It can be relatively easy to find a night to schedule in a catch up with one friend for dinner, assuming you have a partner or someone else who can mind your kids. Scheduling it in usually involves a couple of texts or emails and you can find a night that works for you both. However, if you’re trying to catch up with 2 or more friends, this same approach can be disastrous.
You text or email your friends a couple of options of nights that can work for you. Then the back and forth starts. Some people can make Tuesday night but for others Tuesday won’t work. Those people can make Friday night, but Friday won’t work for others. Often, after many texts or emails back and forth, 6 months passes and you still haven’t caught up.
How you can easily find a night that works for a group of friends
A friend of mine from my Mothers’ Group, Caroline, got me onto the website http://www.doodle.com and it has saved me hours of texting back and forth to find a night that works with a group of friends.
Here’s how it works:
1. Register for a free account at www.doodle.com
2. Choose the option of finding a date and time for an event
3. I usually then go through my own diary and choose 6 or so dates at least a week out where I know I can be out for dinner and James can be with our kids. I try to choose a few different days of the week over the next month, so that I won’t rule out friends who cannot make a specific night every week
4. I then add my name and check all boxes to show I can make all the nights offered up
5. I then copy the link to the Doodle poll and text, email or WhatsApp it to my group of friends and ask them to check only the nights they can make to meet up
6. We always schedule in the night that works with the majority i.e. the night that shows the most number of votes
Since I’m often the person booking in the date, I also ask up front for someone to offer to book the venue for dinner. This means I’m not organising everything. That’s it! The website www.doodle.com has meant it’s been relatively painless to schedule in catch ups with big groups of friends.
If you’ve come across other ways to schedule in catch ups with friends, please share them below!
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