Scheduling meetings can be a cumbersome process. You might have to spend too much time and energy communicating back and forth to find an appropriate meeting time.

Thankfully, an intuitive digital tool replaces this inefficient scheduling process with a simple, time-sensitive method. This tool is called Calendly.

In this article, we'll walk you through Calendly, how it works, and how to make the most of it.

How Does Calendly Work?

If you're familiar with how to schedule a meeting in Microsoft Outlook, Calendly works in much the same way. In addition to Outlook, Calendly also works with Google Calendar and Apple iCloud Calendar.

When you sync your personal and work calendars, you can create event types. For example, you may have a "15-minute meeting" type and a "30-minute meeting" type.

From there, you can send a booking link to clients, coworkers, or friends. These people can choose one of the event types you previously created and then select a time with you. Don't worry—they won't have access to what events are on your calendar.

That's a quick overview of how Calendly works. Now let's get into the details.

How to Add Calendars to Calendly

Before setting up event types, make sure that your calendars are in sync.

After you've created your profile, click Account next to your profile image in the top-right of Calendly's website. From the dropdown menu, select Calendar Connections.

On the Calendar Connections page, simply click + Add Calendar Account and then Connect next to the type of calendar you want to add. Unfortunately, the free plan only lets you sync one Calendar.

Make sure to check the configuration section as well. Here, you can set which calendars Calendly will check to avoid event conflict. Also, under Configuration, you can choose which of your calendars new events will appear in.