Doodle Makes Scheduling a Breeze

 
Scheduling is always a hassle. Some sites, like Facebook, do have a scheduling feature which lets people confirm or deny their attendance to a scheduled event. However, these aren't of much use when you want to schedule an event based on when you and your contacts are free.

Enter Doodle. Doodle is a simple, free, and easy-to-use online tool which lets you and your friends find your common times with ease. It does so by allowing you to set up a poll of dates and times of when you want an event to take place and then sending out this poll to your contacts to answer.

Simplicity seems to be Doodle's motto as everything from registration, setting up a poll, to sending out the access link is mind numbingly easy, as I found out myself while testing the site out.


Setting up a Doodle account just involves a valid email address and the usual fill out forms. An account isn't necessary but it opens up some options which makes the entire polling process more convenient, as shown see later. After registration it's just a matter of clicking the big blue "Schedule an Event" button on the home page and following a short series of instructions.

Step 1: Schedule an Event

 

Fill out the form with the relevant details, if you're from the Philippines the map won't really help you much.

Step 2.1: Set the Dates to Poll

 

Just select which dates you wish to poll from the calendar, easy enough.

Step 2.2: Set the Times

Fill out the table with the times that you are willing to schedule your event. As shown in the screenshot, the table accepts inputs in military format so "2315" will automatically be converted to "11:15 PM".

Step 3: Adjust Poll Settings

The next step allows you to customize a few self-explanatory settings which affect your poll, take note that the checkboxes can be shown by clicking the small arrow beside the word "Settings".

Step 4: Send Out Participation Invites

A poll needs participants of course, so the final step is sending out the link to the poll to your contacts. This is where signing up for an account pays off as registered users can simply fill in the box with their friend's emails and add a personal message to the automatically generated message before clicking "Send and Finish".

Step 5: (Registered Users) Manage Your Polls

Registered users can also log in and manage their polls from their Doodle account.

That's it! Doodle is a simple solution to your scheduling woes. The only real issue is that filling out the table may become difficult for an event with lots of dates and varied times,  but it should hold up well to most people's everyday needs.