Getting a group of people together at the same time on the same day can turn into an organisational nightmare, with emails, text messages and phone calls flying endlessly back and forth until everyone gets so fed up that they give up and the event doesn’t happen at all.

An alternative is to use Doodle ­ a free web-based service that makes it easy to schedule events for lots of people. Just choose some likely dates and times, and then forward the email that Doodle creates to all those who should be invited.

As people respond, the website keeps track of who’s free when, producing a simple, clear calendar of when they’re able to attend. This Workshop explains how to use the service to set up a surprise party.