How many times a day do you hear something to this effect: “We need to meet to discuss this.” I would venture to say that it is quite a bit. However, what follows is an email chain like the following:

“Ok, what time is good for you?”
“Hmm, whenever, I’m pretty open.”
“Me too, do you have a time that you prefer?”
“Not really, whatever works for you.”
“Ok, how about 3:00?”

The last sentence is emphasized because it’s the most important of the entire conversation: The setting of the meeting time. If you take a look at the first four sentences, they really don’t do anything for the meeting other than waste time. If the last sentence was just the first sentence, it would have been resolved a lot quicker. This brings me to my main point: When scheduling a meeting, be the first one to suggest a time. This accomplishes two main things:

1. You are more likely to get the meeting time you want.
2. You save time because the meeting is setup from the get go.

In regards to the first point, I’ve found that most people will go along with a meeting time as long as they have no drastic conflicts. All you have to do is suggest it, and you can usually get the time you want or close to it. Even more important is the second point, because you would be surprised how much time is actually spent settling on a meeting time. I would wager that it can even exceed the length of the meetings on some occasions. Even if it doesn’t, you’ll definitely save both time and trouble if you just try and set the meeting time in the beginning.

This line of thinking can lead the above conversation to look like this:

“Ok, how about 3:00?”
“Sounds good.”