If your schedule deviates slightly from your usual weekly routine, creating an Availability Override is the most effective solution to address this issue.
Suppose you usually work Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, but in the upcoming week, you have two doctor's appointments on June 1st and 2nd that will make you unavailable during your regular working hours. However, you have some free time you need to utilize on June 3rd, a Saturday which is not part of your typical work week. In this case, you can follow these steps:
Make yourself completely unavailable for the entire day on June 1st and June 2nd by adding an availability override.
Add an availability override for June 3rd, specifying a time slot when you are available, for example, from 10 AM to 2 PM.
Managing significant deviations from your Weekly Routine
If your schedule significantly deviates from your typical weekly routine, you can still address the issue by adding availability overrides. In such cases, the calendar view of availabilities is recommended, as it provides an accurate overview of your entire schedule, enabling you to plan accordingly and effectively manage the multiple dates involved.
Let's say you have a busy week ahead, where you won't be available from Monday to Friday due to various commitments. However, you can spare some time on Wednesday evening. Here's how you can handle this situation using overrides:
Add availability overrides for each day except Wednesday:
Monday: Override as "Unavailable" for the entire day.
Tuesday: Override as "Unavailable" for the entire day.
Thursday: Override as "Unavailable" for the entire day.
Friday: Override as "Unavailable" for the entire day.
Add an override specifically for Wednesday:
Specify the available time slot for Wednesday evening when you can spare time, from 6 PM to 8 PM.
Alternative approach 1: Switching availabilities
If you want to avoid the hassle of adding availability overrides and anticipate a significant deviation from your regular weekly schedule, an alternative solution would be to set different availabilities and adjust them each week according to your meetings and commitments. This approach is beneficial when you anticipate a recurring busy week. In such cases, it is recommended to switch availabilities instead of adding overrides.
However, note that frequent changes to availabilities may not be effective if your clients typically book your schedules well in advance.
Consider the same scenario as above:
Create a new availability specifically for the busy week:
Give it a name that indicates its purpose and relates to your schedule, such as "Availability - Wednesday" or "Wednesday only."
Before the busy week, adjust your availability for meetings:
Click on the three dots on your availability card's right side.
Select the "Apply availability" button.
A pane will appear showing the meetings you are a part of.
Choose the specific meeting(s) you want to apply the modified availability (in this case, the Wednesday evening time slot).
During the busy week, your availability will be adjusted per the applied availability, allowing you to accommodate the chosen meeting(s) while maintaining your overall schedule.
Once the busy week is over:
Change your availability back to your regular weekly schedule.
Alternative approach 2: Updating Weekly Schedule
If you prefer not to create multiple availabilities or overrides, an alternative approach is to update your existing weekly schedule before the busy period and revert it once the week is completed.
It's essential to consider that frequent changes to availabilities may not be effective if your clients typically book your schedules well in advance. In such cases, you can prevent clients from booking in advance by updating the settings in the Meeting > When tab of your meeting.
Example scenario:
Update your availability before the busy period.
Go to Meeting > When tab and change the Number of days into the future to 7 days to only show slots for the next 7 days or alternatively you can set the start date and end date
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After a busy week, update the schedule again.
Now that you understand how to handle a different schedule, you can utilize combinations of the techniques mentioned or explore new approaches based on your specific needs.
The video below is a summary of the points mentioned above: