Anyone good on outlook??

[boonr]

My Director wants me to block off a 25 minute slot in between each meeting in her calendar.

I'm assuming there is an easy way to do this without having to check each day individually?

Very grateful if anyone knows how to do this!!

I'm unaware of a way but no one's asked me to plan like that before 😳 My managers' calendars are never that empty!

PS interested if there is a way out of curiosity without going down a rabbit hole.

She wants 25 mins blocked off after every meeting?

I think that has to be done manually I'm afraid.

Oh ffs. What a nightmare.

She said "look it up on google" 🤣. I was really hoping there might be an easy way 🙈🙈.

Sorry yes, she wants it to automatically block off 25 minutes after ever meeting.

You could create a macro to do this - as long as they go in as meetings, you should be able to create one to auto block time after / before them. Best bet is online search to see if someone has used a similar macro - if not the Microsoft community are super helpful online.

Would the time blocks go in as "meetings" though? And therefore, because of the macro, they would end up with their own 25 min block created after them, and so on?

I’ve been adding an additional meeting each time, labelled ‘travel’.

Or you could extend every meeting you add- but I suppose that negatively impacts everyone else’s diary.

How long are meetings? Could you schedule two sessions every day and slot meetings around them?

@TTPD (is that a Taylor reference?!)

I would code the macro to put them in as appointments, so then it wouldn't create its own follow on from it! So if a meeting was in, it would add on the post / pre meeting time as an appointment, rather than another meeting.

It's irking me it's 25 minute break not a round 15 or 20!

Wtf

So she only has meetings that are 35 minutes long?

Might be easier doing half an hour, I think that's possible

Do you have co-pilot on your outlook? It's Microsoft's new AI assistant, it might be able to do it for you if you ask

Could you just make each meeting an additional 50 min long and she works out that it includes her 25 either side?

That would affect how the meeting shows up on everybody else's calendar though. Which would be a real pain.

Oh yes, that would probably work.

Haha yep it is! I know it's not even out yet but I needed a new username.

Block out the whole day every day and then just add the meetings extra on top

I wonder if changing the default meeting lengths would work - so Outlook - File / Options/ Calendar - there is an option to make a default duration etc.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Set-automatic-break-time-in-the-calendar-after-a-created-or/td-p/866551

This explains the process. I haven't tried it yet but I will!

Lol.

Can I get that job

Really you should probably suggest meetings start and end 5 minutes later/earlier so everyone has a short break. This can be done automatically. 25 minutes is a weird and incovenient time for other people to work around! Plus, if several people are looking to book meetings until a meeting is accepted the "buffer" won't be applied so the time would still show as available assuming bookers have access to the directors availability. The sensible approach is establishing the practice of late start, early finish with a blocked out lunch break and morning/afternoon breaks as needed. Any breaks can of course be over ridden but people requesting meetings will have to ask nicely as the time will be unavailable in the calendar.

Thanks all.

I've never heard of Macro in my life but will get googling!!

I do have autopilot yes! I will type my question in there.

Also, unfortunately her meetings aren't 35 mins long, although I think she'd like that 🤣. She still wants her meetings to be an hour long, but then wants it to automatically have 25 minutes blocked out after it so that people can't put in back to back meetings for her.

Thanks everyone

But why 25 minutes?! If she has a meeting that finishes at 2pm then is blocked out for 25 minutes, is someone going to book her from 2.25pm for an hour? And then the next person from 3.50pm?

I don't understand.

@dreamfield yes, exactly that!

It does all seem a bit excessive but I think she was just sick of people putting back to back meetings in her calendar 🙈

To be fair that is very annoying when people do that but 25 minutes seems equally annoying why not round it up to 30 mins 😂