How to book time on your calendar without email tennis
Four ways to book a meeting without six emails, when each one fits, and why booking your own focus time first makes every other booking easier.
On this page 9 sections
"Does Tuesday work?" "Tuesday's tricky, how about Thursday?" "Thursday morning or afternoon?" "Morning, but not before ten." Four emails in, nothing is booked, and both of you have context-switched four times to move one meeting an inch.
That back-and-forth is email tennis. It is not caused by busy people. It is caused by asking an open question when a closed one would do.
This post covers four ways to book time that end the rally in one or two moves, when each one fits, and the step that makes all of them work better: putting your own work on the calendar first.
Download PlexiiDesk free if you want a calendar on the same screen as your work while you try these. There is no charge for personal use on either Mac or Windows.
Why the rally happens
Every round of email tennis has the same cause: one person knows their availability and the other does not, and neither wants to share their whole calendar.
So the fix is to change what gets sent. Instead of "when suits you?", send something the other person can answer with one word, or one click.
Method 1: offer specific times
The simplest method, and still the best one for a meeting with one or two people you do not book often.
Offer two or three specific times, with the length, the time zone and a fallback:
Could we take 30 minutes for this? Any of these work for me, all Adelaide time (ACDT): Tuesday 10:00, Tuesday 15:30 or Wednesday 11:00. If none suit, send me two times that do and I'll book one.
Three rules make it work.
- Give two or three, not six. More options look generous but take longer to compare.
- Name the time zone. Across Australia alone, Adelaide is half an hour behind Sydney and, in summer, two and a half hours ahead of Perth. "10:00" without a zone is a question, not an answer.
- Hold the times until they answer. If you offer Tuesday 10:00 and book something else into it, you are back to the start.
Then send a real invitation as soon as they pick. "Great, Tuesday at 10" in an email is not a booking.
Method 2: a booking page
A booking page shows your free slots, the other person picks one, and the meeting lands in both calendars. It is the right tool when outside people book you regularly: clients, candidates, students, customers.
Several are built into tools you may already have. From each provider's own documentation:
| Tool | What the free or basic option includes |
|---|---|
| Google Calendar appointment schedules (opens in a new tab) | A personal Google account gets one booking page. Multiple pages, reminder emails and checking several calendars for conflicts need a paid Google plan |
| Calendly (opens in a new tab) | The Free plan includes one event type, one connected calendar and unlimited one-on-one meetings |
| Microsoft Bookings with me (opens in a new tab) | Part of Microsoft 365 plans that include Bookings. One-on-one meetings only, and people booking you do not need a Microsoft account |
A booking page has costs too. It shows outsiders when you are free, which some people find too open, and it only works if your calendar is accurate. A free slot that is actually your report-writing time will get booked.
Method 3: look, then invite
Inside an organisation, you can often see colleagues' free and busy times in a shared calendar. Then there is no need to ask at all: find a gap that suits everyone, send the invitation with an agenda, and let anyone who cannot make it propose another time.
This saves the most time and causes the most friction if done carelessly. Two habits keep it polite:
- Say why in the invitation. One line on what the meeting needs to settle lets people judge whether to move other things for it.
- Do not book over obvious focus time. A block called "Writing: quarterly report" is busy, even if the calendar app treats it as movable.
Method 4: put the meeting where the work is
For recurring check-ins, the best booking is the one you never have to make. Agree a standing time once, put it in the calendar as a repeating event, and cancel it when there is nothing to discuss. A fortnightly 25-minute slot is cheaper than six ad hoc bookings.
When the meeting exists to make a decision, attach the material to the invitation: the document, the figures, the question. People who arrive having read it make the decision in the meeting instead of booking a second one.
Book your own time first
Every method above depends on your calendar telling the truth. If your calendar shows meetings and nothing else, the empty space looks free, to you and to everyone booking you. Then the work that needs uninterrupted time gets squeezed into the gaps between other people's priorities.
So book your own work first. At the start of the week, put two or three blocks of focus time on the calendar for the things that matter most, and treat them like meetings with yourself. Google calls this focus time and, on some Google Workspace plans (opens in a new tab), can decline meetings that clash with it automatically. Any calendar can hold a block called "Focus: draft the proposal".
If you want help laying the day out, the free time blocking planner arranges your tasks into blocks in your browser, with nothing to install and nothing sent off your computer. You can export the result as a calendar file. For the method behind it, how to plan a day you can finish goes through it step by step.
Booking time in PlexiiDesk
PlexiiDesk keeps a calendar alongside your desks, so you can book time without leaving the work. One dialog, Book time, handles both kinds of block. Drag across the calendar (times snap to 15 minutes), choose Focus time or Meeting, give it a name and press Enter. See Book time and meetings on the calendar.
For a meeting, the dialog adds Guests, Where and Agenda. Where can be a PlexiiCall room, a pasted Google Meet, Zoom or Teams link, or an address. You can attach the desk or task the meeting is about, so the material is one click from the block. When you book with guests, you get ten seconds to undo before anything is sent; after that, PlexiiDesk emails each guest an invitation from your connected mailbox.
From the Focus task list, drag a task onto the calendar and it is booked as a 30-minute block linked to that task. Drag the bottom edge to make it longer. A focus block on the calendar has a button to start a focus session for it.
To see your other calendars in PlexiiDesk, paste a private calendar link from Google or Outlook. It is read-only and refreshes every 15 minutes. For two-way sync, so blocks you book appear in Google or Outlook, you sign in with an OAuth client ID that you create in your own Google or Microsoft account. The steps are in Sign in to Google or Microsoft calendars.
PlexiiDesk does not have a public booking page. If outside people book you, use one of the booking pages above for them, and keep your focus blocks in a calendar they can see as busy.
To keep focus blocks beside the work they protect, download Plexii free.
A short checklist
Before you next reach for "when suits you?":
- Is this a meeting at all? A two-line email may settle it.
- If yes, offer two or three times with a zone, or send a booking link.
- Inside the organisation, check free and busy times and invite directly, with a one-line reason.
- Make the invitation the record: time, place or link, agenda and the material.
- Book your own focus time for the week before anyone else books it for you.
Every promise of "let's find a time" is also a small commitment you have made. How to keep track of everything you have promised people covers keeping those from slipping, and why switching between tasks is so tiring explains why fewer rounds of email matter more than they seem. More guides on organising work by task are in the work by task hub.
Common questions
How do I stop the back-and-forth when scheduling a meeting? Ask a closed question. Offer two or three specific times with the time zone, or send a booking link, so the other person can answer in one reply.
Is it rude to send a booking link? Usually not, especially for people who book you often, such as clients or candidates. For a senior person or a one-off request, offering two or three times yourself can feel more personal.
How many time options should I offer? Two or three. More than that takes longer to compare and makes it more likely someone else books one of them in the meantime.
Should I block focus time on my calendar? Yes, if your work needs uninterrupted time. Blocks on the calendar show as busy, so colleagues and booking pages stop treating that time as free.
Can PlexiiDesk send meeting invitations? Yes. When you book a meeting with guests, PlexiiDesk emails each guest an invitation from your connected mailbox, after a ten-second window in which you can undo.
Does PlexiiDesk have a booking page like Calendly? No. You can book focus time and meetings in its calendar and send invitations, but people outside cannot pick a slot themselves. Use a booking page alongside it for that.