How to Manage Your Contacts and Groups in Carly

The more Carly knows about the people in your life, the faster scheduling gets. Instead of typing out full email addresses, you can just say “schedule a call with Jamie” or “set up team lunch for my direct reports.”

Here’s how to set up your contacts and groups.

How Contacts Get Added

Automatically

Carly automatically adds people as contacts when:

  • They email Carly directly
  • You CC Carly on a thread with them
  • Carly reaches out to them on your behalf

So if you’ve been using Carly for scheduling, you already have contacts. Check them in your dashboard under the People tab.

Manually via Email

Tell Carly about people by emailing her:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: New contact

Remember that Jamie’s email is jamie@designstudio.co

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: New contact

Got it! I’ve saved Jamie with the email jamie@designstudio.co.

You can add relationships and context too:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Contacts

Remember these:

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: Contacts

Saved! Here’s what I have:

Now you can say things like “schedule a call with my brother” or “book a dentist appointment with Dr. Park” and Carly knows exactly who you mean.

From Your Dashboard

  1. Go to your Carly dashboard
  2. Click People
  3. Click Add Contact
  4. Fill in name, email, and any notes

Using Contact Names in Scheduling

Once contacts are saved, you can refer to people by name:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Meeting

Schedule a 30-minute call with Jamie next week.

Carly knows Jamie = jamie@designstudio.co and handles it.

You (text): Set up lunch with David on Saturday

Carly knows David = your brother, david.h@gmail.com, and reaches out.

Creating Groups

Groups are collections of contacts. They make scheduling with the same set of people effortless.

From Your Dashboard

  1. Go to People → Groups
  2. Click Create Group
  3. Name it (e.g., “Direct Reports,” “Book Club,” “Sales Team”)
  4. Add members from your contacts

Via Email

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: New group

Create a group called “Direct Reports” with:

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: New group

Done! I’ve created a group called “Direct Reports” with 4 members:

You can now schedule with them by saying “my direct reports.”

Scheduling with Groups

Once a group exists, scheduling is one line:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Team 1:1s

Reach out to my direct reports and schedule 30-minute 1:1s with each of them this week.

Carly contacts each person individually and schedules separate meetings.

For group meetings:

Schedule a team meeting with my direct reports for 1 hour next week. Afternoons preferred.

Carly sends an availability poll to the group and finds the best time.

More Examples

Set up a monthly book club meeting with my book club group.

Find a time for my sales team to meet for an hour this Friday.

Reach out to my board members and schedule individual 20-minute check-ins.

Updating Contacts

People change emails, roles, and phone numbers. Update Carly via email:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Update

Jamie’s new email is jamie@newcompany.com

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: Update

Updated! Jamie’s email is now jamie@newcompany.com.

Or update from the dashboard by clicking on any contact in the People tab.

Managing Groups

Add or Remove Members

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Group update

Add lee@yourcompany.com to my direct reports group. And remove jordan — he moved to a different team.

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: Group update

Done! Your “Direct Reports” group now has:

Group Ideas

Here are some groups that Carly users find useful:

  • Direct Reports — for regular 1:1s and team meetings
  • Leadership Team — for executive syncs
  • Sales Team — for pipeline reviews and team meetings
  • Family — for holiday planning and dinners
  • Book Club / Friend Group — for social coordination
  • Clients — for quarterly check-ins
  • Board Members — for board meetings and updates

Trusted Contacts

You can mark certain contacts as trusted, which means they can schedule meetings directly through Carly without your approval each time.

When someone new tries to schedule with you through Carly, she’ll ask:

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: New scheduling request

Jamie from Design Studio wants to schedule a meeting with you. Should I:

  • Find a time this once?
  • Always allow Jamie to schedule with me? (Trusted contact)

If you reply “always,” Jamie becomes a trusted contact. Next time she emails Carly to schedule with you, Carly handles it automatically without checking with you first.

Great for close colleagues, your manager, or anyone you meet with regularly.

Pro Tips

Add context to contacts. The more Carly knows, the smarter she is:

Remember that Jamie prefers morning meetings and is in the PST timezone.

Now when Carly schedules with Jamie, she proposes morning slots and handles the timezone conversion.

Use natural language. You don’t need special syntax. All of these work:

  • “My sister is Anna, anna@email.com”
  • “Remember that Dr. Smith’s office is at 123 Main St”
  • “Jamie goes by James in formal settings”

Check your People tab regularly. As Carly adds contacts automatically, your People tab grows. Clean it up occasionally and add relationship notes so Carly has the full picture.

Get Started

Head to your Carly dashboard and check out the People tab, or just email Carly about the people you schedule with most. The more she knows, the less you have to type.

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