Have a busy schedule? Feel like meetings are taking over your day? Let Clockwise help you optimize your calendar.
Follow these 5 steps to make your schedule more manageable with Clockwise:
- Define your meeting hours
- Mark your meetings as flexible
- Add breaks between back-to-back meetings
- Make time for lunch
- Protect your Focus Time
Setting meeting preferences
No one likes having a meeting that is scheduled too early in the morning or too late in the afternoon. With coworkers across multiple time zones it can be tricky to schedule meetings that respect each person’s working hours. Be sure to set your meeting preferences in your settings so that Clockwise knows the times you prefer to meet.
- Click on the Clockwise menu
- Click "Settings"
- Click "Working hours and meeting preferences"
While you’re there, be sure to set the correct time zone so Clockwise works as expected.
📖 Learn more about setting up your meeting preferences.
Mark Meetings as Flexible
Is your calendar often double booked? You can mark meetings as flexible and Clockwise will resolve your meeting conflicts.
Once per day Clockwise will optimize your calendar and might move your flexible meetings to better times. Clockwise will only move your flexible meetings if doing so will create more Focus Time or resolve meeting conflicts for you or your teammates
Some meetings are naturally more flexible than others, and your recurring 1:1s with your teammates and direct reports are often the most flexible. By marking them flexible with Clockwise, you can stop wasting time resolving conflicts or trying to find the optimal times to meet. Plus, you can control exactly how the meeting should move with meeting-specific flexibility preferences.
To mark meetings as flexible:
- Click into a meeting you want to make flexible (such as a recurring 1:1 event)
- Toggle on the setting that says "Flexible meeting"
- Adjust the settings to control whether it can move within the day or the week
- [Optional] Adjust the time window that this meeting should move within (only available on paid plans)
Spread out Consecutive Meetings*
Sitting in back-to-back meetings with no breaks in between is exhausting and stressful. Make your day more manageable by telling Clockwise to spread out consecutive meetings and create breaks in between them if possible.
To do this:
- Click on the Clockwise menu
- Click "Settings"
- Click "Working hours and meeting preferences"
- Toggle on “When possible, create a break between consecutive meetings”
Once you enable this feature you can specify the number of hours of consecutive meetings you are okay with having before needing a break.
*This feature is only available on paid Clockwise plans.
Make Time for Lunch
When you’re busy it can be hard to find the time to eat lunch but no one does their best work when they are hungry! Let Clockwise automatically schedule dynamic lunch holds on your calendar so that you never have to sacrifice your lunch break again.
To enable lunch holds:
- Click on the Clockwise menu
- Click "Settings"
- Click "Smart holds: Focus Time, Lunch, Travel Time, Personal Calendar"
Clockwise will automatically create a calendar event that corresponds to your lunch preferences. These dynamic calendar events are updated in real-time as your calendar changes, so you can always have an up-to-date view of the time you have available for lunch.
📖 Learn more about lunch holds, click here
Protect your Focus Time
If you have meetings spread throughout your day you don’t have enough uninterrupted time to get work done. Clockwise can help you find and protect blocks of focus time on your calendar that are 2+ hours long so that you can get more done.
To set up your Focus Time:
- Click on the Clockwise menu
- Click "Settings"
- Click "Smart holds: Focus Time, Lunch, Travel Time, Personal Calendar"
Clockwise can automatically schedule blocks of Focus Time on your calendar each week so that you don’t have to think about it! Let Clockwise know when you prefer to have your focus time, either in the morning or afternoon.
Then, think about how many hours of focus time you will need each week and set it as your goal. The number of hours you need will depend on your role and how full your calendar is. Make sure you don’t schedule too many hours of focus time, you will want to leave some white space on your calendar for ad-hoc meetings.