"Scheduling" can have different meanings for different people. But for most Executive Assistants, it's like being stuck in an endless loop of Tetris all while riding a unicycle blindfolded. 

Scheduling, you either love it or you don’t. Either way, it’s a significant part of the job, and your best bet is to figure out the best way to tackle it so you can save time and a dozen headaches. 

Most EAs spend at least one-third of their day consumed in scheduling tasks like time sharing availability in multiple time-zones, prioritizing commitments, orchestrating intricate back-and-forth meeting requests, and managing conflicts and cancellations. 

That's how Cabinet's automated smart scheduling emerged in the first place. It was born from the experiences of an EA, with the vision to benefit all EAs out there. But there has yet to be a scheduling playbook written for everything that could (and often does) go wrong in the nitty-gritty of everyday scheduling.

Fortunately, at Cabinet, we have the privilege of engaging with the brilliant minds of our EA community. We share advice, we motivate each other, and most importantly, we find smart solutions to those everyday scheduling headaches.

So all of this begs the question, what exactly are scheduling situations or woes that only an Executive Assistant would face and therefore, only they would turn to a network for EAs for advice? Well, look no further than the following very REAL questions from REAL assistants  👇

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1. [Supporting several executives I cannot continue to set up meetings from my calendar for other people throughout the business. Any suggestions on how to ask others to schedule these meetings from their own calendar?]

2. [Has anyone done a quarterly time analysis for their principals? Categorizing the types of meetings they have based on their priorities, and showing the % of time they spend? Did you use excel? and how did you gather that data? TIA.]

3. [I have been asked to give a daily/biweekly digest of completed and outstanding meetings, but I schedule 20 meetings per day for 4 different people. I use outlook, is there any way to automate this, even partially?]

4. [For C-Suite leaders, do you think its possible/advisable to "lock" your leader's schedule after a certain date? Specifically, my CEO and I discussed allowing no changes to be made for the next week after Wed/Thurs so he knows what to expect and can prep]

5. [Does anyone have any suggestions for how to best handle travel time within calendaring? I'm always manually creating events to cover that time but I feel like there has to be an easier way..]

6. [My boss is not open to putting regular 1:1 meetings with me on her calendar and rarely has time for me to review her calendar, ask questions, review priorities. Anyone else in this situation? If so, how do you receive and give info in an efficient way?]

We hope these help you in your role managing calendars, whether it be your own or 6 of your executives.