How to Send Perfect Calendar Invites

It’s early morning! Oh, boy, I just love early morning! The sun is shining, friendly people are walking around outside, and my clock reads 10:00 am! Yes, early morning is fantastic!

I leap out of bed and turn on the coffee percolator. Intern MG got me addicted to coffee and then he quit the caffeinated dominatrix, leaving me as her sole whipping boy. While the fragrant smell begins to waft through the house—yum, artisanal Maxwell House—I look over today’s schedule to find out what horrible, demoralizing, crushing defeats the world has in store for me today. (I used to be bright and optimistic, but life’s harsh realities cured me of that in no time.)

There, at 11 am, is a calendar meeting with “Stever.” And again at 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm, “Stever.” It looks like it’s an entire day scheduled just for me!!! YAY!!! Turn off the computer, turn off the cell phone, pull out the focus work, and get right down to work, designing an invention that will finally fix all the world’s problems. And when I say “finally,” I mean “finally.” There’s no problem that can’t be solved if everyone’s clothes suddenly change into flower-print mumus. Beat the rush and get yours fitted now.

Calendar invites are like any other communication: you’re writing for an audience!

Time passes…

Whoa! It’s 5 o’clock. Time to wrap up for the day. I happily turn on my cell phone and … there are an awful lot of voicemails. The first is from the lawyer. $25 million dollars was supposed to be wired into my bank account today, but since I wasn’t at my phone for the 11 o’clock meeting, the deposed Nigerian Prince decided to get someone else to do the transaction. 

The 1 o’clock meeting was with my friend who lost their wallet while traveling, and needed me to wire them £5,000 immediately so they could pay their hotel bill. They found someone else to wire the money. Now I’ve lost the chance to demonstrate what a good friend I am.

And the 2 o’clock meeting was with Mrs. Betty Alexander, whose late husband chose my email address at random to leave his fortune of €8.3 million. Since I didn’t pick up the phone, she’s moving on to the next email address on the list. ARGH!!! Do you see? The universe has it in for me. Just look at all the income opportunities and chances to do good that I missed! Sometimes life just sucks!!!

Calendar invites show what the sender writes

It’s all because of those stupid calendar invites. You see, when someone sends you a calendar invite, whatever title they give it is what shows up in both your calendars. Let’s say Europa wants to meet with me. From her point of view, it makes total sense to write a calendar invite that simply says “Stever,” pop it in her calendar, and send me an invitation. I accept, and it shows up on both our calendars. Easy peasey, right? 

Wrong. Because to me, a calendar invite of “Stever” tells me nothing. Indeed, it makes me think I’ve created a meeting with myself because I’m so awesome that I just can’t get enough time with wonderful, glorious ME. 

When sending a calendar invite, name the meeting something that will be meaningful for the other attendees, not just you. Had Europa named the meeting “Stever & Europa,” I would at least have known that the meeting was with her.

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Include the subject in the meeting title

Europa has only one item she needs to talk with me about, so she knows just by seeing my name what our topic is. I, however, have no idea. Are we reviewing mumu patterns for … you know? Are we planning a surprise party for her cybernetic son Thomas’s 17th birthday? It matters! 

When you send a calendar invite, don’t just include the attendees in the meeting name. Also add the subject of the meeting, so everyone can show up prepared. For example, “Stever & Europa discuss surprise party.” 

Include agenda and prep needs

Even though Europa knows what needs to be discussed, a brief description like that makes it hard for me to know how to prepare. So in the notes field of the calendar invite, include the agenda of the meeting and any preparation you expect from attendees. Europa might write: 

1. make birthday gift list for angst-ridden 17-year old emo cyborg: maybe a new pair of skinny jeans?
2. define strategy for sending invites without him finding out.
3. locate motor oil for lubricating joints. (They never tell you in the movies, but when a cyborg hits their growth spurt, it can be very painful where their cyborg limb meets their biology.)

Stever, as prep, please research jeans in 50 shades of black.

Now when I see the meeting in my calendar, I’ll know who it’s with, what it’s about, our agenda, and the preparation needed.

Calendar invites can’t be changed

The kicker is that once you accept a meeting invite, you can’t edit it. It makes sense that you shouldn’t be able to edit the time, or location of a meeting someone else called, but you can’t even attach your own notes to it so you can figure out what it is. So the onus is on the person who creates the calendar invite to make sure it’s meaningful to the attendees. 

If you’re listening, Google, Microsoft, and Apple, please rethink this. It makes total sense for me to be able to customize a calendar invite I’ve received. Please let me do it!!!

Until they listen (all three companies are famous for listening to customer feedback, after all), do what I do: after receiving a calendar invite, copy it and paste a copy into your calendar right next to the appointment that was created when you accepted the invite. You can edit your own copy as much as you want, and can include enough information to figure out what’s going on.

Calendar invites are like any other form of communication. You’re writing for an audience, and you need to make sure the audience walks away with the right message. That means a title that will be meaningful to them, not just you. Add in an agenda and prep needed, and your other attendees will show up, they’ll know what the meeting is about, and they’ll be prepared to get right down to business. Then when you have a throne to reclaim, you can be sure that the randomly-selected person loaning you the money to regain your fortune will show up for the meeting, on time, with wire transfer instructions in hand.

I'm Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. I run programs to help people create extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit http://ift.tt/1l2uWN6. 

Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!