Automate your day: Doodle and Outlook Calendar

Efficient scheduling is crucial to keeping your workdays productive and your professional life in balance. Did you know effective scheduling can save you up to 45 minutes per week? In a year that’s close to 40 hours - a full working week just by scheduling better.  

The humdrum of scheduling meetings, calls and appointments can be a productivity killer for even the most organized among us. Juggling time zones, preferences and availabilities is no easy task. Well, by combining two of the world’s favorite tools - Doodle and Outlook Calendar - you can automate the process and reclaim your day. 

Let’s have a look at how you can start saving time today. 

Share your Outlook Calendar with Doodle

So it doesn’t have to be Outlook Calendar vs Doodle, it can be Outlook Calendar with Doodle. 

The Outlook Calendar Doodle integration makes scheduling events and meetings more efficient. There are two ways to link to Doodle. Let’s check them out. 

The first way is to link Office 365 with Doodle.

Head to “Account Settings” in your Doodle account. Click on “Connected Calendars” and then “Connect” next to Office 365. 

Once connected, you can use Doodle to schedule events and meetings and it will automatically add them to your calendar. 

Alternatively, head to your inbox and turn on the Doodle Outlook Add-in. 

To do this, create a new message, then click on the three dots at the bottom and “Get Add-ins”. 

Search for Doodle, then log in. Once you have, your Booking Pages, Group Polls and 1:1s will appear on the right or you can create a new one.

Whenever you send out a Group Poll or share your Booking Page link, once a time is found by your participants, Doodle will automatically add it to your calendar. 

What’s more, participants will only see the times you choose to be available - so no double-booking or getting overloaded from too many meetings. 

How to create a Booking Page synced to Outlook Calendar

Creating a Booking Page is really easy and a great way to automate your schedule. 

To start, log in to your Doodle account. Once here you want to click on the “Create a new Booking Page” button on the right of the dashboard.

Fill out the title, description and location (whether it’s in person or online). Next, decide if the Booking Page is for you or if you’re using our Hosts feature (Doodle Professional Team and Enterprise plans only) to book meetings on behalf of someone else. 

In the next section, decide your availability and how long people can book with you. If you click the “power settings” option, you can add buffer times between meetings, a maximum number you will have a day, change your time zone and more. 

Next double check the right calendar is connected to the Booking Page. You can change your calendar in your “Account Settings” or add another calendar if you want multiple people’s schedules to be considered. 

Once you’re done, simply hit “Create Booking Page” and you can start sharing your link straightaway.

With your Doodle Booking Page synced to your Outlook Calendar, you can relax knowing you’ll never be double booked again. For instance, any events pulled from your inbox like flight reservations will automatically be added to your calendar, so Doodle won’t consider those times as available. 

No more having to go back and forth updating your calendar manually.

Integrate your calendar with other apps and tools via Doodle

When Doodle is connected to your Outlook Calendar, you can take advantage of Microsoft Teams for virtual meetings. This means video conferencing is as easy as a click. 

However, it’s not just Microsoft Teams that you can use. Doodle also connects to Zoom, Webex and Google Meet. 

If you want to connect a different video conferencing tool to your Doodle account, head to your “Account Settings” and click on “Apps and Integrations”. 

The Zoom integration is available on free plans, others require a Professional account. 

Decide which tool you want to use and click “Connect”. You’ll be taken to their login page. Fill in your account details for the tool you want to add and you’re done. Now whenever you go to Booking Page, Group Poll or 1:1 and select video conferencing you’ll have the ability to use the one you just connected. 

If you want to take Doodle to the next level and truly integrate it into your workflow you can do it code-free through Zapier. Like video conferencing, if you head to your apps and integrations tab in account settings, click on “Start setup” under Zapier and make the Zaps you need. 

Integrating Doodle and Outlook Calendar will help you reclaim your day and free up time for more important things - both professional and personal.