Did you recently schedule an appointment yet failed to add the item to your calendar?
Taking the time to schedule an appointment into your calendar requires careful thought and planning because you’re integrating a brand new event into your existing schedule.
Sometimes our daily routine and responsibilities can unintentionally sidetrack our efforts to enter an appointment into our calendar and cause future scheduling challenges.
As a productivity expert, that’s why I think placing an appointment into your calendar in a timely manner is a simple, yet wholly important step in keeping your schedule healthy and accurate.
If you’re tired of accidentally missing client appointments or forgetting about vendor meetings, then you need to take some practical steps to ensure your appointments actually make it to your schedule.
In this article, you’ll learn four practical ways you can add an appointment to your calendar.
You’ll learn why you should take the time to schedule an appointment, the best way to schedule a meeting, and how to prepare for scheduling an appointment.
Before we get started, if you want a simple daily structure to help you prioritize your work, my free Productivity Mindset Planner™ is a good place to start.
Key Takeaways
- Add appointments to your calendar as soon as they’re made; it’s the most reliable way to avoid missed or forgotten meetings
- Booking early allows for greater availability, flexibility, ease of future planning, and provides peace of mind.
- When you can’t add an appointment right away, capture the details digitally or on paper so you have a physical record.
- Confirming appointment details, either in-person, by phone, or by email, prevents miscommunication of facts.
- A quick end-of-day schedule review helps catch anything you forgot to add to your calendar.
Table of Contents
- Why should you take the time to schedule an appointment?
- What are some benefits of scheduling an appointment right away?
- What's the best way to schedule an appointment?
- How should I prepare for scheduling an appointment?
- What should I have on hand before I schedule an appointment?
- 4 ways to make sure you schedule an appointment into your calendar
- Create a simple appointment reminder
- Request a meeting request from your contact
- Enter an appointment directly into your calendar
- Review your schedule at the end of the day
- FAQ: Schedule an appointment
- Conclusion
Why should you take the time to schedule an appointment?
Taking the time to schedule an appointment into your calendar requires careful thought and planning because you’re integrating a brand new event into your existing schedule.
Sometimes our daily routine and responsibilities can unintentionally sidetrack our efforts to enter an appointment into our calendar. We unintentionally get caught up our work, we answer an unexpected phone call, receive an urgent text message, or end up chatting with someone who stops by our desk to ask a question.
A missed or forgotten appointment can cause unnecessary stress and future scheduling challenges.
The good news is that when you intentionally take the time to schedule appointments with care, you create a system that allows you to not only plan for the future, but consistently progress in your current work.
What are some benefits of scheduling an appointment right away?
Scheduling immediately protects your availability, gives you more flexibility to choose dates that work for you, makes future planning easier, and gives you peace of mind that the appointment won’t be forgotten.
Let’s take a look at these benefits in a little more detail:
Availability
Available appointment dates and times, be it your own calendar or another’s, tend to quickly fill up over the course of a week, month, and year.
Flexibility
You have much more flexibility and wiggle room when it comes to choosing from a variety of dates and times that work well with your own schedule.
Future planning
Future planning for business projects and assignments is a lot easier when you’ve already accurately accounted for ongoing, standing, or new meetings with others.
Peace of mind
Having peace of mind knowing an important appointment is scheduled allows your mind to rest easy. You can then turn your attention to your daily priorities and work.
What’s the best way to schedule an appointment?
There’s no one best way to schedule as it depends on the type of appointment being scheduled and the method of scheduling made available to you be it in-person, telephone, or online.
One helpful thing you can do to schedule an appointment is to add it to your list of daily to-dos. This ensures you’ll actually complete the task before the day is through.
You can also make a plan to schedule a meeting earlier in the work day and week when there is more of a likelihood of coverage in offices and places of business. You’ll be more likely to reach someone live in-person or online, or have the ability to make changes if you booked online.
And when you do schedule a appointment, take a moment to confirm the details. Here’s how to do that for different types of scheduling:
In-person or via telephone
After scheduling an appointment in-person or via telephone, repeat aloud the appointment, date, time, meeting person, and location. This helps you confirm the appointment details with the appointment scheduler and reduce the possibility of error. It also helps you to better remember the appointment for yourself.
Online
After scheduling an appointment online, take a screenshot of the booking details or jot them down on a piece of paper or in a planner.
It’s also a good idea to wait a few moments to check your email inbox or text message for a confirmation message of the appointment. If you’re in a hurry or pressed for time, make a note to check for the confirmation message later in the day.
Review your schedule for the next few weeks, consider your workload around the appointment, have 2–3 backup dates ready, and build in buffer time for travel or setup.
How should I prepare for scheduling an appointment?
To prepare for scheduling an appointment, you may find it helpful to take the following steps:
- Briefly review your current schedule for the next few weeks and months
- Consider your workload leading up to, during, and after the appointment
- Identify at least 2-3 different dates and times you are available
- Add a buffer of travel or setup time before and after your appointment
- Schedule planning and preparation time in advance of your meeting
What should I have on hand before I schedule an appointment?
Before you schedule an appointment, you might want to have the following items on hand:
- Access to your updated digital/online or paper calendar
- Pen and paper to jot down appointment details or questions
- Clean, flat surface, like a desk or counter top, on which to write, review, and plan
- Any identification, product, service, or reservation, codes, numbers, or details
- Government issued ID, credit card, insurance card, or other relevant information
4 ways to make sure you schedule an appointment into your calendar
Now that you’ve got some background, let’s move on to some simple ways you can schedule an appointment into your calendar.
You can follow each of these steps in sequence or pick and choose from them as necessary when you’ve fallen off track.
Try these tips the next time you need to capture an appointment, but are short on time or available resources.
Create a simple appointment reminder
Create a simple appointment reminder for yourself by taking notes on pen and paper, in a notebook, with a note app, in a voice recording, or sending yourself an email.
You can capture appointment details by using any of the following digital or analog methods:
Digital methods
- Email yourself or create a draft email with the meeting details
- Make a voice recording of the details on your phone
- Call your executive assistant and ask them to schedule the meeting into your online calendar
- Create a task in your to-do list or reminder app to schedule the appointment when you have more time
- Set a reminder alert on your watch or smart phone to add the appointment to your calendar
- Leave a voicemail for yourself on your office, home, or cellphone with the details
- Type the appointment details into a text editor for easy reference
- Set a timer on your phone or watch to go off for when you’re back in the office or have time
Analog methods
- Write on a sticky note or piece of scrap paper
- Jot down details on one page of your notebook
- Scribble on the back of your business card or a contact’s card
- Write on a brochure, pamphlet, or handout
- Make a note at the top of a printed meeting agenda
- Put a rubber band around your eyeglass case
- Tie a string or ribbon to your bag or purse
- Wear your watch on your opposite wrist
These tips can be useful when you don’t have immediate access to your calendar, such as when internet or wi-fi connectivity is weak or non-existent, or you don’t have your paper planner with you.
Since you cannot schedule the meeting directly into your calendar, it’s worth finding a convenient and preferred method you won’t mind using in a pinch.
Request a meeting request from your contact
Ask for a meeting request or calendar booking directly from your contact so you can immediately accept it and add it to your online calendar.
If you use the same email and calendar program, such as Microsoft Outlook or Google Mail, your contact can create a new appointment and send you a calendar invite via email. You can then accept the appointment directly into your online calendar.
This tip is handy for those times when your contact is willing and able to create a calendar event, you’re in a hurry to make another appointment, must make a travel connection, or are otherwise busy or occupied.
Another way to request a meeting request from your contact is to ask them to send you an email confirmation in advance of your appointment.
Ask your contact to write a brief email or text with the relevant appointment details including the day, time, location, attendees, and purpose. You can then have them email or text the message to you.
Enter an appointment directly into your calendar
Enter an appointment day, time, location, attendees, and purpose directly into your smart phone calendar or pocket planner as soon as you’ve scheduled it.
If you have an electronic device with voice recognition abilities, you can ask the voice recognition software to create and add the appointment to your calendar for you.
This tip requires that you stop whatever you’re doing at the moment in order to create the appointment. It does require some self-control! But once the appointment is created, you won’t have to worry about it.
As a productivity expert, I follow this tip myself anytime I make an appointment online or over the phone. Over the years, I’ve gotten into the habit of simply adding the appointment to a calendar before I switch gears and work on a different task. I either double-check the appointment has been made on my online calendar, or either manually add the item to my calendar or to my paper planner.
Remember, it only takes a few moments to schedule an appointment into your calendar.
Scheduling your appointment as soon as it is made is by far the easiest way to ensure an appointment actually makes it to your calendar!
Review your schedule at the end of the day
Reviewing your schedule at the end of day requires you to open up your calendar at the end of the day (or whenever you’re finished with work), and mentally walk through your day. You’re going to carefully review everything that happened, hour by hour, remember everything you can.
What appointments and meetings did you attend? On which tasks and projects did you work on? What did you write in your notes? With whom did you meet or speak? Where did you travel to or arrive from during the day?
This process can help jog your memory and hopefully spark a memory that you need to add an appointment to your schedule.
What’s more, reviewing your schedule at the end of the day helps solidify what took place today and may also encourage you to take a look at what’s in your schedule for tomorrow and the rest of the week.
This tip can be a lifesaver, especially if you’ve been traveling whole day and have been unable to add an appointment to your calendar.
With luck, something might grab you and remind you of an important appointment or appointments you need to add to your schedule!
FAQ: Schedule an appointment
What are the benefits of scheduling an appointment right away?
Scheduling immediately protects your availability, gives you more flexibility to choose dates that work, makes future planning easier, and gives you peace of mind the appointment won’t be forgotten.
How do I schedule an appointment?
You can schedule in person, over the phone, or through an online booking system. Whichever method you use, confirm the date, time, and location before the conversation or booking is complete.
What should I do if I can’t add an appointment to my calendar right away?
Capture the details another way until you can enter them properly: email yourself, add a task to your to-do list, leave a voice memo, or jot it down on paper. The goal is making sure the information isn’t lost, even temporarily.
How should I prepare for an upcoming appointment?
Review your schedule for the next few weeks, consider your workload around the appointment, have 2–3 backup dates ready, and build in buffer time for travel or setup.
What should I do if I forget to add an appointment to my calendar?
If you realize you missed adding an appointment, check for a confirmation email or text, contact the other party to verify the details, and update your calendar right away.
Conclusion
Scheduling an appointment is a necessary routine task in your professional and personal life. While it doesn’t matter whether you use digital or paper scheduling, what matters most is that you have a system that allows you to capture and store important appointment information when you’re busy or on the go.
If you want to be more mindful when it comes to planning your daily work, check out my Productivity Mindset Planner™. If you want to better manage your time and energy throughout the year, take a look at my time management guide. And if you’d like to gain clarity on improving your daily productivity levels, book a free Strategy Session with me.
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