# Negative Time Delays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Automations\ **Created:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 2:15 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392 "2024-10-28T02:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/daver/32/837_2.png) [@DaveR](https://community.brevo.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 2:15 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/1 "2024-10-28T02:15:16Z")
Hey, I want to send out a series of emails PRIOR to a scheduled meeting. These would occur over the course of 8 weeks. The problem is that some of these meetings will be scheduled say… 6 weeks prior or 10 week prior to the actual meeting. It’s ok to skip some of the early emails if the meeting is scheduled late, but the ones closer to the meeting are critical. It seems that I can only trigger based on the date the meeting was booked and then counting out from then. I need to count down from the actual date of the meeting BACK 8 weeks. How do I set this up? It looks like I can’t given the current way things are. ---
**Author:** ![ahudavert](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/ahudavert/32/14_2.png) [@ahudavert](https://community.brevo.com/u/ahudavert)\ **Post date:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 1:22 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/2 "2024-10-28T13:22:49Z")
Hi @DaveR , thanks for posting on this community. I have an idea for you. You could create: - a segment of all the people who booked a meeting and whose meeting starting time is in 8 weeks - create an automation with a trigger based on this segment - and then send an email to all customers belonging to this segment =\> what do you think? ---
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/daver/32/837_2.png) [@DaveR](https://community.brevo.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 1:46 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/3 "2024-10-28T13:46:51Z")
That _SHOULD_ catch the bulk of everyone. I’ll give that a try. My concern is that if I add someone two weeks late, they’ll start at the beginning of the series and not see what I need them to see on the day of the meeting. That would come two weeks later. Can I build « skips » in? Sorry, just getting started here. ---
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/daver/32/837_2.png) [@DaveR](https://community.brevo.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 2:02 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/4 "2024-10-28T14:02:48Z")
OK, I think this has it: ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/brevo/original/1X/a26d1710ab140b004f74fb0b142d3526235e9847.jpeg) So, I’ll use conditional splits to handle late entries and « Redirects » to move them into the proper place within the flow. In MOST cases, this should work. ---
**Author:** ![ahudavert](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/ahudavert/32/14_2.png) [@ahudavert](https://community.brevo.com/u/ahudavert)\ **Post date:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 2:25 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/5 "2024-10-28T14:25:42Z")
> In MOST cases, this should work. Yes, indeed. Another way of doing it would be to create one workflow per email that you want to send: it would be maybe a bit more readable and would avoid multiple if/else conditions, BUT: you’d have multiple workflows. Always the same balance to find between readability and number of workflows 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/daver/32/837_2.png) [@DaveR](https://community.brevo.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [Octobre 28, 2024, 5:20 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/6 "2024-10-28T17:20:29Z")
Yeah, I need to keep it as one workflow. I’ve limited the meetings to happen ONLY on Fridays and I’m doing the emails the same way. I’ll probably set the delays in the emails to every 6 days. This will hopefully overcome issues like sending emails out early or late, if I’m lucky. ---
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.brevo.com/daver/32/837_2.png) [@DaveR](https://community.brevo.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [Novembre 8, 2024, 6:26 UTC](https://community.brevo.com/t/negative-time-delays/2392/7 "2024-11-08T18:26:01Z")
Hey, just a quick follow-up. The initial plan of 1 segment and 1 workflow didn’t work. There was something wrong with the conditionals. The first group that went through, just followed the « no » tree and exited. I’ve rebuilt it now with multiple segments and automations. I also added a new numeric attribute to update and countdown to ensure the people are in the correct segment and automation. I should know if this worked tomorrow.