Improving your organization's meeting management skills is critical. By removing barriers to collaboration, not only will productivity increase, but it will also provide an opportunity to create and reflect the culture of the workplace– as one that values innovation, problem-solving, and teamwork.

Have you ever felt like you're wasting time scheduling meetings, dealing with cancellations, rescheduling, and all the associated pain? It doesn't have to be this way. Managing meetings, deadlines, and clients can be made easier rather than more difficult by implementing new software and scheduling techniques.

Here are some expert-backed tips on how to schedule your meetings.

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Use the right apps

If you're just relying on email and verbal agreement that the people you invite will attend meetings, you're behind the curve. There have been many significant developments in the world of meeting scheduling apps and calendar apps – finding the right software will revolutionize your scheduling needs.

By using an application like Calendar, Doodle, or one of many other scheduling and productivity suites, you can supercharge your agenda instead of having to spend time hounding staff and clients about their availability.

You can allow others to set their availability, send invites, maintain a schedule and calendar, and juggle many contacts, teams, and events through these apps. The capabilities of these apps grow exponentially the more adopted they are in the workplace.

What could be an all-day affair emailing a developer can turn into a quick afternoon meeting with the press of a button, cutting out long organizational inefficiencies. All these apps are easy to understand, to use, and to grow your business with, so you can be confident when it's time to get to work – they work.

Think twice about what you schedule

If you've ever had the meeting that 'could have been an email, you know the pain. Every year, you spend hours and hours gathering as a team to explain and discuss something that would have taken a fraction of the time via email. You also spend almost as much time waiting for responses to importance email conversations over something that you should have covered in a one-on-one meeting.

Unfortunately, mastering your schedules is not as simple as installing a new software suite. Making the most of your calendar will require some fine-tuningto truly maximize workflow and productivity. You must be aware of how you're spending your time to remove unnecessary obstacles from tasks, switch between tasks seamlessly, and integrate team communication into a one-stop desktop space.

But with a new suite of tools, calling the team together is easier thanever. Those who resist the urge when it's not necessary and those who are quick to get all-hands on deck when it's appropriate are the most effective at handling scheduling demands.

Keep tracks of your meetings and appointments

Keeping a record of your meetings and appointments is key to being organized and on time. The best way to keep track of your appointments is to have a scheduling or a meetings app take care of it. This way, you will never forget something important and can plan your day better.

Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your scheduling software:

• Send invites early. This is important, so you don't have people missing key meetings because they couldn't fit them into your schedule.
• Keep all your meetings in once place. Even if you have a doctor’s appointment, add it in Calendar. It never hurts to be too prepared, but it can really set you back to have to cancel a meeting or an appointment last minute.
• Create Recurring Events. Creating a recurring event in your calendar app can be incredibly helpful when you know you'll be doing the same thing regularly – add the Monday morning team meeting on a recurring basis and watch the number of emails you get during that time-slot plummet when people can see you're busy.

Ask For Feedback

Everyone has diverse needs as far as schedules, availability, and even software skills. Some people are better workers than they are at juggling a calendar.

When using a new scheduling system or adopting new software, there's always a chance for some disconnect between what you hope will happen and how it actually works. Encourage the people you work with and those who work for you to reflect on and give feedback as to how you can improve the schedules of your meetings.

Implementing new solutions to problems may result in more problems at first, but the hassle is worth it. Scheduling apps can transform complex tasks into simple ones that can be completed in a matter of minutes.

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Takeaways For Scheduling Your Next Meeting

Inefficiency in the workplace tells workers that their time and comfort aren't as important as other things. Creating a workplace that fixes pressure points in workflow and communication, on the other hand, sends a message of innovation and unity.

With new software and new perspective, your scheduling woes don't stand a chance. Soon you'll have more spare time than you know what to do with after eliminating all the wasted time from your previous methods. Here are a few last key takeaways to get you moving.

Don't schedule meetings if you don't need to. This is another classic case of busy schedules everywhere, and of staff feeling like their time isn't valued. By asking yourself, do we really need to gather to discuss this?' you might save some time sending an email and moving on to the next project.

Try to tackle more than one problem at a time. After you've gotten together anyway, why limit yourself to one problem? These all-hands meetings are a great opportunity to tackle other issues that have come up, to make suggestions about work going forward, and to sometimes get new perspective on issues from people you haven't discussed them with.

Give time for software adoption. While it's exciting to integrate a new software suite for scheduling, these things take time – not all staff members are as technologically savvy or as open to change. These are great times to get workers acquainted with IT, and potentially to offer software trainings to staff to onboard them to new workflows faster.

Best Apps to Schedule Meetings

Here you can find the best apps that can be found online, and that will make your life easier by saving valuable time you’d spend planning meetings.

Letsmeet

Letsmeet immediately tells you the best time for all attendees. It’s the best platform for group meetings due to no limit in meeting invites! You can schedule your meetings with a single email, it’s more affordable than any other meeting scheduling platform, it lets you consolidate all your calendars in one place, and more!

Calendly

Calendly is your hub for scheduling meetings professionally and efficiently, eliminating the hassle of back-and-forth emails so you can get back to work.

Doodle

Doodle is a powerful way to schedule meetings with clients, colleagues, and teams.  Find the best time for one-to-ones, team meetings, and more with our suite of user-friendly calendar tools.

Undock

Undock is the fastest way to find time to meet with anyone. Say hello to the super calendar with scheduling that works like autocomplete.