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.