Meetings keep projects moving—but recurring meetings can easily become a time-sink if you don’t manage them well. If you’re a project manager juggling calendars, deadlines, and a dozen personalities, you need your tools to work with you, not against you. This guide is for anyone who wants to use Doodle to wrangle recurring meetings without them turning into yet another project of their own.
Let’s cut through the fluff and get right to what matters: setting up recurring meetings in Doodle, keeping them under control, and avoiding the common traps that make meetings miserable.
1. Know What Doodle Can (and Can’t) Do With Recurring Meetings
Before you get fancy, know this: Doodle doesn’t have true, built-in recurring meeting support like Outlook or Google Calendar. You can’t just say “every Tuesday at 10am” and have Doodle spit out a year’s worth of invites.
Here’s what Doodle actually offers:
- You can create a poll with multiple date and time options—great for finding the best time for a one-off or the first in a series of meetings.
- You can manually add several dates/times in one poll to cover a few recurrences.
- After picking the winning time, you’ll need to repeat the process for future meetings.
What this means for you:
Doodle is best for organizing the initial recurring meeting, or for setting up a small batch of meetings in advance. Don’t try to force it to run your entire meeting series forever. It’ll just get messy.
2. Setting Up Your First Recurring Meeting (The Smart Way)
Step 1: Decide What You’re Actually Scheduling
Don’t default to “weekly team sync” just because you always have. Ask yourself:
- Does this meeting really need to be recurring?
- Is the same group needed every time?
- Could you combine topics or split apart big ones?
Pro Tip: If you can solve it in chat or email, cancel the meeting. Everyone will thank you.
Step 2: Use Doodle to Pick the Best Time
- Create a new poll.
- Add several possible dates/times—include multiple weeks if you want people to pick what works for them.
- Make sure to toggle on “Yes, No, If-need-be” for more flexible responses.
- Share the poll link with your invitees. If your team is international, don’t forget to check their time zones (Doodle converts for you, but always double-check).
Step 3: Confirm and Communicate
Once people have responded:
- Pick the best slot.
- Send a follow-up: “This is the first of our recurring meetings. I’ll send the next invite after this one.”
Don’t:
- Try to schedule a full year of meetings in one go.
- Assume everyone will always be available at the same time each week—people’s schedules change.
3. Managing Recurring Meetings After the First Round
Here’s where most project managers drop the ball: you set a recurring meeting, but someone’s always missing, or the agenda gets stale. Don’t let your meetings go on autopilot.
Step 1: Review Attendance and Value
After a few sessions, ask:
- Who’s consistently missing? Maybe they don’t need to be there.
- Is the meeting running too long? Too short?
- Are you actually getting things done, or just talking in circles?
If the meeting isn’t delivering value, change it or kill it.
Step 2: Schedule the Next Block of Meetings
To keep things fresh and flexible:
- Use Doodle again to poll for the next month or quarter.
- Limit options to realistic times—don’t overwhelm people with 20 choices.
- If you have regulars who always say “anytime works,” just set a default and let them opt out.
Pro Tip:
If your team’s small and everyone’s in the same time zone, just set a standing calendar invite after the first Doodle poll. If not, keep polling every so often to stay flexible.
4. Keeping Everyone in the Loop (Without Nagging)
Doodle is solid at finding the best time, but it won’t magically keep people engaged. Here’s how to avoid the “wait, what meeting?” problem:
- Send calendar invites after you’ve picked the time. Doodle can do this, or you can copy the details into your usual calendar tool.
- Remind the team a day or two before, especially if the cadence changes. A quick Slack or email is enough.
- Share agendas early. Don’t make people guess what the meeting’s for.
- Post notes afterwards (even just a bullet list), so people know what happened if they couldn’t attend.
What to skip:
Don’t spam with reminders. One calendar invite and a nudge before the meeting is plenty.
5. Handling Changes and Cancellations
Stuff comes up—someone’s out sick, or you all realize that Wednesday at 9am is a terrible idea.
- Reschedule with a new Doodle poll if the group can’t make the usual time.
- Cancel early if you don’t have a good agenda. Seriously, don’t meet just because it’s on the calendar.
- Communicate changes fast. The earlier you let folks know, the less disruptive it is.
6. Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
Pitfall 1: Endless Polls
Don’t fall into the trap of polling for every single occurrence. After the first couple, set a default time and only poll when you really need to.
Pitfall 2: Too Many Options
Limit your Doodle poll to 3-5 realistic slots. More than that, and people get overwhelmed (or ignore the poll entirely).
Pitfall 3: Ignoring Time Zones
Doodle tries to help here, but it’s not foolproof. Double-check what time your poll options show up as for each attendee, especially for remote teams.
Pitfall 4: Not Following Up
Doodle isn’t a replacement for actually sending a calendar invite. After choosing the time, make sure it’s on everyone’s calendar.
7. When to Use a Different Tool
Doodle is great for finding the right time with a group, especially when people’s schedules are a moving target. But if you need:
- Fully automated, recurring meetings with reminders
- Tight integration with Outlook, Google Calendar, or Teams
- Automatic rescheduling and conflict detection
...you might want to use your calendar app directly, or look at other scheduling tools.
Bottom line:
Doodle is simple and flexible. Use it where it shines—finding consensus on time. Don’t try to make it your team’s entire scheduling platform.
8. Quick Tips & Pro Moves
- Batch your scheduling: Do a month or quarter at a time, not a full year.
- Keep polls short: Fewer options = faster responses.
- Make it easy: Always include calendar links or .ics files.
- Stay human: If meetings aren’t working, ask your team what they’d change.
Keep It Simple—and Iterate
Recurring meetings are supposed to make life easier, not harder. Doodle is a handy way to get a group aligned on when to meet, but don’t over-engineer it. Set up your first poll, get feedback, and adjust as you go. Focus on what actually works for your team, not what some guide tells you should work.
Meetings should move your project forward—not just fill up everyone’s calendar. Keep it simple, stay flexible, and don’t be afraid to cancel a meeting that’s outlived its usefulness. Your team (and your sanity) will thank you.