Whether to schedule travel time or not?
August 16, 2011 3:17 AM Subscribe
Do you schedule travel time for regular appointments on your calendar? Irregular appointments?
What are the pros and cons of scheduling transport time?
What are the pros and cons of scheduling transport time?
I do not schedule travel time, but I set my appointment reminder a few minutes before I think I have to leave, and when I do that I consult Google Maps if necessary. I also mentally estimate how much slack time I need between appointments and leave the space empty.
I think my method has a few pros. The biggest is that blocked time on my calendar only represents my actual commitments and I can see how long everything will take. If I wanted to see the length of an appointment and also the travel time, I would have to create a travel event before and after and that's confusing. Also, if my schedule changes (say I was going to drive 20 minutes but the meeting was moved to 5 minutes away), I don't have to update any travel time events.
I suppose one con is that if I had to travel a long time between appointments, my wife might look at the large blank space and mistake it for free time. However, this has never happened. Also, most of my travel is by foot and car by myself. If I used public transportation or carpool with a rigid schedule, I would probably schedule departure times with an appointment reminder, at least until I became used to them.
posted by michaelh at 3:28 AM on August 16, 2011
I think my method has a few pros. The biggest is that blocked time on my calendar only represents my actual commitments and I can see how long everything will take. If I wanted to see the length of an appointment and also the travel time, I would have to create a travel event before and after and that's confusing. Also, if my schedule changes (say I was going to drive 20 minutes but the meeting was moved to 5 minutes away), I don't have to update any travel time events.
I suppose one con is that if I had to travel a long time between appointments, my wife might look at the large blank space and mistake it for free time. However, this has never happened. Also, most of my travel is by foot and car by myself. If I used public transportation or carpool with a rigid schedule, I would probably schedule departure times with an appointment reminder, at least until I became used to them.
posted by michaelh at 3:28 AM on August 16, 2011
Yes. It stops my mind from hovering over the issue of when I'll have to leave, get up, go to bed the night before, and so on.
I had a friend who would never factor travel time into anything. So I would travel two hours, stand on a street corner for 15 minutes or more, only to have her run up to me out of breath[1][2] saying that she only had about half an hour to spare because she had to get back to the office. Well big shock, it's only midday on a weekday, who could possibly have anticipated that you'd be working? GRAR
[1] if I was lucky, that is, and she didn't just plain stand me up
[2] this was before everybody had a cell phone
posted by tel3path at 3:33 AM on August 16, 2011
I had a friend who would never factor travel time into anything. So I would travel two hours, stand on a street corner for 15 minutes or more, only to have her run up to me out of breath[1][2] saying that she only had about half an hour to spare because she had to get back to the office. Well big shock, it's only midday on a weekday, who could possibly have anticipated that you'd be working? GRAR
[1] if I was lucky, that is, and she didn't just plain stand me up
[2] this was before everybody had a cell phone
posted by tel3path at 3:33 AM on August 16, 2011
In my work calendar, I always schedule travel time - otherwise people will book meetings in what appears to be free time, but is actually the time I need to get from one place to the other. In my personal calendar, I don't; like michaelh, I estimate how much time I might need and leave it blank.
posted by impluvium at 4:24 AM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by impluvium at 4:24 AM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Same as impluvium, I need to schedule travel time on either side of appointments in my work Outlook calendar, otherwise people will understandably assume I am free and will schedule meetings then.
posted by teragram at 4:33 AM on August 16, 2011
posted by teragram at 4:33 AM on August 16, 2011
I can't think of a con for it, unless you're regularly overestimating travel time. Even then, all it does is block others from scheduling you when you anticipate being on the road, which is easily remedied if you (or your assistant) is nimble with that. It's a pretty good buffer.
Depending on your appointment types (are you talking about short drives, subway rides, or full-on plane trips?), scheduling travel time can be a real time saver. If you are disciplined enough to get work done during travel time (conference calls in the car, or writing/reading on a train, plane, taxi), it makes you look terribly efficient.
posted by xingcat at 5:10 AM on August 16, 2011
Depending on your appointment types (are you talking about short drives, subway rides, or full-on plane trips?), scheduling travel time can be a real time saver. If you are disciplined enough to get work done during travel time (conference calls in the car, or writing/reading on a train, plane, taxi), it makes you look terribly efficient.
posted by xingcat at 5:10 AM on August 16, 2011
I do if I'm traveling more than 30 minutes (and in the Dallas area, that's a lot of places). I'm a grad student, and I'm the only one really checked my calendar, but by setting reminders for the travel time (as well as appointments), it makes sure that I actually leave at a reasonable time, not a "It's morning, I surely still have 10 more minutes..." time estimation.
posted by SNWidget at 5:22 AM on August 16, 2011
posted by SNWidget at 5:22 AM on August 16, 2011
We have two locations where I work and there are often meetings in the other building. As a general practice we put time to travel and park on our calendar. This is not necessarily for the person with the meeting, it's for when other people need to know your availability.
posted by Kimberly at 5:39 AM on August 16, 2011
posted by Kimberly at 5:39 AM on August 16, 2011
I'm a scheduler for a high level government official. We always include travel time on his calendar and it's prompted me to include it on my own as well. It's very helpful for letting other people know when I am and am not available.
posted by fancypants at 5:44 AM on August 16, 2011
posted by fancypants at 5:44 AM on August 16, 2011
I schedule travel time (as separate events) for work events. I started doing this when I had to leave at 5pm to get to night classes, and someone scheduled a last minute 5pm meeting, but I find it useful also because most of my meetings are in the same building, and if I don't have an explicit reminder for those in a different building, I'll forget to leave my desk that five-10 minutes early. In theory, it also helps me with my general time tracking, which in practice doesn't happen.
If you use Outlook, there are a couple of add-ins that will try and schedule the travel time automatically for you.
posted by jacalata at 9:30 AM on August 16, 2011
If you use Outlook, there are a couple of add-ins that will try and schedule the travel time automatically for you.
posted by jacalata at 9:30 AM on August 16, 2011
When I was working in the UK we were coving quite a large region from my office and there could be days when my boss had to travel 80 miles to the NE to get to the first meeting of the day, had a late morning/lunch meeting 110 miles SW from the first meeting and then another meeting down the road late afternoon. So including travel time (and down time) in our joint appointments was paramount. If that time was not part of the diary entries they would invariably not have enough travel time.
That got me in the habit of always scheduling all travel time in my work calendar - I only use my work calendar as I'd forget to update and match both calendars regularly. Anyway, I have recently discovered that you can export diary entries from my train provider and for airline booking information and have started to import these in my calendar religiously. Ensures I get a reminder in good time to catch my train (with connection information) or a reminder, with all relevant booking information, when online check-in opens etc...but then I also have to set myself a reminder for all personal appointments, birthdays and even mundane things like the day the paper is being collected for recycling because I invariably only remember when it's too late. Make of that what you will.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:27 AM on August 16, 2011
That got me in the habit of always scheduling all travel time in my work calendar - I only use my work calendar as I'd forget to update and match both calendars regularly. Anyway, I have recently discovered that you can export diary entries from my train provider and for airline booking information and have started to import these in my calendar religiously. Ensures I get a reminder in good time to catch my train (with connection information) or a reminder, with all relevant booking information, when online check-in opens etc...but then I also have to set myself a reminder for all personal appointments, birthdays and even mundane things like the day the paper is being collected for recycling because I invariably only remember when it's too late. Make of that what you will.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:27 AM on August 16, 2011
On my work calendar, yes, I put the entire time I will be out of the office. On my personal calendar, not usually.
posted by magnetsphere at 10:38 AM on August 16, 2011
posted by magnetsphere at 10:38 AM on August 16, 2011
I do one of two things...I either schedule the travel time but include the details within my appointment or I schedule travel time separately before and after.
The first method would show a three hour item labeled "(M) Vendor ABC 10am to 11am"
The second method shows "(Travel) 9am to 10am" "(M) Vendor ABC" and "(Travel) 11 to 12 noon."
posted by calgirl at 9:33 PM on August 16, 2011
The first method would show a three hour item labeled "(M) Vendor ABC 10am to 11am"
The second method shows "(Travel) 9am to 10am" "(M) Vendor ABC" and "(Travel) 11 to 12 noon."
posted by calgirl at 9:33 PM on August 16, 2011
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posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 3:28 AM on August 16, 2011