I work with a stack that’s pretty brittle, and in a constant state of flux. As such, I spend
most of my time fixing broken compiles, chasing down problems that are red herrings (e.g., my branch suddenly has a test failing, but it turns out that’s totally unrelated to my changes), etc. I spend only a small fraction of my time on the actual “business logic” (aka “useful work”).
I would love to be able to track this stuff, so at the end-of-the-week standup I have a better idea where all my time went.
I’m looking for a good tool to help me do this. Here’s the most important features:
1) Voice dictation, so I can say things like, “I’m now rebasing and recompiling the whole codebase, because test X is now broken and I haven’t changed anything that should affect it.” Taking text notes wouldn’t be a deal-breaker, but voice dictation seems like it would work better.
2) The ability to ask for an AI-based weekly summary. e.g.,
- You finished the AAA refactor and got that installed.
- you spent a full day and a half on spinning your wheels on BBB because of the change to CCC
- you paired with Alice to debug DDD
- you helped Bob fix his problem with EEE
- while working on FFF, you found a problem with GGG and preemptively fixed it
I’m not a contractor working on multiple client projects, so this isn’t a
billing thing. I just find at the end of the week, I’m disappointed in how much stuff got closed. I forget all the friction points and distractions that sucked up time—as well as lots of little wins!
Would appreciate hearing how others approach this problem.
I would love to be able to track this stuff, so at the end-of-the-week standup I have a better idea where all my time went.
I’m looking for a good tool to help me do this. Here’s the most important features:
1) Voice dictation, so I can say things like, “I’m now rebasing and recompiling the whole codebase, because test X is now broken and I haven’t changed anything that should affect it.” Taking text notes wouldn’t be a deal-breaker, but voice dictation seems like it would work better.
2) The ability to ask for an AI-based weekly summary. e.g.,
I’m not a contractor working on multiple client projects, so this isn’t a billing thing. I just find at the end of the week, I’m disappointed in how much stuff got closed. I forget all the friction points and distractions that sucked up time—as well as lots of little wins!Would appreciate hearing how others approach this problem.