Calendars: an underutilized tool for software and devops engineers

Everyone is familiar with ticketing systems and to-do lists as tools for organizing work, but there’s another tool that’s often underutilized: calendars. It’s crucial to stay organized and on top of your tasks and a calendar can be a powerful tool to help you do just that. The time aspect of a calendar can help you stay on top of deadlines, prioritize tasks, and keep commitments.

1. Deadlines: use your calendar to keep track of deadlines. You can easily see at a glance what needs to be done and by when, making it easier to prioritize your tasks and ensure that everything gets done on time. Include deadlines given by your boss, but also end-of-life dates of important dependencies you use in your project. That way, you’ll never end up in a last-minute migration of your database version.
2. Commitments: when you promise someone you’ll do something, immediately assign that task a slot in your calendar. This way, the task won’t be lost in your backlog, which will help you stick to your commitments. If you don’t make a ticket for the task, give your future self some context information by adding info in the calendar entry on what to.
3. Prioritization and longer-term planning: calendars force you to think about how you spend your time. With a to-do list or ticketing system, you often end up working on urgent things or whatever people happen to contact you for that day. Planning things in advance counteracts this, allowing you to focus on your longer-term goals.
4. Training: talking about prioritization, when do you find the time to attend the online courses you’ve been wanting to do? Plan a weekly timeslot for it and your calendar will help you to turn learning into a habit!
5. Reserving your productive moments: find the times of day where you are most productive and fill it with your most important work. Other people will be deterred from planning meetings during that time, since you’ll appear busy (which you will be!).

In conclusion, using a calendar is a powerful way to stay organized and on top of your tasks. With the ability to set deadlines, prioritize tasks, stick to commitments, and manage your time effectively, a calendar is a valuable tool for anyone who wants to stay organized and achieve their goals. Don’t overlook the benefits of using a calendar in your work – it may just be the missing piece you need to take your productivity to the next level.