DOES20

There's what's in the calendar... and then there's the children sitting next to you zoombombing your every meeting.

About 50% - I have 1st choice and backup choices for quite a few hours

Only about once every week or two. We have public calendars in our org and a culture of generally not booking over top of things.

(I was relating to people here: this week, I have an oddly high number of 2x or 3x overbooking... and finding which timeslot to use for urgent meeting was surprisingly difficult. (thank goodness @apitrevolution could help me out!))

Too much of it! You know it's bad when you have to start blocking off time for lunch.

@stephenmagill Oh, I always block off time for lunch, even when not necessary.

Good time to plug Making Work Visible https://itrevolution.com/book/making-work-visible/

Quite a lot unfortunately. It's been getting better the last month or so though.

@stephenmagill Likewise, I always block out lunch

TFW you come to the realization the the way you generate work is not to write code or fix things but to enable others to do so by attending meetings.

@jonsmart I do too and still meetings end up during that time period :(

My peak disaster was about three years ago in a role where I was regularly triple booked. I am much more calendar protective now. Its life changing.

@davemangot 😂😂😂

if people really want you on the meeting then they need to respect the calendar. Its a representation of your time and commitment

Judicious use of the Decline button

Fun game trying to get them rescheduled in a timely fashion too.

Not only is it hard for you... it's hard for the people trying to get on your calendar. Your job is to support those people, and they struggle to get a minute of your time. There must be a better way.

(edited)

@davemangot Agree on this point. As a leader I think you need to go to meetings so your team doesn't have to (so they can get things done)

I'd say that 25%. Some recurrent meetings contributes a lot for that!

@jonsmart One thing I've told my team though, don't accept a meeting with no agenda.

@mickfeech Agree with agenda mandatory. I'll go further. Invites need to include a meeting purpose, agenda and clarify if its informational, decision making, updates. Make meetings count (so you have less wasted time)

@paula_thrasher Agenda's yes, but also room for flexibility/socializing. Working remote can be very isolating and meetings that are "strictly business" can be pretty draining. Still need time to be a team, as people.

How do you define DevOps?

You're scared, and that's OK.

What's the harm in trying?

What does work here?

Becuse Dev|Ops is working so well?

What makes you say that?

Can we try an experiment?

Let's try an experiment.

because it's never worked before?

What works here then?

how do you know?

Properly planned breaks in and in between meetings

Share goals with others. Accountability helps and often others have unexpected insights.

If you don't already have emojis and gifs in the work chat tools you need to add them. de-formalizing work communications helps

if you can't involve a cat emoji with a keyboard shortcut you're doing it wrong

Continuing to visualize the work has made it more effective. There are a bunch of little Slack apps or bots that we have found to help gamify or make things more enjoyable. Donut is one that is really good one to make sure the team is still connecting.

Half hour meetings are 25 mins. One hour meetings are 50 mins. Get up, walk around, get out. Build in longer breaks, take proper time for lunch. Plan in wellness breaks

one change to make is to cancel half your meetings. Then cancel a few more. Give technologists large (at least half day) blocks of uninterrupted time to work and think.

@jonsmart This is huge. It gives everyone the opportunity to get up and take breaks, also allows for conversing with your teammates.

If you have a yard or even a balcony, take the laptop outside and soak up some Vitamin D. Even better, put the laptop down and pause to enjoy the world for a minute. You're at home. Take advantage of it!

@paula_thrasher Haha please post a link to your favorite cat gif or meme!

https://giphy.com/gifs/cat-typing-E6jscXfv3AkWQ

I managed to work part time from Cyprus for August! plenty of VitD

@realMattKParker There are a couple of that now take calls while just walking around our houses...I'm pretty sure my neighbor thinks I'm crazy just walking around the house and talking on the phone.

That's a classic!

use of digital whiteboards for brainstorming teams / ms-whiteboard works like a charm

@Ben_Grinnell You are my hero, Ben! Hat's off.

I'm working independently these days. Miss having coworkers. Another independent & I have a standing meeting from 9-noon every weekday. We parallel work on our own thing, but w/ Zoom on. Like a coworking space, but virtual. I start my day promptly & have nice company

#transparency (Agile boards, Slack, etc.) FTW!

Virtual lunches and happy hours! We used to go out to lunch for Taco Tuesday every month, now we all hop on a Zoom call.

@mickfeech Yes, more outside walking meetings. Also checking emails while walking. I aim to still do a walking 'commute' in the morning to keep up exercise.

'Own' your calendar. You drive time, don't let time drive you. Block out 'wellness breaks' and 'non meeting time' or 'flow time'. You're busy. Go slower to go faster. Or you will go slower.