How to split a when2meet into pairs or small groups
29 October 2026
when2meet is good at one question: when is everyone free? Some schedules need a different answer. Peer reviews need pairs, office hours need 1‑on‑1s, and a seminar class might need study groups of three. when2meet shows who’s free at each time, but putting people into groups is left to you.
You don’t have to start over to get help with that. You can bring the poll, answers included, into ScheduleSquared and let it work out the groups. ScheduleSquared isn’t affiliated with when2meet; it reads the poll’s public page, the same one your group sees.
Doing it by hand
With a when2meet in front of you, pairing people goes like this. Point at each time to see who’s free, write down which pairs could meet when, then choose pairs so that everyone ends up in one.
The last step is where it gets slow. Every choice limits the next one. Pairing Ana with Ben on Monday at 9:00 might leave Cleo with nobody who shares a free time, while pairing Ana with Cleo instead would have worked for everyone.
The number of ways to split people into pairs grows quickly:
| People | Ways to pair everyone |
|---|---|
| 6 | 15 |
| 8 | 105 |
| 10 | 945 |
| 12 | 10,395 |
That’s before choosing a time for each pair. By hand, most people stop at the first arrangement that mostly works, and someone gets left out who didn’t have to be.
Bring the poll over
- Copy the link to your when2meet, the address of the poll page.
- Open schedulesquared.com. Under the form, find Already have a when2meet? and choose Bring it over.
- Paste the link and press Bring it over.
A new event opens with the same days, the same hours and everyone’s answers. A few details:
- Your when2meet stays exactly as it is. The new event is a copy with its own link, so answers added on when2meet later won’t come across. If people are still answering, send them the new link.
- when2meet’s 15-minute slots are kept, so nothing is rounded off.
- Days-of-the-week polls on when2meet don’t store a time zone, so they’re brought over in yours.
- Polls with more than 60 days or 200 people can’t be brought over.
- Two names that differ only in capitals, such as “sam” and “Sam”, are kept apart with a number.
Let it form the groups
- On the Everyone tab, under Best times, choose Split into groups.
- Set People per group (2 to 2 for pairs) and Meeting length.
- Read the plan: each meeting with its time and people, and anyone who couldn’t be placed under Without a meeting.
For 1‑on‑1s with one person, such as a TA meeting each student, choose them under Always with and keep groups at 2. The arrows next to the plan show other groupings that are just as good, if you’d like to swap people around. Split a group into 1‑on‑1s or small groups covers breaks, second meetings and the other options.
Why the plan places more people
The planner doesn’t stop at the first arrangement that works. It treats the job as a puzzle with an exact best answer: place as many people as possible, then prefer the meeting sizes you asked for, then longer meetings. A solver in your browser searches the possible groupings, and for a class-sized group it usually finishes in well under a second.
So when the plan leaves someone out, no grouping could include them with the times everyone gave. Ask that person for a few more times, or allow groups of 2 to 3, and the plan updates as soon as their answer changes.
A few setups that work well
- For peer review pairs: people per group 2 to 2, meetings of 1 hour.
- For office hours: the TA under Always with, groups of 2, 30-minute meetings, with a break under More options.
- For study groups: 3 to 4 people, 1½ hours, and Fewer, bigger groups under Prefer.
- For two reviewers each: pairs, with Meetings per person set to Up to 2 and Spread them out evenly on.