Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

Scheduling meetings is hard. Finding a time that works for 15 people in four time zones can be a logistical nightmare.

Here are three things to keep in mind next time this arduous task falls in your lap:

Don’t forget who’s most important. All meetings have someone whose attendance is most critical: the client, a senior partner. First find out what times work best for those people.

Don’t send a blanket request for availability. Asking people when they are free “in the next few weeks” is too open-ended and ambiguous. Once you have some options, ask people to respond to specific times.

Don’t commit without sign off. Hold the time on the calendar until you confirm it with the key players. You never want to go back to clients or senior people and tell them their preferred time doesn’t work.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Scheduling a Meeting the Right Way” by Jodi Glickman.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.