Friday, February 24, 2012

Using Calendar Invites to Save Time in Setting Up Appointments Across Time Zones

photo by photosteve101
My wife recently shared to me the difficulty of scheduling meetings over different time zones - especially with people who travel over different time zones and set meetings without specifying which time zone they will be in on the day of the meeting.  After 2 missed meetings, my wife finally was able to connect with this person, but that certainly can be frustrating a time consuming.

How to overcome this confusion?  Send a calendar invite.  I use calendar invites within Google all the time and especially with co-workers to take the advantage of the "Find a Time" feature as it shares their busy/free times on their calendar.

Find a time, create the appointment and send it away and the request goes out with the right time zones.  When the team member receives the request, it will translate to whatever his/her time zone is.  It clears up confusion and gets saves missing appointments and re-scheduling.

How have you overcome the confusion of setting up appointments and meetings cross time zones? 
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4 comments:

  1. Charl EksteenFebruary 24, 2012 at 11:04 AM

    Thanks for that Josh... I really like Google Calendar, but didn't know abut the time adjusting feature for different time zones. Will look into it because of e-meetings with clients from all over

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    1. JWoFebruary 25, 2012 at 11:29 AM

      No problem! Glad to help. Especially helpful when clients are from all over the place and in various different time zones.

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  2. RussFebruary 24, 2012 at 11:40 AM

    Great practical advice. Thanks Josh.

    Another solution is Tungle.me. It's a platform independent service for scheduling meetings. You can add any google calendars you have and it will automatically calculate your free/busy times.

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    1. JWoFebruary 25, 2012 at 11:28 AM

      I have heard of Tungle.me but if it can add Google Calendars, that is a boon and takes on all the advantages of it. Will have to check it out.

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