Schedule Meetings More Efficiently with Scheduling Polls

Typically, when scheduling a meeting, you can pull up your calendar, choose your attendees, then click the “Scheduling Assistant” button to find the best meeting time for all attendees.

But what about attendees who aren’t part of your organizational network? It can be tricky accessing their calendars, causing an endless chain of ‘email-tag’.

With Outlook’s Scheduling Poll, you could eliminate this step, cutting down on email clutter and saving valuable time!

The Scheduling Poll essentially allows the meeting organizer to create one email with an embedded survey poll. This poll allows meeting attendees to vote on the time that best suits their schedule. Then the meeting organizer can collect that data and make an informed decision on when to schedule the next meeting.

Follow these steps to take advantage of this valuable tool:

1. Create a new email

   1. Open Outlook and start a new email message as usual.

2. Insert the poll

   1. In the message window, look for the "Insert" tab on the ribbon. Click "Scheduling Poll" (sometimes labeled "Poll" depending on your version).

3. Set your options

   1. A sidebar will pop up where you can propose multiple time slots. Select the times you want to offer and adjust meeting details as needed.

4. Add it to the email

   1. Once you’ve chosen the options, click "Add to Email". The poll gets inserted as a link in your message.

5. Send it

   1. Finish writing your email and hit "Send". Recipients can click the link, pick their preferred times, and you’ll get a summary of votes.

Start using Scheduling Polls to save time, maximize productivity, cut down on email clutter, and avoid the email-tag headache.

Bonus Tip: This feature also works for internal meetings if opting not to use the Scheduling Assistant feature.