Key Principles of Calendar Etiquette

Now more than ever before, it is essential to be kind and considerate when maintaining and managing one or more business calendars.

Effective communication and time management are essential for personal and professional success. One often overlooked aspect of this is calendar invite etiquette.

Properly managing and responding to calendar invitations can significantly improve not just your productivity but also your relationships and work-life balance as a whole.

Calendar invite etiquette plays a key role in helping you maintain a well-organized schedule and build positive relationships in both personal and professional settings.

But more than that, practicing good meeting invitation etiquette demonstrates your professionalism and capability in the workplace for these reasons:

It shows Respect for Others' Time

It Leads to Better Time Management

It Boosts Productivity

It Strengthens Employee Relationships

It Minimizes Stress

When sending out calendar invites:

Use Clear Subject Lines

• Use descriptive and concise subject lines when sending calendar invites. This helps the recipients quickly understand the purpose of the invitation and the nature of the event so that they can prioritize their time and prepare accordingly.
• When creating a calendar invite, compose a subject line that clearly conveys the purpose of the invitation. Avoid vague or generic titles, like “Meeting” or “Appointment.”
• Instead, use descriptive phrases, such as “Marketing Team Weekly Review” or “Client Presentation Planning Meeting.”

Include Essential Details

Make sure that your calendar invites include all the necessary information for invitees so that they can prepare effectively and contribute meaningfully to the meeting or event.

Specifically, include the following important details in the body of the invitation:

• Date and time: Specify the date and the start and end times of the event.
• Location: Clearly state whether the meeting is physical or virtual. If the former, include the meeting location or address, and if the latter, provide a link or the relevant dial-in information.
• Agenda: Outline the meeting’s main topic(s) or objective(s). If different participants are expected to contribute to or lead portions of the discussion, add their names and indicate how much time is allocated for their segments of the meeting.
• Preparatory materials: If the participants need to review any documents or other resources beforehand, attach them or provide links if they’re downloadable. There is nothing more frustrating to an attendee than to be asked for something they were not aware was needed.

Include ALL Relevant Parties

Make sure that all individuals who need to attend or have a stake in the meeting are included in the invite to prevent misunderstandings and keep everyone who’s part of the team or workgroup informed and engaged in the discussion.

• For recurring team meetings, create an email group you can go to consistently. Make sure to update the group if team members move in and out.
• For meetings that only happen once in a while, consult the notes from the most recent one to remind you which coworkers were invited.
• For new meeting topics, use your contact list or the organization’s directory to make sure no one is accidentally omitted.

Respect Peoples "Scheduling Preferences"

Be mindful of others’ scheduling preferences and time zones when sending invites. For instance, avoid scheduling meetings during lunch breaks or outside of regular working hours unless there’s clear direction and authorization for such unorthodox meeting times.

Time zone differences are a potential pitfall as well, so use the features included in your calendar tool to display multiple time zones.

Needless to say, respecting coworkers’ scheduling preferences minimizes disruptions in their busy days caused by inconvenient meeting times. It also makes it much likelier that the participants you invite will fully and freely engage in the discussion.

Confirm the Invitees' Availability

An important feature of invite etiquette is to double-check whether the prospective participants can attend the meeting at the date and time you have in mind.

This extra effort on your part to confirm their availability beforehand reduces the likelihood of last-minute scheduling conflicts, rescheduling, or no-shows.

Use your calendar tool’s scheduling assistant or a similar feature to check the invitees’ availability. Tools like Microsoft Outlook’s scheduling assistant or Google Calendar’s “Find a time” feature can be helpful in this respect.

Your company can also use a meeting room booking feature that includes the option of checking people’s availability.

If the meeting is essential, but scheduling conflicts arise, reach out right away to the participants to find an alternative suitable meeting time. That way, no one’s own task scheduling will be held up or messed up by unsolved conflicting meeting invites.

ALWAYS Send Invitations in Advance

Send calendar invitations well in advance whenever possible, especially for significant events or important meetings. This allows participants to plan their own schedules accordingly.

Another benefit of advance notice is that it gives invitees time to adequately prepare and reduces the potential for scheduling conflicts. It also shows that you value people’s time and other commitments they may have.

In general, provide at least a few days’ notice for routine meetings and more extended notice (2–4 weeks or more) for important gatherings.

Communicate Any Changes Promptly

If the meeting day or time needs changing, promptly communicate those changes to the invitees to minimize confusion and disruptions and make it easy for them to adjust their plans.

Use your calendar tool to send update notifications to all original invitees. Make sure the subject line of the email invite shows that this is not a reminder but an update or change.

Be specific about the change you’re making, such as a time change, location change, topic change, or cancellation.

If You Are Receiving the Invite...

Respond Promptly

When you receive a calendar invite, a prompt reaction helps the organizer finalize plans quickly and avoid unnecessary delays.

Use your calendar tool’s response feature to communicate your availability. If you have to decline, it’s helpful to add a note as to the reason, such as “I’ll be out of the office that day” or “I’m no longer part of that workgroup.” A detailed response gives the organizer the information they need to reschedule or cancel the meeting.

If you are unable to attend a meeting, but it’s important that you’re part of the discussion, promptly propose an alternative time. If appropriate, include a message with your response to give the host more details.

Follow Virtual Meeting Etiquette

Virtual meetings have their own meeting etiquette due to the technology used during these gatherings. The right virtual etiquette contributes to a more productive and respectful interaction in a remote or hybrid setting, which helps maintain quality during communication and collaboration and keeps the meeting on track and congenial.

Good virtual meeting etiquette includes the following:

Muting your microphone when you’re not speaking

Using video cameras as much as possible or when appropriate so that fellow participants can make visual contact

Looking into the camera

Minimizing distractions in your office or home office environment (if your background could be distracting, consider setting up a blurred background or a pleasant background image, like a forest, clouds, or a beach).

Using a clear system for participants to indicate they want to speak, such as raising a virtual hand or typing a comment or request in the chat box

In addition to making those adaptations for a virtual environment, follow the same principles of courtesy and professionalism that you would in an in-person meeting.

Be Punctual

Whether the meeting you’re attending is physical or virtual, joining on time shows respect for others’ time and sets a positive tone for the interactions to come. It also helps meetings stay within their scheduled times.

Make it a habit to start and end meetings as scheduled. If you anticipate being late, notify the facilitator or participants in advance. If you are the person who set up the meeting and you’re arriving or starting late, make sure to adjust the meeting duration accordingly.

Regularly Review, Declutter, and Block Out Focus Time on Your Calendar

Start each day by reviewing your calendar to make sure you are prepared for your upcoming meetings and tasks.

Declutter your calendar: Regularly remove or reschedule non-essential or outdated events to keep your calendar organized and easy to navigate.

Customize your calendar: It’s helpful to use color coding to categorize the events and appointments in your calendar so you can quickly and easily see what’s happening in your day.

Good categories to color-code include “work-related,” “personal,” “urgent,” and “deadlines.” Another color-coding method is to assign distinctive colors to projects. For instance, you could use yellow for planning sessions and green for budget meetings.

Consider Time Zone Differences

In hybrid or remote work settings, team members are likely to be spread across different time zones. So, considering each participant’s time zone is especially important when scheduling hybrid meetings.

Use your calendar tool’s time zone feature to display meeting participants’ respective time zones and select meeting times that accommodate everyone as much as possible.

Being mindful of time zones shows respect for your colleagues’ work-life balance and minimizes your likelihood of scheduling meetings at inconvenient hours.

Record Meetings Whenever There Are Decline Responses With Descriptions Such as PTO, OOO or Such

It’s not always possible to get an entire virtual team together since time zone differences and personal schedules can prevent real-time attendance for some of the intended attendees.

One way to counteract this is to download a notetaker app or bot that automatically records your meetings and generates a transcript. Another is to audio or video-record the meeting.

Before launching into a meeting recording, make sure your recording practices are in line with company policies.

Equally important, always announce to the participants that you are starting a recording so that everyone can be mindful of their word choices and tone.

Share the recording with the participants shortly after the meeting ends to allow those who couldn’t attend to catch up quickly and those who did attend to review key discussions at a time when they can focus on them.

Follow Up with Key Takeaways and Action Items

Email follow-ups are particularly valuable in remote work environments where face-to-face communication may be limited.

In your follow-up email, summarize the key points, action items, and deadlines that were discussed during the meeting.

If you recorded the meeting, include a link to the recording and let the relevant individuals know how long the recording will remain available.

The biggest take-away from this article is to be mindful that everyone's time is important and it is to your advantage to always be mindful of their schedules when planning anything you are asking them to attend.