Feb 26, 2026

How to Schedule with a Group of 5+ People (Without the Email Chaos)

Scheduling a 1-on-1 is easy. Scheduling a meeting with 6 people? That’s where the “when works for everyone?” email chain spirals into 30 messages and still no meeting.

Carly fixes this with availability polls — a visual grid where everyone marks their availability, and the best time becomes obvious.

How It Works

You email Carly with the group and the request
Carly creates an availability poll and sends it to everyone
Participants click their available times on a visual grid
Once enough people respond, Carly picks the best time and books it

No one needs a Carly account. Let’s walk through the whole thing.

Step 1: Email Carly with Your Group

From: you@yourcompany.com To: carly@usecarly.com CC: alex@yourcompany.com, jordan@yourcompany.com, sam@yourcompany.com, priya@yourcompany.com, lee@yourcompany.com Subject: Team offsite planning

Hey Carly, can you find a 90-minute slot next week for all of us to do offsite planning? Preferably afternoon.

Or if you’ve already set up a group in Carly (more on that later), you can just say:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Team offsite planning

Find a 90-minute slot next week for my product team. Afternoons preferred.

Carly knows who’s in “my product team” and reaches out to all of them.

Step 2: Carly Sends the Poll

Each person on the thread gets an email from Carly:

From: carly@usecarly.com To: alex@yourcompany.com (and others) Subject: Availability poll — Team offsite planning

Hi Alex,

[Your Name] is trying to find a time for the team to meet for offsite planning (90 minutes, next week).

Click below to mark your availability:

[Mark Your Availability →]

It takes about 30 seconds. No account needed!

When they click the link, they see a visual grid showing the proposed time range (next week, afternoons). They simply click the time blocks when they’re free.

Step 3: The Availability Grid

The poll looks like a clean, interactive calendar grid. Each participant marks their free times, and the grid builds a heat map — darker colors show times where more people are available.

Here’s what the organizer sees as responses come in:

              Mon    Tue    Wed    Thu    Fri
 1:00 PM      ██     ░░     ██     ██     ░░
 1:30 PM      ██     ░░     ██     ██     ░░
 2:00 PM      ██     ██     ██     ██     ░░
 2:30 PM      ██     ██     ██     ██     ░░
 3:00 PM      ██     ██     ██     ░░     ██
 3:30 PM      ░░     ██     ██     ░░     ██

██ = 5-6 people available   ░░ = 2-3 people available

In this example, Monday 1:00–2:30 PM and Wednesday 1:00–3:00 PM are the sweet spots where almost everyone is free.

Step 4: Carly Books It

Once enough people have responded, Carly identifies the best time and confirms:

From: carly@usecarly.com To: you@yourcompany.com, alex@yourcompany.com, jordan@yourcompany.com, sam@yourcompany.com, priya@yourcompany.com, lee@yourcompany.com Subject: Confirmed — Team offsite planning

Great news! Based on everyone’s availability, I’ve booked:

Team Offsite Planning

Wednesday, March 5 at 1:00 PM EST

Google Meet link included

Calendar invites have been sent to everyone. See you there!

What Participants See (No Account Required)

This is the best part: nobody needs to sign up for anything. When your colleagues click “Mark Your Availability,” they see the grid directly in their browser. They click their free times and submit. Done.

If a participant also uses Carly, the poll can automatically pull their calendar availability — so they don’t even need to manually mark times.

Managing Large Groups (10+ People)

For larger groups, getting 100% attendance is unlikely. You can tell Carly what threshold works:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: All-hands

Find a 1-hour slot next week for the entire engineering team. It’s OK if 2-3 people can’t make it — find the time that works for the most people.

Carly optimizes for maximum attendance rather than waiting for a time that works for literally everyone.

Using Groups to Make It Even Easier

Instead of CCing everyone every time, set up a group in your Carly dashboard:

Go to People → Groups
Create a new group (e.g., “Product Team”)
Add your team members

Now you can just say:

Schedule a meeting with my product team next week.

Carly knows who’s in the group and handles outreach to all of them.

You can also create groups via email:

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: New group

Create a group called “Product Team” with alex@yourcompany.com, jordan@yourcompany.com, sam@yourcompany.com, priya@yourcompany.com, and lee@yourcompany.com.

Pro Tips

Set a deadline. If you need the poll resolved quickly:

Find a time this week for the product team. I need it locked in by end of day tomorrow.

Carly sends reminders to people who haven’t responded.

Specify constraints up front. The more specific you are, the tighter the poll:

Find a 2-hour slot for the design team. Must be Tuesday through Thursday, after 1pm, and needs to include a Zoom link.

Carly handles follow-ups. If people don’t respond to the poll, Carly sends gentle reminder emails — you don’t have to chase anyone down.

Stop Playing Calendar Tetris

Group scheduling doesn’t have to mean a 30-message email chain. Send one email to Carly, and everyone gets a clean poll. The best time surfaces automatically. For a full comparison of every group scheduling method — polls, shared calendars, manual emails, and more — see how to find a meeting time that works for everyone.

Ready to automate your busywork?

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