How to Schedule Meetings So They Are Convenient, Effective, and Fun

Contents

You Try It

Create a meeting request, for example for your next meeting or a planned phone call. Look for free times in the calendars of the participating colleagues.
Ask a colleague to send you a meeting request, look up the time in your calendar, and accept it or propose a different time.
Check your meetings for the next month: Which ones can you group into one, cancel, or replace with a conference call or a Live Meeting? Act accordingly.
Together with your team, agree on core times for meetings, come up with a fixed meaning for the Out Of Office status, and look for ways to optimize meetings in the future (such as maximum duration time, agenda, or meeting workspace).
Enter your vacations as all-day appointments and as (Show As) Out Of Office. For the next two weeks, set Show As for all appointments to the correct value and flag all private appointments as such. As soon as possible, adjust all other future appointments that are already entered, and from now on handle all new appointments in this manner.
If you are working with Outlook 2010/Outlook 2007, display the appointments for yourself and two colleagues overlaid in the Week view, and look for an open appointment. Then place your calendar to the right of the overlaid calendars of your colleagues.
Enter five private appointments into the calendar (for example, jogging, yoga, or Outlook exercises) and flag them as private.