4 ms·

How to get a Personal Assistant for free

34 points by ryancarson 14y ago

jmedwards 14y ago
Hidden gem
- ryancarson 14y ago
  I know - it's amazing huh? I can't believe how useful this has been for me.
wattjustin 14y ago
A great idea with a link bait of a headline. Either way, thanks for the tip!
- ryancarson 14y ago
  lol. It's true though - I was about to hire a PA until I figured this out.
alokv28 14y ago
Of course I learn about this great tip a week after I converted all my calendars over to iCloud. Does anyone know of a comparable feature in iCloud calendars?
- ryancarson 14y ago
  I'm afraid not, sorry. I've always steered clear of Apple's infrastructure offerings as they don't play well with Google (which is bad as our entire IT infrastructure is built on Google Apps)
JoeH 14y ago
This was extremely timely. I just got off a call where I was struggling how our team could communicate appointment availability with a third party. This is a great solution and you don't have to share personal/sensitive calendar information with others.
screwt 14y ago
I'm surprised it takes more than 1 email each to pick a time. Offer: Let's have a call. I'll suggest 2pm Tue. If that doesn't work, please let me know any time between 1pm-6pm Tue or 9am-11am Wed. Response: 9am Wed. I do think the gmail calendar approach is neater; the only downside being it requires the other party to use google calendar already.
- imurray 14y ago
  It regularly takes more than one email when I try that strategy. People don't always reply quickly. I either can't keep all the times that I offered open, or end up offering people very restrictive time ranges that they can't do.
endlessvoid94 14y ago
I've switched to http://tungle.me http://tungle.me . It's a lot better, and it's free. The appointment slots feature was just not solid enough - lots of weird bugs, the time zones sometimes got screwed up, and lots of double-booking.
- ryancarson 14y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion - I'll check it out
- cmer 14y ago
  They've been acquired by RIM so who knows if the service will stay alive or not...
imurray 14y ago
I use http://doodle.com/ http://doodle.com/ for appointments (as well as it's original purpose of polling a group for the best time for an event). For appointment slots, set the options: "Participant can only choose one option" and "Limit the number of participants per option" to one. No one ever needs to log in to anything unless they want to (for setup or responses). It also has fancy options for linking with calendars, but I've never used those.
adrianhoward 14y ago
These are trez useful aren't then. I've been using them to organise client office hours for a while.

34 points by ryancarson 14y ago

jmedwards 14y ago

Hidden gem

ryancarson 14y ago
I know - it's amazing huh? I can't believe how useful this has been for me.

wattjustin 14y ago

A great idea with a link bait of a headline. Either way, thanks for the tip!

ryancarson 14y ago
lol. It's true though - I was about to hire a PA until I figured this out.

alokv28 14y ago

Of course I learn about this great tip a week after I converted all my calendars over to iCloud. Does anyone know of a comparable feature in iCloud calendars?

ryancarson 14y ago
I'm afraid not, sorry. I've always steered clear of Apple's infrastructure offerings as they don't play well with Google (which is bad as our entire IT infrastructure is built on Google Apps)

JoeH 14y ago

This was extremely timely. I just got off a call where I was struggling how our team could communicate appointment availability with a third party. This is a great solution and you don't have to share personal/sensitive calendar information with others.

screwt 14y ago

I'm surprised it takes more than 1 email each to pick a time. Offer: Let's have a call. I'll suggest 2pm Tue. If that doesn't work, please let me know any time between 1pm-6pm Tue or 9am-11am Wed. Response: 9am Wed. I do think the gmail calendar approach is neater; the only downside being it requires the other party to use google calendar already.

imurray 14y ago
It regularly takes more than one email when I try that strategy. People don't always reply quickly. I either can't keep all the times that I offered open, or end up offering people very restrictive time ranges that they can't do.

endlessvoid94 14y ago

I've switched to http://tungle.me http://tungle.me . It's a lot better, and it's free. The appointment slots feature was just not solid enough - lots of weird bugs, the time zones sometimes got screwed up, and lots of double-booking.

ryancarson 14y ago
Thanks for the suggestion - I'll check it out
cmer 14y ago
They've been acquired by RIM so who knows if the service will stay alive or not...

imurray 14y ago

I use http://doodle.com/ http://doodle.com/ for appointments (as well as it's original purpose of polling a group for the best time for an event). For appointment slots, set the options: "Participant can only choose one option" and "Limit the number of participants per option" to one. No one ever needs to log in to anything unless they want to (for setup or responses). It also has fancy options for linking with calendars, but I've never used those.

adrianhoward 14y ago

These are trez useful aren't then. I've been using them to organise client office hours for a while.