If you’re looking for an easy-to-use tool to help you design a more sustainable workweek, this is it. Clockwise is a must-have scheduling assistant to incorporate into your daily routine and boost your workday productivity.
In this brief guide, we’ll share the following:
- More about what Clockwise is and how it works
- How to set daily routines with Clockwise
- Features that help you optimize your schedule
Let’s get started!
What is Clockwise?
Clockwise is a time orchestration platform that brings schedules together at the organizational level while optimizing with the individual in mind. Clockwise learns each user’s preferences and needs and combines that with meeting expectations and asks. Then, it uses AI to find the right moments for team members to come together while protecting uninterrupted Focus Time.
With Clockwise, you can mark internal meetings as flexible to optimize your and your colleagues’ calendars. Clockwise will also create more Focus Time in your schedule by rearranging meetings to open up blocks for focused work. And you can use Clockwise to block time for important tasks and routines throughout the week. Consider Clockwise your all-in-one calendar savior!
How Clockwise works
Clockwise is incredibly easy to use. All you need to do is download the Clockwise browser extension and sync your Google Calendar (Microsoft 365 is coming soon!). Then, to get the most out of Clockwise, you’ll want to set your working hours and meeting preferences, set a weekly Focus Time goal, mark meetings flexible where possible, and familiarize yourself with the dashboard. Clockwise uses the information you tell it to optimize your workday.
Set daily routines with Clockwise
Clockwise offers various features and functionality to help you create daily routines that work best for you so you can have more productive workdays. Below are a handful of ways Clockwise can help you evaluate your work habits and identify your priorities.
Evaluate your work habits
When you’re lost in the nitty-gritty of the work week, it’s easy for days, weeks, and even months to go by without ever taking time to evaluate your work habits. One of my favorite parts about using Clockwise is receiving an email update every week with a quick overview of how I spent my time, what to expect next week, and productivity tips to help make my life easier.
This was a great week packed with Focus Time! And I love how Clockwise shows me how my week evolved as I do a quick look back:
Not only does Clockwise analyze your individual work habits, but Business and Enterprise users can pull reports of team data containing the weekly number of focus hours, meeting hours, and fragmented hours per user. This feature helps evaluate a team’s working habits and resolve team-wide time management issues (yes, we’re talking to you, meeting-heavy teams!)
Identify your priorities
We all have personal priorities on our to-do lists during the workday. Be it a real lunch break, creating space for breaks in between meetings, or attending a workout class to keep stress levels at bay—our priorities matter. (If you’re looking for a deep dive into task prioritization methods, read our post: How to prioritize your work for maximum productivity and minimum stress).
Clockwise understands that we have needs and preferences. That’s why we offer Flexible Holds or events where you are the only attendee. With Flexible Holds, it doesn’t matter when these events happen; it just matters that they happen at some point during the day or throughout the week. You can tell Clockwise what tasks and routines need to be on your schedule, and Clockwise will shift your calendar as the week evolves, never letting your important priorities disappear.
You can also take advantage of the Lunch Holds feature, which tells Clockwise to preserve time for your lunch automatically. This was a game-changer for me! I prefer a 30-minute lunch break between 12:00 and 2:00 pm. Now I no longer have to block this time manually, and if a coworker schedules over my lunch, Clockwise automatically moves my hold within the designated range. Goodbye, hangry Alyssa!
Use Clockwise to optimize your schedule
If daily routine optimization is top of mind, keep reading to learn how Clockwise can help you make the most of your meetings, collaborate more efficiently with your team, and lean into task automation to save time.
Make the most of your meetings
Meetings can take over your calendar, but you don’t have to let an inefficient meeting structure win. With our flexible meetings feature, you tell Clockwise which of your meetings are flexible and how much they can move, and we take care of the rest. Marking meetings as flexible offers three huge benefits, including more Focus Time, more desirable meeting times, and more energy to spare at the end of the work day.
Collaborate more efficiently
An important thing to note about flexible meetings is that they benefit not only each meeting participant but the entire organization and help teams collaborate more efficiently. Using AI, Clockwise moves meetings to a better time for everyone involved. For example, one meeting shift could look like more Focus Time for one person and a meeting conflict resolved for another.
Clockwise can help address meeting conflicts by surfacing problems and providing insights (or what we call Smart Suggestions) to address the meeting accordingly. A couple of important things to note: smart conflict resolutions are available on the Teams, Business, and Enterprise plans. Additionally, Smart Suggestions are only available using the Clockwise Chrome extension. Clockwise's suggestions include disruptive meetings, low Focus Time, flexible meetings, an out-of-office teammate, conflicting meetings, and suggestions to invite teammates to Clockwise.
Another perk: Clockwise integrates with well-loved collaboration tools like Slack and Asana. You can sync your calendar to your Slack status to keep your team members informed. And it’s easy to schedule Asana tasks on your calendar, making teamwork buttery smooth.
Automate time-consuming tasks
What’s one of the worst (if not the worst) parts about meeting coordination? Most of us would agree it’s the back-and-forth coordination involved in meeting scheduling (and rescheduling). Manually reviewing calendars to find the best time to meet, only to reschedule and find another time is a drag.
But there’s an easier way to automate this incredibly time-consuming task. Claim a free scheduling link that allows you to share your availability while protecting your calendar and preferences. Our time-saving tool, Clockwise Links, uses AI to suggest the best time to meet, considering over ten factors, including Focus Time, preferred meeting hours, no meeting days, lunchtime, and more. Additionally, group scheduling is available to aggregate your teams’ availability to share with external invitees.
Start using Clockwise in your daily routine
What are you waiting for? Clockwise is the calendar assistant you need to incorporate into your daily routine. Clockwise will help you optimize your schedule, automate time-consuming tasks, and work more efficiently with your coworkers. Try it today!
About the author
Alyssa Towns is a freelance writer for Clockwise based in Denver, CO. She works in communications and change management. She primarily writes productivity and career-adjacent content and has bylines in G2, The Everygirl, Insider, and other publications. When she isn't writing, Alyssa enjoys trying new restaurants with her husband, playing with her Bengal cats, adventuring outdoors, or reading a book from her TBR list.
