Never Miss Another Meeting

TL;DR — Get a phone call reminding you of an upcoming meeting in your calendar. Setup using Zapier, any calendar, and Twilio. If you’re here for the Twilio referral link, here it is. Total cost: $0

Over the past few months, I’ve found myself missing soooo many meetings.

Yes, I missed another meeting :<

And not for lack of trying — I put all the meetings on my google calendar, I often look out for meetings the day before and the morning of. But quarantine life is often too crazy with wife and kid. Things kept falling between the cracks, and I kept missing meetings (OMG — what is wrong with me?).

Finally, after being 7 minutes late to an Amazon recruiter, which likely blacklisted me from that company for a while, missing calls with more friends that I now have, and a designer who was kind enough to help me with a project, I’ve decided to take action!

Google calendar notifications sounds aren’t easy to change, nor is it easy to configure it so the phone is always silent except for those specific calendar meetings. Email or other notifications can sometimes go equally ignored, and I was just lost for ideas on how to assure I never miss a meeting again.

My solution

Get a phone call that rings x minutes before every meeting. Now, this is potentially dangerous, since as I mentioned, the main reason I don’t have loud notifications is because toddler… But I just can’t miss any more meetings.

Set this up, and you’ll be getting phone calls for your meetings.

Setup time: ~20 minutes

How? Zapier + Twilio

1. Twilio’s free trial account gives you $15, and with this referral link, you should get $25, which should last for 1923 reminder calls if you don’t disable your voicemail, or indefinite if you do (don’t take my word for this though).
2. Zapier offers a no-code interface to run automated tasks across many apps, including google calendar and Twilio.
3. A separate calendar (within the same account) just for meetings with other people

Twilio Setup:

Create a new account (you can use my referral link right here for an extra $10), I used 10-minute mail, so I don’t have to connect any of my emails. Follow the flow, and create an account. Eventually, you’ll see this:

That is your dashboard. Get a trial number (you need it as the source of your automated calls), verify the number you want to receive the calls here by clicking on the big red “plus”. Lastly, you’ll need the Account SID and the Auth Token in the dashboard (the thing I blacked out and right below it).

Zapier Setup:

Head on to zapier, and create a new account. Once you do, you’ll see this

Click on “My Apps”, and add your calendar and Twilio

When you do, a pop up (make sure it’s enabled) will ask you for your credentials, which you saved before. If you didn’t head over to your Twilio dashboard and get them.

Now, click “MAKE A ZAP”, select your calendar, and make sure you select “event start”, we’ll configure how long before the start in a second.

Continue, then select your preferred calendar (you may be subscribed to a few). I have configured for myself a different calendar just for meetings. Set the parameters to your satisfaction and hit continue. Then test trigger, see that it’s all good, and continue again.

Next, you’ll set the second zap section, this time choose Twilio. Search for it if it’s not available immediately.

Select “Call phone” and continue, choose your Twilio account, which you just added, and continue again.

Next, fill the form, select your Twilio trial phone, add your number, and write any message you’d like (it doesn’t really matter). You can configure the other stuff too if you care.

Hit continue and test it out. You should receive a phone call.

The last thing to do is to make sure the Zap is on, top right of your screen.

Aaaaand you’re done!!!!

Bonus Section

1. Save your Twilio number as “You have a meeting”.
2. To make sure that call rings even when on silent/do-not-disturb, I installed this app (ICO), which is $1/year. If you find something free that works, please write in the comments.
3. If you can think of a way to rout the call to your google home/Alexa, please write so in the comments below. As of the writing of this post, google home does not support answering incoming calls.

Lastly, I know there are “easier” ways of doing this, for example with Macrodroid, but I wanted to showcase what IMO is the solution with the least technical skill required, and I also wanted to try out these services.

Hope you’re keeping well in these Sci-Fi times.