Useful Technology: whenisgood.net

While I'm getting my crafty posts together, I thought I'd share with you a resource I am always recommending to people. It is extremely useful and I'm always surprised when people don't know about it.

Today's feature is: whenisgood.net

Here's basically how it works - say you need to have a meeting (for a group project, committee, bible study, get-together, etc.) and you want to find a time that works for everyone.

Go to whenisgood.net and click on "new event" (or create an account at this time, it's up to you.)

You'll see a screen that looks like this.

You will eventually send out a highlightable version to those you want in your event. Here, you get to configure what they see - do you want them to see different hours? look at one by half-hours? only have it for a week, or weekend? And don't forget to name your event!

 Tip - to highlight a whole row, just click on the date at the top!

So... this is a sample of how I might configure it.

In the picture above, I am only wanting to hold my event those four days and I only want it to happen sometime between 9 am and 5 pm.

Then, click "create event"!

They give you a code you can use to view your results - this is important!

Next, send the code to your participants. They will get an e-mail, and then have the option to select when they are free. I don't like to use Outlook, so I usually just copy/past the hyperlink into my own e-mail host.

This is what your e-mail recipients see. Then, they get to select when they're free.

This person, for example, appears to be free all day Tuesday and Thursday, but only 2-3 on Wednesday and 9-10 and 2-3 on Friday.

So, now you wait for responses. When you're ready to schedule the event, return to the website and check out your results. Don't forget the code!

This is what you see! Green slots are times that everyone is available. The red dots represent how many people are unavailable. In this example only one person is unavailable at 9 on Tuesday, but three are unavailable at 5 on Friday. This makes it easy to find alternative times if neccessary.

Tip: If you're having trouble scheduling the event (maybe there are no green slots) you can also exclude some responses. They are listed to the left of the page in order of freest to busiest. So you can eliminate your most restricting person to find a better time. This section also allows you to view individual responses.

So there it is! I love this and it is a great and easy tool for any type of group meeting where you want to easily see where everyone is available - the website does it for you!