Once upon a time…

This is the story of how Penciletin came to be.

Back when I was working in a cubicle, I usually ate lunch at the same time every day: a little after 12:00. My office had clients in multiple timezones, and client meetings were scheduled around what was convenient for them. One day such a meeting was set up for during my normal lunch. That wouldn’t be a problem, but it was immediately followed by another meeting, and then one after that. At the end of the conference room marathon, I was hungry, cranky, and unproductive. If only I had eaten ahead of time, it could have been a good day.

So I created a daily calendar event called “Lunch” and each day, I would adjust it if there was a conflict. Similar recurring events were setup for replying to emails and filling out my timesheets. But I kept running into the “This Event or All Following Events” dialog box. Every calendar program uses machine learning to find the best time with the fewest conflicts to help schedule meetings; why can’t it do that for my lunch?

The other major influence was the Covid-19 pandemic. We were all told to work from home, but I found that difficult. My home office is where all my video games are. It’s where I stream Netflix. So I’m sitting in the same room where I play, and now I’m expected to work? Listen to the siren sound of the gamepad calling me to slack off! Scheduling specific “video game” and “TV” time helped me focus on work when I knew I had that set aside.

All of these features are things missing from every calendar app, and I knew I could make something to add them. Something to help me have a good day at work.

Why 4:00 am?

The first version of Penciletin started its day at midnight because that’s just how most calendars work. But that was awkward. Once upon a time, I worked the overnight shift. If I ever went to bed before 3:00 am would just mess up my sleep schedule and make me useless the next day. So I would go to the 24 hour grocery store at 2:00 am.

There is always going to be a time that is difficult for the user interface. I could have kept it at midnight so that it looks like Apple’s calendar, but I moved it to 4:00 am for the people like me working graveyard.

Welcome

Penciletin is a labor of love. I needed a productivity app that would help me plan ordinary days. Some days are full of things to do with friends and places to go. Other days are clean the bathroom kinds of days. If I want a clean bathroom, then I’m just going to have to clean it myself. Penciletin is the app to remind me to do that.

There are dozens of things that need to be done each day or week or month, and keeping on top of them was a pain in the ass. I tried using a to-do list, but I kept running into the problem that it was sorted by priority, without considering when things could get done. So by the time I got to picking up dry cleaning, it was already closed.

I tried using a calendar app for that, but they are not designed for that kind of thing, and wouldn’t it be nice if it did it automatically. That’s where machine learning steps in. Now I have an app that will plan my day for me, but it’s easy to override when it is wrong. I built Penciletin for me, and decided to share it with you. I hope it helps you as much as it has me.