Meetings play a pivotal role in any organization. But without diligent management, meetings can end up being an unproductive use of time that strains resources and breeds frustration.
This is where Microsoft Outlook steps in as a saving grace for professionals worldwide. Offering state-of-the-art scheduling assistance and seamless integrations with other Microsoft 365 apps, Outlook makes organizing and hosting meetings easier than ever.
In fact, over 400 million professionals actively use Outlook, spending over 30 billion minutes in meetings scheduled using Outlook‘s calendar tools every month!
And it’s no surprise — Outlook is equipped to handle all your meeting management needs. From flexible scheduling options to post-meeting follow-ups, Outlook provides robust functionality so you can get the most out of your collaboration.
This comprehensive guide will teach you how to fully utilize Outlook‘s capabilities when scheduling and conducting online meetings.
We’ll cover:
- How to schedule different types of Outlook meeting invites
- Best practices for productive video conferences, calls and virtual gatherings
- Pro tips for managing meetings before, during and after they occur
- Maximizing Outlook‘s integrations with other Microsoft apps
So let’s get right to it!
Why Choose Outlook for Scheduling Your Meetings?
Before jumping into the specifics of how to schedule meetings through Outlook, let’s establish why it should be your go-to tool.
Unlike more basic calendar apps, Outlook offers advanced capabilities tailored specifically for business meetings thanks to its deep integration across Microsoft 365 apps.
Here are some standout benefits:
Smooth coordination
Outlook calendars make it easy to automatically coordinate schedules, check availability in different timezones and suggest optimal meeting times. This prevents frustrating back-and-forth conversations to align everyone‘s availability.
Through the Scheduling Assistant feature, you can seamlessly facilitate logistics across organizations and geographies when scheduling meetings in Outlook.
Enhanced productivity
Integrations with Teams, Skype, Office apps and more allow you to collaborate seamlessly without ever leaving your inbox. You can screenshare presentations, collaboratively edit documents, take notes and more — no additional prep needed!
Studies show that nearly half of meeting invites sent through Outlook leverage its built-in Skype Meetings integration for enhanced collaboration.
Flexible scheduling
Recurring meetings, multiple calendar views and timezone adjustments ensure organizing meetings is frustration-free. Outlook automatically handles repetitive invites, schedule changes and calendar conflicts.
You can also assign delegates to coordinate schedules on your behalf! Outlook makes meeting scheduling flexible enough to accommodate diverse needs.
Accountability and follow up
From built-in note-taking to flagging action items and reminders, Outlook equips you with everything you need to facilitate seamless meeting follow-ups.
Never lose track of important next steps and pending responsibilities again thanks to Outlook‘s expansive organizational features tailored for meetings.
Let‘s now dive into step-by-step instructions for capitalizing on these features.
How to Schedule Virtual Meetings in Outlook
The process of scheduling meetings through Outlook is intuitive once you get familiar with the various options. Let’s go through the specifics.
We’ll cover how to schedule:
- Skype (video call) meetings
- Standard Outlook meetings with multiple attendees
One-Click Skype Meetings
Thanks to deep integration with Skype, Outlook now enables you to instantly generate a meeting link for a quick video call with colleagues.
Here‘s how simple it is:
- Open Outlook on your desktop
- Click on Meet Now in the top navigation bar
- Your default browser will launch a Skype meetings link
- Copy the meeting link or add Outlook contacts directly to the call
- Click on Start Call to launch the meeting!
And within seconds, you have a meeting line up and running for spur-of-the-moment video calls!
The invitees can simply click the meeting link you share to immediately join the Skype call, without needing a Skype account themselves.
So whenever you need to quickly huddle up with your team, creating an instant meeting in Outlook can save a huge amount of logistical headache.
Now let’s look at scheduling more formal, structured meetings through Outlook‘s calendar.
Scheduling Standard Outlook Meetings
To schedule meetings with a defined attendee list, agenda, date/time logistics, and other details, follow these steps:
- Open the Calendar view in Outlook
- Select New Event (or double-click on a time slot to create a new meeting)
- Give your meeting a Title and Location
- Click Invite Attendees and pick desired participants from your company directory or contacts list
- Set the meeting Date/Time, keeping the Time Zone accurate for all attendees
- Enable Recurrence if this is an ongoing weekly or monthly meeting
- Set a Reminder so attendees don‘t forget
- Add any Attachments or meeting Agenda if needed
- Click Save to solidify the meeting details and automatically send invites
And within seconds, your meeting is formally scheduled and all attendees will receive the meeting request on their Outlook calendar!
For accepting meetings you‘ve been invited to, simply check your calendar at the scheduled date/time and click the meeting event to join.
That‘s all there is to seamlessly managing Outlook meeting invites as an organizer and attendee. Pretty straightforward, right?
Now let’s get into some power-user tips…
Pro Tips for Productive Meetings
You‘ve now seen just how easy it is to schedule meetings in Outlook. But simply getting people together is just the first step.
Running engaging meetings that drive outcomes requires some finesse. Here are some best practices to have productive meetings in Outlook:
Set Clear Objectives Upfront
The foundation of any results-driven meeting is an agenda. Make sure to outline:
- The purpose and desired outcomes
- Key discussion topics
- Any prep work required from attendees
Send this agenda to all participants when scheduling the meeting so everyone joins prepared and aligned.
Optimize Timing with Scheduling Assistant
Finding a time that works across disparate schedules can necessitate a lot of frustrating back-and-forth.
Save yourself the headache by using Outlook‘s Scheduling Assistant when first creating the meeting invite.
This built-in tool looks at attendees‘ calendars and suggests the optimal meeting time based on availability, free/busy status and time zone considerations.
You‘ll secure the highest meeting participation with the least logistical legwork. Pretty nifty!
Take Notes and Assign Action Items
Every constructive meeting should generate next steps and pending tasks based on decisions made.
But without proper documentation, such output gets lost along the way. Have someone assigned to take notes on:
- Key discussion highlights
- Any open questions that need follow-up
- Action items and owners
Capturing this information goes a long way in holding everyone accountable after the fact.
Make Use of Integrations
To prevent wasting time during precious meeting minutes on administrative tasks, take advantage of Outlook’s deep integrations with other Microsoft apps.
You can directly launch Skype screensharing, collaboratively work on Office documents, save notes to OneNote, and lots more without ever leaving Outlook.
Explore what integration capabilities make the most sense for how you collaborate during meetings with your teams.
Create Reminders for Critical Action Items
As we just discussed, every constructive meeting generates some type of follow-up tasks for attendees.
But once everyone walks out of that conference room, pending responsibilities have a tendency to fall through the cracks.
Combat this issue by creating Outlook reminders tied directly to specific action items and owners.
This ensures tasks stay top of mind even as you get pulled into other engagements post-meetings. No more excuses for forgotten assignments!
Okay, those pro tips should really amplify your meeting outcomes. Now let‘s talk about ongoing meeting management…
Streamlining Recurring Meetings and Follow-Ups
Meetings are rarely one-off events. In most organizations, meetings are recurring touchpoints to drive initiatives, projects and operations forward.
Thanks to Outlook‘s expansive feature set, you can create consistent, productive meetings by:
Scheduling repetitive meetings – For ongoing meetings like weekly team syncs, simply enable recurrence when first creating the meeting invite in Outlook. Customize frequency and cadence based on your preferences.
Reviewing meeting history – Outlook‘s calendar maintains a searchable transcript of all past meetings, invitees, notes and attachments. Refer back any time to recall past discussions or meeting outputs.
Tracking action items – Beyond taking meeting notes, create Outlook tasks tied to specific action items and owners emerging from each meeting. Checking in on task status ensures accountability.
Sharing meeting resources – Outlook lets you store commonly used meeting resources like presentations, documents and reference material in a dedicated online library for easy access.
Coordinating across timezones – For global organizations, reconcile availability across timezones with Outlook‘s scheduling tools. Auto-translate meeting times for invitees as you build out attendee lists.
These features let you institutionalize meetings as recurring engines of productivity and output. Now let‘s talk about wrapping up our guide…
Conclusion and Next Steps
As we‘ve explored in detail, Outlook offers state-of-the-art support for scheduling and conducting meetings in a streamlined fashion. From one-click Skype meetings to leveraging Scheduling Assistant and integrations, Outlook rectifies many common meeting pitfalls.
Here are some final recommendations as you implement Outlook for your meeting management needs:
- Take advantage of Skype integration for quick video check-ins
- Standardize prep and follow up processes for recurring meetings
- Explore using delegate access if you manage schedules for others
- Set automatic reminders for meeting action items
- Ask attendees to rate/provide feedback on meetings to drive continuous improvement
We hope this comprehensive guide has illuminated just how profoundly Outlook can enhance your meeting productivity and outcomes. Please reach out with any other questions — we‘re happy to help!
