Rasika Bhalerao, FY21 Communications Coordinator
During lockdown, I have attended several webinars and virtual networking sessions (including at WE20!) where the topic of time management comes up. Setting time boundaries and compartmentalizing is hard. It always stumps us! I don’t have the answers, especially for those with children or more family obligations. But I do have a tool that I want to share with you.
I was introduced to online scheduling software when someone sent me a link to their Calendly and said to schedule a meeting with them there. There are several scheduling platforms out there, and Calendly is one that has a good free version. Basically, it lists times that you are available and lets your visitor choose a time. It then places an event on your Google (or other) calendar and invites your visitor.
It syncs with your calendar so your other events don’t coincide. It can automatically put a video chat link in the calendar event. It can also automatically send out meeting reminders and post-meeting followups. Most importantly, it has settings for designating what times you are working, how much time you need between meetings, and how soon and how far in the future your visitor can schedule.
A lot of my work is done through meetings, and I suspect many others’ work is too. This tool has helped me manage quite a bit. One of my favorite features is that when scheduling, you can add questions such as “Is there anything I should keep in mind?” and any responses are added directly to the calendar event!
During lockdown, I have attended several webinars and virtual networking sessions (including at WE20!) where the topic of time management comes up. Setting time boundaries and compartmentalizing is hard. It always stumps us! I don’t have the answers, especially for those with children or more family obligations. But I do have a tool that I want to share with you.
I was introduced to online scheduling software when someone sent me a link to their Calendly and said to schedule a meeting with them there. There are several scheduling platforms out there, and Calendly is one that has a good free version. Basically, it lists times that you are available and lets your visitor choose a time. It then places an event on your Google (or other) calendar and invites your visitor.
It syncs with your calendar so your other events don’t coincide. It can automatically put a video chat link in the calendar event. It can also automatically send out meeting reminders and post-meeting followups. Most importantly, it has settings for designating what times you are working, how much time you need between meetings, and how soon and how far in the future your visitor can schedule.
A lot of my work is done through meetings, and I suspect many others’ work is too. This tool has helped me manage quite a bit. One of my favorite features is that when scheduling, you can add questions such as “Is there anything I should keep in mind?” and any responses are added directly to the calendar event!
