Have you ever spent more time trying to schedule a meeting than the time it took to attend the meeting?

— Learn how to save time by hiring a VA here —

Scheduling meetings is an unproductive time waster. Going backward and forwards with someone over email, trying to find a time that works for both of you, is painful.

It gets worse when you need to reschedule, or there’s a no-show.

Unfortunately, for most of us, meetings are unavoidable but let’s not waste a bunch of time scheduling them.

Which is why you need to know about Calendly. You might’ve seen this screen before?

“Calendly helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails.”

Calendly is free, will save you time and make you more productive

In this article, I will walk you through how to create an account, set up your account, and schedule your first meeting.

Signing Up For A Calendly Account

First, you need to set up your account. Head to the Calendly website (in a different browser) and follow the steps below to complete your account setup.

Open your Calendly tab and enter your email address into the blue box (circled in red). Make sure this is the email address you use for work.

After you’ve entered your email address, Calendly will recognise that you are using a Google account and prompt you to use that account to sign up (below). Select “sign up with google” to continue. 

Now choose the google account you wish to use.

By allowing Calendly access to your google account, you are giving Calendly permission to edit your calendar. Click “allow” and continue.

Next, Calendly will take you to their home screen.

Their AI assistant makes the setup process easy. It’ll prompt you through each step of your account setup. Otherwise, you can follow the steps below.

Creating A Calendly Account

You are now ready to set up your Calendly account. There are three settings here you’ll want to personalise.

1. Give your calendar a name. This will form the link you use to book meetings and is customer-facing. Using a company name or full name is common here.

2. Choose your time zone. Calendly will automatically detect your location and choose a timezone for you. However, adjust if necessary.

3. Continue when you are ready.

Calendly will prompt you to confirm you are happy with Calendly making adjustments to your google calendar. Select “Continue”(below).

Next, you can choose when you are available to take meetings.

1. This is where you select the start of your available hours.
2. This is where you select the end of your available hours.
3. Here you choose which days you want to be available.
4. Select “Continue” when you are ready to proceed

Finally, choose the personalisation option most relevant to you and select “Finish.” Your account setup is now complete.

Setting Up Your First Meeting With Calendly

Calendly creates default meeting types for you to use, which you will now see on your dashboard, as per below.

1. These are the general meeting types Calendly has created for you (circled below).

If these don’t work for you, you can create custom meeting types to suit your personal preferences, which I’ll show you how to do below.

2. Click this button to begin setting up a custom meeting (circled below).

Next, you’ll be asked to customise your meeting.

1. First, give your meeting a name. Use something relevant to the type of meeting you want to set up.
2. Choose the location of your meeting. Given the current circumstances (COVID 19), a phone call or zoom call might be best.

When you are ready, continue scrolling down.

Now add your meeting details.

1. Create a clear description of your meeting purpose. Add in any meeting requirements, expectations, or other relevant information for the meeting attendants.
2. Give your Calendly meeting link a relevant name.
3. Choose your meeting colour – This is how the meeting will look in your recipients’ calendar.
4. Click Nextcancellationwhen you’re ready to proceed.

Now choose your meeting availability.

1. Select the duration of your meeting
2. Select the date range you want to be available for this meeting type. You’ll need to click “edit” to adjust this. The default setting is ‘60’ days.
3.Choose the timezone you want to use for scheduling these meetings. Again you’ll need to click “edit” to adjust this.

Keep scrolling down to continue.

Now you get to be specific and choose the exact days and time you want to be available for this meeting type. 

For example, if you are travelling around, you’ll want to make sure the meetings fit in with your schedule (see below).

1. Select a day on the Calendar that you need to adjust for. You’ll then be prompted with a pop up to change these settings.
2. You can choose specific times you are available for that date; you can add multiple periods or make yourself unavailable for that day.
3. Click this option if you want to make yourself unavailable for the entire day.
4. Here you can choose whether you want to apply these settings specifically to the date you have selected or across multiple days. Select “or apply to multiple” if you’re going to choose a bunch of days to apply these particular settings to.

Click “apply” when you are ready to proceed.

Now your custom meeting type is set up and ready to be used.

Calendly will offer you additional options to play around with, explained below.

1. Ask attendees specific questions to gather information pre-meeting.
2. Adjust notifications for your meeting and choose your cancellation policy.
3. Create a custom confirmation page.
4. Collect payments from meeting attendees.

These are paid features that you can’t use with the free version.

Sending Meeting Invites With Calendly

Now you are ready to start inviting people to your meetings.

I’ll quickly run you through this process and show you what this looks like from your invitee’s perspective.

Navigate to your “home” page (circled in red), and you will see the custom meeting you just created.

Suppose you are ready to invite someone to a meeting click “copy link” (circled in red). Then head to your inbox to send out an invite.

Next, draft a quick email for your invitee.

Write up your email to frame the meeting invite, then copy and paste your calendar link into the email.

When you are ready, hit send and wait for your invitee to book in a time.

Below is what your invite will look like in their inbox. They just need to open the email and click on the link to book a meeting.

Once they click on the link, a pop-up will appear (like below). This process is straightforward for them.

1. Here is where your invitee chooses the date they wish to meet with you
2. Where your invitee selects the time they want to meet with you
3. Meeting instructions and other relevant information

Once your invitee has chosen the date and time, Calendly will ask them to provide further details for the meeting. Circled in red below

1. Name
2. Contact email address
3. Any extra info they wish to share.

After adding those details, they can click “Schedule Event,” and the meeting will be confirmed.

Below is how the meeting will appear on your calendar. The meeting will be automatically populated to your Google calendar once the attendee has confirmed attendance.

You’ll also receive a confirmation email in your inbox from Calendly.

You or the attendee can cancel or change the meeting at any stage by clicking on the link (see below)

Any changes made will automatically adjust your calendar, and you’ll receive an email notification from Calendly to confirm the changes.

You now have an account set up with Calendly, and you’re ready to start booking meetings.

You can learn more about their free features here – https://calendly.com/blog/calendly-free-scheduling-features/.

Goodluck.