I’m ALWAYS trying to figure out ways to eliminate any extra email or extra sorting of email messages. A common way of contacting people about a meeting is to send an email out to everyone and then wait to receive email responses from EACH PERSON! This is a very inefficient way to use email, but it’s easy to fall into old tried and true methods.
Enter Doodle, a free online polling tool that helps you schedule meetings. It’s very simple . . . you create an account and then schedule a new event by creating a poll. It takes very little time to do this, but the results are what matter. Instead of receiving 12 different emails from 12 different people telling you that they can or cannot attend, you get the responses in one place . . . your Doodle poll.
For instance, I just sent out an inquiry to our EdTech faculty, asking them if they could attend a workshop, scheduled for two different days at certain times. I created the Doodle poll and then inserted the link which directs them from the email to the poll. They complete the poll, enter a comment if desired, and then submit. I can see the results in one place, which saves me time and reduces the load on my email inbox.
You can also create text polls, as well, with choices. Try out Doodle and see what you think. I think it’s pretty amazing.
