As music teachers, we have to schedule lots of things. Lessons, meetings, phone calls, you name it. And scheduling just one of those things over email ends up looking something like this.
You: I can do Thursday or Friday between 2-4pm.
Them: That doesn't work for me. How about Saturday?
You: Sure, I can make that work. Can we do Saturday at 2pm?
Them: Yes, that works. Looking forward to it!
(2 days later)
Them: Oh, I'm so sorry, it turns out Saturday afternoon doesn't work. How's Monday?
You: Monday is tough for me. Could we try for Tuesday?
Them: Yes, how about 3pm?
You: Okay, let's plan for that.
And that is just to schedule one appointment!! Add up all of the time you spend scheduling, and it comes to hours of time that could be spent on other, more important things.
Imagine if you could get all of this down to just one interaction. The phenomenal web-based app Calendly will do all of that for you.
How It Works
I'm not a big fan of sharing tons of screen shots and instructions, which is why I put together the video (but if you prefer screenshots, please let me know and I'll happily oblige!), but here's how it works.
When you sign for Calendly, you select a calendar to connect with it. Google Calendar is probably the most popular, but there are others to choose from as well.
Calendly also has a number of integrations available to you, most notably Zoom. When you connect to your Zoom account, Calendly will actually generate the meeting links for you. One more thing you don't have to do yourself.
Next, you create your "event types," which you can have as many as you like.
30-minute phone chat? Done.
60-minute Zoom meeting? Done.
You're only limited by your imagination.
For each event type, you can use your default availability, or you can set custom hours for that particular type of event.
Never Double Book Again
Here's my favorite part. Because Calendly is synced with your Google Calendar (or other calendar), it will make sure you don't accidentally double-book yourself.
For example, let's say your default available hours you've set include Wednesdays from 9am-12pm. But then one day, you schedule a haircut that's going to kill 9am-10:30am one Wednesday morning.
As long as you put that in your Google Calendar, Calendly will consider those hours booked. Then, if someone selects that Wednesday on your Calendly to book with you, they will only see 10:30am-12pm available to choose from.
Once someone schedules an appointment with you, you receive a notification and the appointment is blocked off in your Google calendar. The person making the appointment also receives an email and has the option to place it in their calendar.
Pricing
For the amount of time you will get Calendly is a deal. There is always a basic free version. But even at the Pro level, $12 a month is easily worth getting hours of time back every month, so you can focus on the things that will move the needle on your career, your teaching, and your life.
Give it a try, come back, and let me know what you think in the comments below.