Templates Create a poll

How to find a meeting time with a poll

Scheduling by email or chat often takes a dozen messages. A meeting poll collects everyone’s availability in one place. Here is a routine that works for most meetings.

1. Decide the fixed points first

Before offering times, settle what can’t move: how long the meeting is, who must attend, whether it is online or in person, and the latest date it can happen. Everything else is what the poll decides.

2. Offer a handful of good slots

Five to eight well-chosen options get faster, more complete answers than a whole week of half-hour slots. Spread them across different days and times of day, so people with fixed commitments still have something to pick.

In VotePoll, choose Meeting as the question type, pick dates in the calendar and add times or time ranges. Use ranges (“14:00–15:30”) when the length matters, so people know what they are agreeing to.

3. Separate “works” from “could work”

Allow If need be so participants can mark a time they could make with some effort. The results count “available” and “if need be” separately, which helps you avoid the time that is technically possible but inconvenient for half the group.

4. Get time zones right

For an online meeting across countries, leave the default: each participant sees the times in their own local time zone. For an in-person meeting, turn on Use organizer’s timezone, so a participant who happens to be travelling doesn’t see the times shifted. VotePoll shows times in 24-hour format.

5. Decide whether you need names

If you only need a time that suits most people, you don’t need names. If you need to know whether particular people can come — the speaker, the client — ask for names and turn on Show who voted for what, so you can see who is available when.

6. Set a closing date and share the link

Give the poll a closing date a day or two before you need to send the invitation. Share the participant link where everyone will see it, or show the QR code at the end of the previous meeting.

7. Pick the time and tell everyone

When the poll closes, look for the time with the most “available” answers, then check the “if need be” counts and anyone who must attend. If two times are tied, prefer the one where the essential people are fully available. Then announce the decision in the same place you shared the poll, so nobody waits for an answer that has already been made.

Instead of Two slots tied at 6 available

Better Tuesday 10:00 (6 available, 1 if need be) versus Thursday 15:00 (6 available, 3 if need be)

Tuesday is the better choice: the same number of people can come, and fewer of them are stretching to make it.