Oh @RDB. I have also been a calendar girlie since probably about 7th grade too! Paper planners used to make me so happy. 

I’m a dog mom (with a very social dog who has a busy social life) who is also trying to train for an ultramarathon while generally balancing work, marriage, and everything else being an adult entails. I hear ya on the scheduling tango.

So one thing that’s been really helping me for a few years now is using Google Calendar(s) + Reclaim.ai + Calendly. It ensures my personal commitments are blocked off on my work calendar (with some level of privacy), travel buffers get created with no effort on my part, and my Calendly is super up to date. All of that means that when people see time on my Calendly, it’s really there and I’ll be there!

How?

I’ve got a personal calendar through my personal Gmail account. And of course I’ve got my work calendar through my company Google Workspace account. I keep these entirely separate for the sake of privacy and so I’m not losing data if jobs change.

My Reclaim links my personal calendar into my work calendar. Any personal events are automatically duplicated as private events on my work calendar and if a location has been provided, Reclaim automatically creates a 30 minute travel buffer for me on either side on my work calendar. Reclaim also does some really cool stuff like smart habits so I can tell it to block off time for email triage, lunch, wrap up, etc. once a day and it’ll find me time within a certain range.

And then of course, Calendly syncs into my work calendar which is super up to date because accurate calendars are life and Reclaim has me super organized!

I’ve been using this setup for a almost 3 years now and I’d be straight up chaos without it!

Hope that helps a bit!

Super insightful! Thanks for sharing Jillian - wow! I’m not familiar with Recalim.ai, thanks for the intro - will look into it. It’s so fascinating to connect & learn from other calendar/scheduling “fans” (?...what are we called? )

As for me:

Calendly  soloprenuer scheduling

Google Calendar(s) work, family, personal (agree about keeping them separate - same)

ParentSquare  school district automated calendar

(**GASP** ) Paper calendar book by “Ivory Paper Company”  my inner 7th grader CANNOT stop using paper calendars! This is moreso an overview of my daily tasks & to-dos, with details in the digital calendars listed above. Plus, there’s nothing like crossing/checking items off with an actual pen! 

What a fantastic conversation topic, RDB! 

I have also been a Calendar Girlie since… forever?! (Truly, I remember intently color-coding planners in my trapper keeper as young as 9 or 10 years old.) 

I personally use Calendly to set up meetings for work, volunteer/freelance efforts I have going on, and even personal activities. (I recently set up a watch party using Calendly for people from a support group I moderate - we met together to screen a documentary and used Calendly to book it all!)

I do the above by setting up custom hours for different event types. You can read more about doing this and setting up availability, here: Availability Schedules! 

I am a step-parent, I have one dog and four cats, and I have at least a few medical appointments a week on top of my full time job here at Calendly (hollaaa!) and my aforementioned volunteer/freelance and social commitments. My partner also travels full time for work, leaving me alone to handle ALLL of that for 3-4 weeks at a time - in perpetuity! Setting up event types (one-on-one, Group Event Types and One-Off Meeting types are my most commonly used) that meet the specific need of whatever I have going on as well as setting up those custom hours and schedules is how I keep it all straight. (Note - you can use One Off Meetings to set up a meeting with someone outside of your normal availability settings in Calendly!) Additionally, making sure I have my external calendars (Google and iCloud) integrated so that I am not double-booked over something that I have going on within Calendly is absolutely paramount! Some of the topics below shed light on how to make that all happen, if you are still learning the Calendly way! 

Thanks for starting such an awesome convo - I can’t wait to read more from others! 

Pleasure to meet you @KelsiEllie! Thanks for sharing your calendar/schedule balance + blend, and thanks for the Calendly resources with links!

And yes, we all loved my Trapper Keepers (with highlighters!)

Oh, gosh, @RDB - the highlighters, stickers, GEL PENS (especially sparkly ones) and so on. Lisa Frank reigned supreme (and still does). I collect all of this, still! Thanks so much, again, for the great convo starter! I can’t wait to read more input!