always have Google email the recipient with the changes. Otherwise, the recipient may miss the revisions.
6. Just to be sure, please follow up on the invites sent with a call or text if you have the recipient’s contact information.
7. When scheduling a virtual call using Zoom or any other conference calling platform, DO NOT manually email the recipient the details. Instead, add the relevant links to the description of the invite and under Location, you can enter “Zoom call; link in the description”. Emailing the links manually is inefficient and is exactly the kind of email that gets lost in one’s inbox.
8. Always use calendar invites to set up all one-off or recurring meetings.
9. If you’re old school and like to keep a hard copy diary of meetings and tasks, that’s fine. Just don’t make everyone else suffer. Write your appointment in your diary, but send the calendar invite as well.

Conclusion

Boss flaked on John and he is still on the search for funding like the rest of us, but at least John sent a killer calendar invite!

Calendar invites sync automatically to your calendar and will make your life a lot more organized. In my work, it was a struggle getting people to use them, but in the long run, everyone agrees that they make everything easier.

Have a great week and schedule that coffee with that friend. Life is too short!

PS: If you want to chat with me about data or get some sort of tutoring in this realm of tech and analytics, here is a link to schedule a consultation.