Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to stop playing ping pong with plans. When
Speaker 1: you are making plans with people, aim to figure out
Speaker 1: what you are doing in the fewest number of messages possible.
Speaker 1: Save your effort for interacting live rather than figuring out logistics.
Speaker 1: In professional and personal contexts, it is easy to find
Speaker 1: ourselves spending way too much time scheduling things. A colleague
Speaker 1: sends a group email asking about availability next week. People
Speaker 1: respond with paragraphs about their schedules, recounting vacations, dentist appointments,
Speaker 1: big deadlines, and more hours or even days pass by
Speaker 1: the time every one has responded, and the organizer suggests
Speaker 1: the time that seems to work, But by that time
Speaker 1: people's availability has changed and the process begins again. This
Speaker 1: happens in our personal lives too. A friend suggests lunch
Speaker 1: your game and ask when is good. She says any time,
Speaker 1: so you suggest Tuesday at noon. Somehow any time doesn't
Speaker 1: include Tuesday at noon, so eventually you land on Monday.
Speaker 1: You start discussing where to go, and multiple messages later,
Speaker 1: you've decided on a restaurant, only to realize it is
Speaker 1: closed on Mondays, and so the ping pong continues. But
Speaker 1: our planning procedures don't have to be quite so time consuming.
Speaker 1: There are lots of ways to plan more efficiently. I
Speaker 1: know some people use software like Calendly for scheduling meetings.
Speaker 1: This can certainly be helpful if you need to schedule
Speaker 1: a lot of one on one type calls, and you
Speaker 1: don't want to offer three people Monday morning and then
Speaker 1: need to circle back with each of them as times disappear.
Speaker 1: You also don't need to hear every one's life story
Speaker 1: as you are scheduling them. Each person can just choose
Speaker 1: a time that you've made available that works for them.
Speaker 1: I know some folks also use doodle polls and the
Speaker 1: equivalent for group get togethers. These have the advantage of
Speaker 1: allowing you to quickly see which is the most popular option,
Speaker 1: and allowing people to specify that they are available at
Speaker 1: a certain point but not particularly happy about it. You
Speaker 1: can meet if need be, but the organizer knows it
Speaker 1: is not your first choice. I love that little tweak.
Speaker 1: But these tools don't necessarily solve all the logistical problems
Speaker 1: such as where are your meeting or what you're doing
Speaker 1: if those are relevant questions, and plenty of offices have
Speaker 1: meetings go through their own scheduling software, which often suffers
Speaker 1: from the problem of not really allowing people to state
Speaker 1: their preferences, So before someone issues a calendar invite, they
Speaker 1: are generally still emailing around about availability. This is definitely
Speaker 1: going to be the case for someone you haven't met
Speaker 1: with before, as an unsolicited calendar invite can feel a
Speaker 1: little well aggressive, so if you are emailing, you should
Speaker 1: have a strategy. One option is to suggest three options
Speaker 1: and ask the other person to choose what sounds good
Speaker 1: to them. For instance, if someone suggests lunch next week,
Speaker 1: you could reply with, how about Monday eleven forty five
Speaker 1: a m at the Bluebird Cafe, Chopped or India Palace.
Speaker 1: That time might not work for the other person, but
Speaker 1: he or she is likely to follow your lead on
Speaker 1: specific and in the best case, is going to respond
Speaker 1: with could you do Tuesday or Wednesday at that time
Speaker 1: at any of those places? At that point you respond
Speaker 1: with your favorite and your first choice of Tuesday or Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and you're all good. The ping pong game stops if
Speaker 1: proposing just one time feels wrong to you, feel free
Speaker 1: to propose two to three times or small windows, but
Speaker 1: no more. People get overwhelmed by too much choice. If
Speaker 1: you know the other person has a bad habit of
Speaker 1: not responding with specifics, feel free to add the helpful nudge.
Speaker 1: If these times don't work for you, please suggest a
Speaker 1: few that do. Ideally, this prompts the other person to
Speaker 1: respond with two to three options that you can pick from.
Speaker 1: If you are coordinating with more than one person and
Speaker 1: you're not doing a poll, or you have multiple questions,
Speaker 1: the approach of suggesting a few specific options can still work.
Speaker 1: Ask people to reply by a specific time with all
Speaker 1: the options that work for them. Then you can choose
Speaker 1: the one that's the best fit and communicate the plan.
Speaker 1: For instance, you might write by the end of the
Speaker 1: day today, please reply just to me to let me
Speaker 1: know whether you are available for a zoom meeting Monday
Speaker 1: at ten, Tuesday at one, and or Thursday at nine.
Speaker 1: Please let me know all the times that are possible
Speaker 1: for you. Then I will see what works for everyone
Speaker 1: and communicate the plan tomorrow morning. I have taken this
Speaker 1: approach to scheduling a virtual meeting. I do regularly with
Speaker 1: four other people who have busy schedules. Now, I know
Speaker 1: some people like to come across as flexible, and if
Speaker 1: you are truly open, that's great. But oftentimes so when
Speaker 1: people claim to be flexible, they aren't. So be kind
Speaker 1: and cut down on the ping pong by giving some parameters.
Speaker 1: If a friend asks where you'd like to go to lunch,
Speaker 1: you can say I'm game for anywhere you choose, But
Speaker 1: then you truly have to let them choose, and it
Speaker 1: might be a restaurant in their office lobby forty five
Speaker 1: minutes from your place of work. If you have any
Speaker 1: sort of place preference or dietaria requirements, it truly is
Speaker 1: nicer to just list three places that will appeal and
Speaker 1: are reasonably priced, I mean, unless you're paying for it.
Speaker 1: If you tell someone how about an Italian place in midtown,
Speaker 1: this requires them to do some research. If you suggest
Speaker 1: an Italian place, you are giving them the easy option
Speaker 1: of just saying yes. A similar aproach can work for
Speaker 1: professional meetings too. I am currently available anytime Monday morning.
Speaker 1: Please propose a time. Then this works. No one is
Speaker 1: going to believe that you are free for the entirety
Speaker 1: of the next week, so don't say it. Plus, it's
Speaker 1: a bit overwhelming for someone trying to schedule something. I mean, really,
Speaker 1: anywhere in the hours you might conceivably be working. If
Speaker 1: someone gives you a range, feel free to be decisive.
Speaker 1: It is more efficient for everyone. When a colleague says,
Speaker 1: I am free for a zoom call anytime Wednesday or
Speaker 1: Thursday after two, simply choose a time within that window. Great,
Speaker 1: let's do Wednesday at two thirty. Here's a link. Now
Speaker 1: your scheduling is done, no more ping pong. You may
Speaker 1: think that being flexible is desirable, like, oh, yeah, Wednesday
Speaker 1: after two works for me too. When would you like
Speaker 1: to meet? But you are putting work back on the
Speaker 1: other person and delaying the resolution. More ping pong. One
Speaker 1: side note, if the person you are making plans with
Speaker 1: sometimes takes a while to get back to you, specify
Speaker 1: that you are currently available at the times you are offering.
Speaker 1: That way, they won't be disappointed if several days later
Speaker 1: your availability has changed. Of course, if we are talking
Speaker 1: about meeting with a new potential client that you have
Speaker 1: been pursuing for months, you may want to put calendar
Speaker 1: holds on all the times you offer so that you
Speaker 1: know your schedule won't have changed by the time of
Speaker 1: the reply. By communicating clearly and acting decisively, we can
Speaker 1: avoid sinking lots of time into plan ping pong, so
Speaker 1: we can get on with our lives and enjoy the
Speaker 1: plans that we have made in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our tak Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
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