How to Schedule Meetings More Easily

As a Virtual Assistant who does a lot (a lot!) of complicated meeting scheduling for clients, I’ve found a few tools that help me get the job done. Read on below for a look at three that I rely on the most!

Here are my “go-to” tools for keeping on top of the many, many meetings I schedule for my clients:

1. Time Zone Converter 

   It’s hard enough finding a convenient time for three or more people to meet. Now toss in the fact that one is in Australia, one is in London, and one is in New York City, not to mention that one or more may be observing Daylight saving time, and there’s the potential for lots of confusion and crossed signals. In the old days, I used to count the hours on my fingers. Now that I have Time Zone Converter, I’m a pro at getting meeting times right, no matter where the participants are. I use this amazing tool almost every day and have it as a pinned tab in my browser.

2. Google Maps 

   I schedule meetings for my clients in cities that I’ve never been to. Google Maps helps me figure out travel times and routes between meetings, so I can make sure that the itineraries I set up work.

3. Microsoft Word 

   Of course, when I make appointments for clients, I enter them on their calendars. But when I’m scheduling a multi-day trip, across different time zones, it helps for them to see everything the old-fashioned way: In “itinerary format,” on a single page, with all times in the zone that the meetings will happen. That way, even if it says 11:00 AM Eastern Time on my client’s calendar, I can see at a glance that I haven’t scheduled a breakfast meeting during rush hour in LA!

These are just three of my favorite tools for keeping meetings running smoothly. Reply to this email and share one of yours with me!

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