Meeting poll / Tips

How to find a meeting time that works for everyone

The quickest way to schedule a group is to ask everyone when they are free, all at once, in one place. Here is how to get fast, useful answers and settle on a time without a long chat thread.

Offer a real window, not every possibility

Give people a short, realistic set of options: the next week or two, and only the hours that could actually work. A poll with five days and a few hours each gets answered in a minute. A poll covering a whole month from 6 in the morning to midnight gets ignored.

Ask when people are free, not what they prefer

"Mark every time you could make it" gives you more overlap than "pick your favourite time". You want the largest set of possibilities, so you can find the time where the most people overlap.

Send one link, with a deadline

Post the link in the group chat with a clear deadline: "Please answer by Thursday evening." Two days is usually enough. Then remind the people who haven't answered yet, by name if it is a small group.

Choose the time

1. Start with the times that suit the most people; the poll lists them for you.
2. If two times tie, check who is missing from each: some people are harder to replace than others (the speaker, the person with the keys).
3. Prefer earlier dates: plans made far ahead tend to change.
4. Pick it on the poll with “Make this the meeting time”. The best times are made of the slots people tapped, so use “Adjust start and end” to set exactly when the meeting starts and ends.
5. Everyone then sees the meeting time at the top of the poll, with an “Add to calendar” button: Google Calendar, or a calendar file for Apple, Outlook and other apps. A weekly meeting is added as an event that repeats every week.

People in different time zones

Create the poll in the time zone where most people are, or where the meeting happens. People elsewhere see each time in their own zone too. Watch for times that fall at night for someone, and say in the description which zone you mean.

Weekly meetings

For a study group, a club or a regular call, ask about days of the week instead of dates. Everyone marks their usual free times once, and the best slot works week after week.

Trips, weekends and events

When the question is which day, not which hour, ask about whole days. Everyone taps the days they are free, and you see at once which weekend works.

A message you can copy

Put your poll's link where it says [link].

Hi all! Let's find a time for our next meeting. Please mark every time you could make it by Thursday evening: [link]. It takes a minute and you don't need an account.