Study groups are hard to schedule because each member has a fixed but different timetable, so the free slots are narrow and change week to week. The efficient approach is to propose specific time slots rather than days, poll a fortnight at a time, and let the count decide. Who can when? does this free and with no accounts, which suits a group that changes membership.
Slots, not days
A day is meaningless when everyone has lectures in it. Offer specific windows - Tuesday 14:00 to 16:00, Thursday 17:00 to 19:00 - and the answers become usable immediately.
Poll a fortnight at a time rather than a term. Timetables shift, deadlines move, and a poll answered in week one about week nine is worth very little.
What keeps a study group alive
- A recurring slot as soon as you find one that works. Habit does more than optimisation.
- A minimum number. Decide in advance whether two people is a session or a cancellation.
- Somewhere booked, since a room that has to be found each time quietly kills the group.
- Maybe left on, because exam term is made of maybes.
- No sign-up, so a new member can join by being sent a link.
Around deadlines
The weeks either side of a deadline are worth polling separately and at short notice - two or three days out. Everyone's availability collapses and then reopens, and a poll run a month earlier will be wrong in both directions.
Common questions
- Can I set up a recurring session?
- Not as a recurrence. Poll to find the slot, then keep it fixed and use a calendar invitation for the repeat.
- Can new members join partway through?
- Yes. Send them the link - there is nothing to sign up for.
- How many time slots can I propose?
- Up to 20 in one poll, which is a comfortable fortnight of options.
Ready when you are
Clubs, teams and communities
The recurring ones: a fixed cast, a moving date, and someone who has to ask every time.
Related
- A LettuceMeet alternative Prefer marking a few dates to dragging across a week of half-hour blocks? Propose the dates that matter and let everyone tap yes, maybe or no. Free, no account.
- Game night scheduling Board games, D&D or cards: the number decides what you can actually play. Propose the evenings, count the yeses, and pick knowing who is in.
- Workshop date poll A workshop needs a whole day from a lot of people. Propose a few, find out who can really give you the day, and book the room once.
Read next
- How to schedule a meeting with a group A short, practical method for getting a group of people onto one date: how many options to offer, how far ahead to ask, and how to close it out.
Or see everything we have written in one list.