Productivity hacks from engineering managers: Tools you need to know
In today’s fast-paced work environment, productivity is more important than ever. But what if there were simple hacks that could help you get more done in less time? Well, look no further because we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’re going to explore some of the best ways to improve productivity that are used by us, the 3 engineering managers (EMs) at Welcome to the Jungle (WTTJ). We each oversee two squads of five developers, which, combined with WTTJ’s 4-day work week and about 50% of the tech team working remotely full-time, means efficiency is crucial. So whether you’re an aspiring EM or just looking to get more done in your day-to-day work, these tips for which tools to use are sure to help you optimize your time and energy for maximum productivity. Now, let’s spotlight our favorites…
1. Set up automatic refusal of meetings requested during “focus time” slots
As EMs, our schedule is packed. Each week it includes 10 one-to-one meetings lasting 30 minutes each and several meetings with other engineering leaders and teams, so the time we have left to spend on deep work is precious. Luckily for us, there is a feature on Google Calendar that allows us to automatically refuse meetings requested during time slots that we have allocated for focusing on particular tasks. This is called the focus time feature, and it is available for anyone who has a work or school account.
How to set it up
a) Select a time slot on Google Calendar:
b) Click on the “Focus time” tab:
c) Select when you want your focus time to begin and end:
d) Check the “Automatically decline meetings” box and decide if you want to refuse only new meeting invitations or existing ones too:
e) If you want to, personalize the message that will be sent to explain why the meeting invitation has been declined:
2. Synchronize your Slack status with your calendar
Slack is, without a doubt, a wonderful tool, but it can also be overwhelming when you are busy attending a meeting (which, as mentioned, happens a lot as an EM), on holiday, traveling to or from the office, or when you’re simply trying to focus on a task. Indeed, there’s almost a pressure to make sure you are always “on”: It creates a concern that not being able to answer messages immediately will give the impression you don’t care when actually you’re just busy. But what if you could automatically synchronize your Slack status with your calendar to indicate when you’re not available and send an automatic message to the person trying to contact you? It would be useful, right? Thanks to Oliv, it’s easy to do that!
How to set it up
a) On the Oliv app, select your Outlook or Google calendar to be synchronized with Slack:
b) Indicate your work days and hours:
c) Configure further details of the expected Slack behavior for each calendar event (we have used “Focus time” in the example below). This includes the status emoji and message, the activation (or not) of the do not disturb mode, and the activation (or not) of an automatic response:
3. Display tasks’ deadlines on Google Calendar
You probably already know that you can create and manage Google Tasks on your desktop directly from Google applications such as Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, or Slides. It’s a useful feature to keep track of all the actions mentioned during meetings. But did you know that if you give your tasks a date and time, it will automatically display deadlines on Google Calendar? And the cherry on top is that it will also display reminders directly on your calendar.
How to set it up
a) Click on the tasks icon on the right hand side of the panel when in a Google application:
b) Click on “Add a task” and fill in the name of the task:
c) Click on “Date/Time” and select a date and time:
d) Your task will then appear in your Google Calendar on the date and time you selected, and a reminder will be sent before the deadline:
e) If the task is not completed on time, a reminder of the pending task will appear directly on your calendar:
4. Create a shortcut for finding all the pending tasks assigned to a person
The task manager Todoist can be synchronized with most of your calendar tools to extend the number of features on a to-do list. One of those features is the ability to quickly filter out tasks. As EMs, we talk to numerous people throughout the day and being able to easily see which tasks are assigned to each of them is extremely valuable and time efficient, in particular during one-to-one meetings. With Todoist you can filter the tasks by filling in the description field with elements such as the person the task is assigned to.
How to set it up
a) In Todoist, indicate the name of the task’s owner in the description field:
b) Using the search field you’ll then be able to look for the tasks assigned to a specific person:
c) Press “Enter” to display all the pending tasks assigned to that person:
5. Define your own mailing lists
The Google Contacts app allows you to create labels to gather contacts, which can be useful when you need to reach all the people from a particular feature team, for instance. Once the labels are created, you can use them in any Google application, such as Gmail and Calendar.
How to set it up
a) On Google Contacts, create a new label:
b) Select the relevant contacts and add them to the label you’ve just created, either by dragging them into the label or by adding the label to the contact:
c) Use the label directly in the Google application you’re in, such as Gmail or Calendar, to contact everyone grouped under it using just one “addressee”:
6. Create user-story maps using Miro
User-story mapping provides a product overview by displaying the different user personas and the activities they are trying to do, the product goals, the considered steps to achieve them, and the considered split by release. It goes without saying that summarizing every piece of information on one map helps to provide all stakeholders with the same level of information during work sessions, thus making this time more productive. Different templates are available in Miro.
How to set it up
Simply find the right template for your use case:
7. Make your retrospectives more engaging with Metro Retro
Retrospective meetings can get boring. So why not spice them up with the tool Metro Retro? Using its nice themes and illustrations can help make the meetings more enjoyable and engaging. There are some cool features available, including the possibility for developers to vote or put emojis on Post-its. Guidelines on the best practices for animating a retrospective are also directly accessible in the app.
How to set it up
Simply find the template that best fits your needs:
8. Do your tech watch directly from your browser
Most start-ups are familiar with Notion now, but did you know that there is a Save to Notion plugin that can be added to your browser to help you save every interesting article, library, or document to a dedicated Notion page? This allows you to be more efficient in your tech watch because it means you don’t need to leave the browser. Let’s go through the steps to see how to use this plugin in Chrome.
How to set it up
a) Add the plugin to Chrome:
b) Save the relevant Notion page and the clip format:
c) Clip a web page:
d) The web page is saved on the Notion page as expected:
9. Manage the visibility of job openings and applications using an application tracking system (ATS)
As EMs, we are responsible for hiring new developers. We review the job descriptions, select the candidates with HR, and are involved in the interview process. And as we all know, hiring developers is complicated right now. So why not use the right tool to help you through the process? Spoiler alert: There is a bit of self-promotion here, because for this hack we will be using one of our tools — Welcome Kit!
How to set it up
a) Centralize the applications received from various channels:
b) Follow and evaluate the applications directly on the dedicated board:
c) Track your performance and benchmark yourself against your competitors:
That’s it for now! We hope some of those tips will help you be more efficient in your day-to-day work — and if you have any hacks to share, please don’t hesitate to let us know!
Written by Virgile Gouala, Florian Demaria and Clément Folliet — Engineering Managers @ WTTJ
Edited by Anne-Laure Civeyrac
Illustration by Myriam Wares
