Appointments and professional meetings are an integral part for many of you. This explains why it is important to efficiently manage your calendar and therefore optimize your time management and avoid counter-productive meetings. This is Julie Desk’s main challenge: to help you make the management of your calendar easy and simple on a daily basis.
To help you better understand how your calendar evolves and the peaks and valleys of activity during the year, we suggest analyzing the evolution of the requests sent to Julie.
For those who are visiting the blog for the first time and have no idea who Julie is and what she does, here is a little reminder:
Evolution of requests sent to Julie from December 2015 to January 2017
Here, we are interested in the evolution in the percentage of the average number of requests sent to Julie per user.
It is not surprising to see that this evolution follows the seasons:
- The year starts on a busy note. During the end of year holidays, many professionals take a break from work and get back into the rhythm in January. Therefore, from December to January, there is a 30% increase in meeting scheduling activity.
- It is interesting to note that the month of March represents a slight dip in activity despite the return from the winter holidays.
- In May, there is a peak in meeting requests right before we get into a calmer season during the months of July and August, which correspond to summertime and summer break.
- Obviously, September is the back to school month for students but it is also the time for professionals to get back to work: a 35% increase in meeting scheduling is observed!
- In January 2017, following the winter vacations, we can note that there is already a 10% increase in meeting scheduling requests, in comparison to the end of 2016.
To avoid feeling overwhelmed, do your best to anticipate these peaks in activity. Besides, Julie can help:
“Julie, can you schedule this meeting, after the 15th of September?”
What do we mean by requests?
- Creating an event in your calendar: team meetings, lunch, phone call, one-to-one meeting, etc.
- Canceling or postponing meetings
- Updating the agenda: trips, train or plane tickets, events, invitations…
- Updating user preferences
The majority (78%) of requests received by Julie correspond to the scheduling of a meeting.
“Julie, can you schedule a lunch with Thomas next week?”
USA vs. Europe: Do they schedule meetings the same way?
Because Julie speaks French and English, she has employers both in Europe (mainly France and UK) and USA. We focused on the evolution of requests between these two markets and, even though these requests follow the same trend, there is an exception in August and January 2017, especially for Europeans who, already at the start of the year, have doubled the number of meetings scheduled by Julie.
I can already hear you say: “well, this confirms that French citizens work less than Americans and they take more holidays!”. There are actually a number articles on that matter 😉 But beware! There is no correlation between productivity and vacations: some even say that vacations are essential for increased productivity. This is a big debate that we leave to you for discussion 🙂
Whether you are on vacation or not, in rain or snow, under hot or cold conditions, you can always count on Julie to manage your calendar!
You want a productive year? Why not collaborate with Julie? Start a free trial now and you will be fully ready to tackle the next peak season for your meetings!
Feel free to leave us a comment and share our results!