An alternative to FindTime scheduling polls: skip the vote, send the times
Scheduling polls add a round-trip. For most meetings, sending a clean list of open times gets to a booked meeting faster.
On this page
Microsoft's scheduling polls (formerly FindTime) ask every attendee to vote on proposed times, then book the winner. Polls make sense for large groups with no calendar visibility — but for everyday scheduling they add a full round-trip: propose, wait for votes, chase the person who didn't vote, book.
When a poll is overkill
If the people whose time matters are in your organization, you don't need to ask them when they're free — their calendars already say. The only person whose preference is unknown is the external party. So the faster pattern is: intersect the internal calendars automatically, send the external person the resulting list, and let them reply with one line.
The list-first workflow
All times in US/Eastern • Today 07/08 03:30 PM - 04:00 PM 05:00 PM - 05:30 PM • Thursday 07/09 09:30 AM - 10:30 AM 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM 02:30 PM - 03:00 PM
OpenSlot generates that list from live Outlook free/busy for any set of colleagues, in any timezone, up to 60 days out on Pro. One email, one reply, booked. No poll links, no voting UI for your client to figure out, no waiting on quorum.
Counting the round-trips
The case for a poll is that it removes disagreement. The cost is that it adds a waiting state, and waiting states are where scheduling dies. A poll is: you build it, everyone receives it, some vote, you chase the ones who didn't, the tool books the winner. Five steps, at least two of which depend on other people acting before anything can happen.
Sending times is: you generate the list, you send it, they reply with one. Three steps, one of which depends on somebody else — and that reply is a single line rather than a visit to a voting page. Where every internal calendar is already readable, the poll is asking people a question their calendars have already answered.
What replaces the vote
The thing a poll genuinely provides is preference: not just whether someone can make 4 PM on Friday, but whether they want to. You can keep most of that without the round-trip by choosing the offered slots well rather than dumping every gap. Offer three to six, spread across at least two days, mixing mornings and afternoons — and set the minimum slot length to the real meeting length so nothing on the list is a near-miss.
Working hours do the rest of the work. If the standing rule is no meetings before 10, encode it once and the list stops offering 9 AM to anyone, forever. That is the preference a poll would have surfaced, applied in advance instead of discovered after a round of votes. See how many slots to offer for the etiquette of picking them.
When a poll is still right
Polls win for genuinely democratic decisions — a 15-person offsite where preference matters more than availability, or a recurring slot the group will live with for a quarter. They also win when you genuinely cannot see the calendars: an external committee, a volunteer group, a set of people spread across organizations that have no free/busy relationship with each other.
That is a real category, and it is not the common one. For the everyday meeting — one external party, a couple of internal people whose calendars you can already read — sending the times is simply fewer steps.
Common questions
When is a scheduling poll the right tool?
When the decision is genuinely democratic — a 15-person offsite where preference matters more than availability — or when you truly cannot see the calendars, such as an external committee or a group spread across organizations with no free/busy relationship between them.
How many round-trips does a poll add?
A poll is five steps: build it, send it, wait for votes, chase whoever did not vote, book the winner. At least two of those depend on other people acting first. Sending times is three steps, only one of which waits on somebody else, and their part is a one-line reply.
Can I skip the poll if everyone is in my company?
Usually, yes. Colleagues' calendars already say when they are free, so a poll is asking people a question their calendars have answered. The only genuinely unknown preference is the external party's, and you learn that from their reply either way.
Do recipients need an account to reply to a list of times?
No. A pasted list is plain text in an email — there is no page to visit, no voting interface to learn and no account to create. They reply with the slot that works, which is also why it travels fine to someone whose company blocks unfamiliar links.
OpenSlot
Skip the retyping
OpenSlot reads Outlook free/busy and hands you the merged, paste-ready list in any timezone: up to 40 people and 60 days out on Pro, you plus one person and 7 days free.
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