by Tony Rushin
I read about a study, funded by the Wisenheimer Institute, which looked into the merits of doodling. They reported that doodling lowers stress and increases quality sleep. One oddity in the study that puzzled researchers was that the strongest correlation of doodling to sleep-quality was with people named “Tony”; and it was even stronger if they used an app called Sleep Cycle. Conversely, the weakest correlation was with people named “Amy”. Very strange….
Today’s tip will introduce you to a simple, yet powerful, little app that I’ve been using off-and-on for 6 years. Instead of wasting your time (like reading about weird, or perhaps even fictitious, studies), this little app will save you loads of time.
As you may have guessed, Doodle is the name of the app. It was started, as a company, in 2007 by two clever Swiss guys: Michael Näf and Paul Sevinç. They had been using it as their personal scheduling tool since 2003. Doodle’s power is in its simplicity: need to coordinate a time & date for several people to meet? Doodle’s the app for you. And (wait for it…) it’s free.
Suppose you are in charge of the dinner gathering that marks the start of your annual family reunion. Of course, as tradition has it, the dinner will be held at the Cracker Barrel off exit 312 in Calhoun. Without making a bunch of phone calls and sending a zillion emails and texts, how are you going to make sure the date you pick will be good for the vast majority of 47 brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins?
Logon to Doodle.com and scroll down to Schedule an Event (Doodle does other things too but I only use it for this one time-saving function):
Name the event.
Select the potential dates.
Put in the time options (note: you can choose multiple times for the same day).
I always choose “Basic Poll” (since I’m 75% Polish) and just skip to the next step.
I always choose the “send from my own email” option (you can have Doodle send it if you like).
And that’s it; a quick & easy 6-step process to set up a participant link and an admin link.
Here are some of my crazy relatives who have already responded (note the fun comments).
Perhaps you have an impromptu partner meeting you’ve been asked to schedule at your law firm. Or maybe there’s a lunch & learn you are planning for the Atlanta Association of Legal Administrators (AALA). Whatever it is, if it involves more than 3 people and 2 dates, Doodle will save you time. Enjoy!