Tech Tip Tuesday - Outlook - Am I Available?

How many of you have received an email chain like this?

• Person 1: Does Friday work?
• Person 2: No
• Person 1: How about Tuesday?
• Person 2: Sure, what time?
• Person 1: 1pm,
• Person 2: Nope, I am busy, how about 3pm
• Person 1: Nope, 11am
• Person 2: 11 should work
• Person 1: Okay I will send the invite

By the time you are done finding a time that works, you have spent more time scheduling the meeting than the meeting will actually take. What if I told you that the exchange above never needs to occur. When scheduling meetings, we should always check availability using the steps below and it will save us the painful exchanges above.

​Stay Available,
Ralph

Find Availability using Suggested Times

The quickest way to check availability is to:

• Create invite in outlook (please email me if you need help with this)
• Add participants to the meeting
• Enter time and date
• Pick best time from the suggested times in the bottom right hand corner.​

Once you click on a time, it will update your invite's time and date.

• If no time is available on that date, select another date using the calendar in the upper right.
• ​Send the invite

Find Availability using Scheduling Assistant

Sometimes it's difficult to find a time that will work for everyone in a meeting, and it will take a little more research to find a time that will work.

• Create invite in Outlook and add your participants for the meeting.
• Select scheduling assistant at top middle of screen.

• Click and drag a time that will work best.
• Send the invite
  

Check your Calendar Permissions

​At some point you might find someone's availability that is grayed out or has a black and white diagonal hatch. 

• This means that the person is either: a) outside of your organization or b) not sharing their availability.  For this to be successful, we need to share our availability.
• To double check your setting, click on calendar permissions on the upper right of your outlook calendar.​

• Double check your default is set to Free/Busy time, subject, and location.  I suggest this setting as it will help to identify if you are truly available for another meeting. For example, if I have a meeting on site, I can't easily be back in the office for a meeting right after. Also don't worry about sharing too much, as you can always mark an event as private.​

Change an event to be available

I know many of us often use our calendar for reminders throughout the week. Often these reminders will show us as busy when we are actually available. Therefore, we should also consider the classification options when scheduling an event.

Set Busy/Free

​When scheduling or after accepting a meeting, select show as: drop down and select you’re the best option.

​In general, these options should be used as follows.

• ​Free - Use for reminders or events that can be scheduled over
• Working Elsewhere - Use for when you are working at a location different than your typical work place. Great for training, conferences or site visits.
• Tentative - You may or may not be attending. Good for letting others know to schedule this time only if necessary.
• Busy - You are already booked. Try to avoid this time because you would have to reschedule another event to attend.
• Out of Office - Use for when you have vacation or other time schedule. Do not schedule during this time. ​

Set Tags

Every so often, we may have an appointment such as a doctor's appointment something that we don't need everyone to be able to see. This is a great example of when a tag is useful.

• When scheduling or after accepting events, select a tag in the upper right hand to help classify the event.

• In general, the tags should be used as follows:
  • Private: Information for the invitees only. The details of the event will not show in your availability, only if you are free/busy.
  • High Importance: Don't schedule over. It's important.
  • Low Importance: Feel free to schedule over.