Glossary
Definitions of scheduling and time management terms.
A
- Acceptance rateThe share of meeting invitations you send that are answered with "attending," a metric of how efficiently a team schedules.
- Action itemThe next task coming out of a meeting or discussion that makes clear who does what by when. It is the core of a system that raises follow-through.
- AgendaA plan listing the topics and running order of a meeting. Sharing it in advance makes the meeting more efficient.
- All-hands meetingA regular gathering of every member of an organization, mainly covering vision sharing from leadership, performance reports, and Q&A sessions.
- Asynchronous communicationA way of exchanging information in which participants do not need to be online at the same time and each responds when convenient.
- Attendance confirmationThe process of having people answer in advance whether they can attend an event or meeting, to know the number of attendees.
- AvailabilityA business term for being free and able to attend at a specific date and time, or the information showing it.
B
- Booking pageA dedicated web page generated by a scheduling tool that lets the other person book directly from your free time.
- BrainstormingA technique in which several people freely put forward ideas and diverge and converge on solutions, a classic creativity technique proposed by Osborn in 1953.
- Buffer timeSpare time set between meetings. Using it for travel, preparation, and rest reduces fatigue.
C
- CalDAVA protocol that extends WebDAV for accessing calendar data, used to sync between servers and clients.
- Calendar invitationMeeting request data sent as an ICS file attached to email or between calendar apps. You can respond with Accept / Decline / Tentative.
- Calendar sharingA feature that makes your schedule visible to team members so they can check free time and set up meetings easily.
D
- Daylight saving timeA system that sets clocks forward 1 hour in summer. When scheduling with countries that use it, watch for the time difference changing twice a year.
- Decision logA document recording an organization's or project's important decisions in chronological order, keeping what was decided and why so it can be referred to later.
- Deep workA state of pouring cognitive resources into one task to produce output that needs deep thinking, a modern productivity concept proposed by Cal Newport.
- Doodle (poll-based scheduling)A scheduling method that collects availability for candidate dates as ○△× votes. It takes its name from the Swiss tool of the same name.
- Double bookingA state in which multiple events overlap in the same time period, mainly caused by poor calendar management.
F
I
K
L
M
- Meeting capA practice that sets in advance the maximum number / maximum hours of meetings allowed per day or per week to protect focus time.
- Meeting minutesA document recording a meeting's content / decisions / action items, also used to share information with those who were absent.
- Meeting overloadA state in which the number or length of meetings in an organization becomes excessive and squeezes working time, eroding decision quality and employee engagement.
N
O
P
- Parking lotA place to temporarily hold topics that come up in a meeting but stray from the main thread, a facilitation technique that keeps discussion on track.
- Polling (vote-based scheduling)A scheduling method in which participants vote on whether they can make each candidate date and time, and the one with the most votes is chosen.
- PomodoroA time management method that repeats a set of 25 minutes of focused work and a short 5-minute break, devised by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s.
Q
R
- RACIA framework that clarifies the roles of project stakeholders using the initials of Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed.
- Recurring meetingA meeting format held repeatedly on a fixed cycle, such as weekly or monthly.
- ReminderA basic measure against no-shows that sends a notification before an event so participants check the date and time again.
- ReschedulingChanging a confirmed event to another date and time, an everyday scheduling act in business.
- Response deadlineThe date and time when answers to a scheduling request close. Setting it well keeps scheduling from dragging on.
- RetrospectiveA meeting where a team looks back at a milestone in a project or sprint, built into agile Scrum as standard.
- RSVPAn abbreviation of the French Répondez s'il vous plaît, a customary expression asking for a reply on whether you will attend an invitation.
S
- SchedulingThe process of matching the availability of multiple participants and deciding on a date and time when everyone, or most people, can attend.
- Scheduling linkA URL to a booking page that reflects your free time. Just share it and the other person can book a time in one click.
- Scheduling toolA general term for online services that automate presenting candidate dates / collecting answers / deciding the best date.
- Shallow workAdministrative or reactive work that needs no deep thinking and can be done in fragments of time, a modern productivity concept contrasted with Deep Work.
- StakeholderA party who affects, or is affected by, the outcome of a project or decision.
- Stand-up meetingA short progress-sharing meeting held standing up in 15 minutes or less, used in agile development.
T
- Tentative holdA state of holding a date and time provisionally before it is formally confirmed, shown distinctly on the calendar.
- Time blockingA time management method that divides the day into blocks and assigns a specific task or activity to each block.
- Time slotA specific block of time offered as an option in scheduling.
- Time zoneA region's standard time as defined for each area of the world. It must be taken into account in international scheduling.
- Two-pizza ruleA team size guideline proposed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos: a group too large to be fed by two pizzas is too big.