Finding a date everyone can make

Why the open question fails

“When works for everyone?” feels polite, but it hands each person an unbounded problem. They have to check every evening for weeks, so most of them put it off, and the few who answer give vague replies like “weekends are better”. Three days later the thread has moved on and there is still no date.

People answer specific questions quickly. The job of whoever is organizing is to turn the open question into a short list.

Offer three options, not thirty

Pick two to four concrete times, like Friday the 14th at 7 or Saturday the 15th at 6, and ask people to mark every one they can do. More than four and people start skimming; fewer than two and you are just asking for a yes or no.

Choose the options with the hardest-to-schedule person in mind. If one friend works weekends, at least one option should be a weeknight. If the event only works with a particular person there, ask them first, privately, and build the options around their answer.

Set a deadline and keep it

A vote with no end date never ends. Say when it closes, two or three days out for a casual dinner and a week for a trip, and decide on time with whatever answers you have. Waiting for the last person almost never produces a better date, and it costs everyone else the chance to plan around it.

When it closes, announce the winner in one message with the time and place, so nobody has to scroll back to work it out.

Decide what “everyone” means

For a group of more than five or six, a date that suits literally everyone usually doesn't exist. Before you ask, decide whether you are looking for the date most people can make, or one that works for a few people the event depends on. Saying which out loud (“going with whichever date gets the most yeses”) stops the vote turning into a negotiation.

In Planarchy

When you make an event, you can put the time, the place or both to a vote instead of setting them. Guests vote on the event page, you see the results as they come in, and an RSVP deadline in the event's settings gives the vote its end date.

Plan it on Planarchy

Everything above works with a group chat and some patience. Planarchy keeps it in one place instead: the date vote, the guest list, the stand-by list and the chat all live on the event, and it's free.

Try Planarchy