Waffle Bytes

Scheduling an event can be difficult. However, Google Calendar does have several features to try to make this a little less painful...and a little less than 30 emails to create.  One of these is the Suggested Times feature.  This will suggest open time slots of the duration you want for all those invited to your event.  A couple items of note with this features: it works best if everyone has established their working hours.  (Check out this previous post in how to do that if you need to.) it works best if you have viewing rights to the calendars of everyone you are inviting.  For example, for me - it makes scheduling within my own organization easier as we have the ability to at least see free/busy time for everyone's calendar.   (Here is a video on How to Use the Suggested Times Feature .) To use this features, first open or create the event on your calendar.  Make sure to go into More options so you see the full event details - ...

Sometimes you get invited to an event, but the time just doesn't work for you.  Either you already have something scheduled, or another event comes up that takes precedence.  Instead of canceling or declining the event, you do have the ability to propose a new time to the event organizer.  It is easy to do (and modify), and also will let you send a note explaining why you would like a change in date and/or time.  (Here is a video on How to Propose a New Event Time )  The blog post also includes how to cancel a proposed new time at the end. To propose a new event time to the organizer: Click on the event you wish to propose a new time for.  Look for an arrow in the bottom right corner of the event details - A couple new options will appear; select Propose a new time - A window appears on the left side of the screen where you can: Propose a new time (or even day) Add an optional message for the organizer Once done, click on Send proposal...

Did you know that you can set your work hours in your Google Calendar?  This will notify people if they are inviting you to a meeting outside your working hours.  You have total flexibility on which days AND your available hours for each individual day when setting this up - so as long as they are consistent on the day of the week you still should be able to use this.  This will also show you where to turn this off in case that is your preference.  One note before I show you how to do this - Working Hours is a global setting, so it is the same for all your calendars.  You can not set individual working hours for each calendar you have.  :-) (Here is a video on How to Set Your Working Hours if you prefer.) To set your working hours: Go to your calendar settings - Once the settings are displayed, look for Working Hours in the left-hand menu - When displayed you can: Enable/disable this feature at the checkbox Toggle on/off which days yo...

What can you do when you get an invitation to a meeting you cannot attend?  With a recent change, it is now easy to propose a new meeting time.  While viewing your calendar, click on the event you are invited to and want to propose a change in meeting day/time. When the detail window pops up, look at the bottom in the response bar for an arrow on the right side - When clicking on that arrow, you get 2 more options.  Click on Propose a new time to do that - When you select to Propose a new time, you get a new window.  The left pane of the window lets you RSVP and propose a new date and/or time.  You can also add a message.  On the right, it will display the calendars of any invitees for which you have viewing rights to help you suggest a time with minimal conflicts.  When done, click on Send Proposal - You have now proposed a new time to the organizer of the event.