Office 365 tip: Optimize the organization of your meetings with FindTime

On a daily basis, you use Outlook, the mailbox included in Office 365.
While messaging is efficient, planning meetings is rather time-consuming, requiring exchanges of emails and multiple changes to the agenda in order to find the right time for the greatest number of guests.
With FindTime, you can easily select the best time for your meeting.

Adding the FindTime meeting planning module to your Outlook mailbox is as easy as 1-2-3: From the Outlook Store, search for the application by its name.
Then click on the slider on the right to activate it.
From https://findtime.microsoft.com /, you can install it in just a few minutes.

Good to know: For FindTime to take effect, you need to quit and restart Outlook.

The concept of FindTime is to present different alternative meeting times, so that everyone can vote for the one or ones that suit them best, based on the poll principle.
To propose a time slot, simply select “New Meeting Poll” in a new e-mail, or “Reply Meeting Poll” in a reply e-mail.
All you have to do is enter the duration of the meeting, and FindTime will present you with a selection of compatible times to suit your guests’ schedules.
All that’s left to do is choose a few slots to propose to your collaborators, add the location of the meeting, then send the invitation e-mail.

Good to know: guests don’t need to have Outlook e-mail to receive your FindTime invitation.

As your Office 365 calendar is linked to FindTime, the latter will pre-book the slots in your calendar.
This saves a considerable amount of time, and reduces the risk of using the same slot for two different meetings.

Each guest receives an e-mail indicating the different times available for the meeting.
They must then click on “Select Option” to enter their availability.
After authentication, they can vote for each slot in just a few clicks.
For your part, you receive an e-mail notification for each new vote.
Once all guests have given their opinion, you can consult the results and block the definitive date.
Simply go to the application, then click on “View invite” at the bottom of the list of votes.
It’s up to you to choose the most suitable time, depending on your guests’ availability and the importance of their presence at the meeting.

Good to know: you can assign a “mandatory” or “optional” level of participation to each guest, to determine which collaborators are indispensable to the meeting.

Perfectly suited to Outlook and Office 365, FindTime is a great time-saving ally when it comes toorganizing your meetings.
However, if you’d like to schedule meetings by means other than your Outlook email, the Vyte tool may also be just what you’re looking for.
Available on Google Calendar, it also lets you schedule a meeting with any LinkedIn profile or Slack community.

Need more details about FindTime and Outlook?