Someone told me that the best way to ensure that something gets done is to automate the process of doing it. I decided to automate the process I use for scheduling meetings with other people and I am very happy with the results so far.

Here is how I got there: Because of my work, I usually need to schedule meetings with different people every week. Potential clients, partners, mentees, etc.

Typically, this is how the process of trying to schedule a meeting with others looks like for me.

(Email or some other social media app)
Me: OK, let’s have a meeting to talk about this sometime.
Other Person: What days work with you?
Me: Let me check my schedule and get back to you?
…….. A few day later………..
Other person: Sesi, I didn’t hear from you again.
Me: Oh I’m so sorry I had a busy week and completely forgot. Does Monday work for you?
Other person: Oh I am sorry. I am not available on Monday. How about Wednesday?
Me: Alright….let me get back to you on that. (Mostly I never get back to them)

I’m sure you see where this is going. Usually, this process results in a lot of clutter in my head which interferes with my productivity. Sometimes it also results in missed opportunities because I never get back to the people who want to meet me.

And with time this will be bad for my reputation…which I can’t afford. So about a week ago, I had a conversation with a potential partner and we agreed to schedule a meeting to talk more. He sent me a link and asked me to book a meeting with him through that link.

I followed the steps and in less than a minute, I had scheduled a meeting with him. The meeting had synced with my calendar and I even received a Zoom link to join the meeting on the set date and time. On the meeting day and time, I clicked on the Zoom link and bam! we were in business.

I was like… wow, this is cool. Let me give it a try. So I looked online and browsed a couple of meeting scheduling tools and finally settled on Calendly. Simply, Calendly is a free online appointment scheduling tool that helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails.

It was easy to set up. I created an account, a meeting type and then I set my available dates and times and how long I wanted meetings to last. Calendly generated a unique link for me that I could share with anyone who wanted to book a meeting with me. My unique link is isaaacsesi.com/meeting.

My Calendly meeting page

When you click on the link, you can select a date and time out of my available dates and our appointment will be automatically added to my calendar. We both receive notifications when the meeting is scheduled and when the meeting is almost due. No stress, no back and forth. Also, because I set the dates and times when I am available, it means you can only book me on days that I am available. Another nice thing is, I delegate the responsibility of scheduling the meeting to the person who wants to have the meeting with me so that I don’t have to bother about even looking at my schedule. If anyone wants a meeting with me, all I tell them is “Hey, can you schedule a meeting with me at isaacsesi.com/meeting” and I forget about it.

Putting Calendly to the test

So far, I have had 8 people easily book meetings with me without any stress and the meetings have been smooth. I like the freedom and the clarity of mind which comes with having one less thing to worry about. Thanks to a simple scheduling tool like Calendly, I can:

• Have people schedule meetings with me without stress so I focus on other things.
• Ensure that I don’t miss important meetings and potential opportunities.
• Increase my productivity
• Ensure that my schedule is more organized
• Look more professional

Do you offer any form of consultancy or have a lot of meetings? Does Calendly speak to you? Check it out. The best way to ensure that something gets done is to automate the process of doing it Click To Tweet