I’ve lost track of how many times this has happened to me.
You’re preparing for a meeting and, suddenly, messages start flying. “Aren’t Melba and Alice on vacation this week…..is there even a quorum for the meeting?”. Or, just as frustratingly, you send a meeting invite and the person declines because they aren’t available. How can that be when their calendar shows they are free?
If only there was some easy way to indicate when you are unavailable.
Good news, there is. If you are going to be away from work for any reason (leave, a personal appointment, Comicon), I 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞 you to block the time off in your calendar. Next, 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 and cancel/reschedule/decline all scheduled events during the blocked time. Simple, but powerful.
If you follow these two basic suggestions, you will standout as a calendaring colossus and genuinely make life better for everyone in the organization.
Definitely a pet peeve of mine too!
I knew Melba and Alice, they were both great. Perhaps they were not familiar with the modern calendars and how to use them.