Managing projects and time#

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TODO

NOTE: while somewhat disjoint, this and project management seem related to communicating digitally in that they’re all loosely coupled, relating to the communication/connectivity parts of research and courses.

Task:

Principles:

Software Solution(s): - Calendar: Again focus on features instead of apps: tags/categorization, invitation etiquette, good naming, time zone checking, bonus for availability. - Project Tracking: Kanban boards, e.g., Trello/Airtable/MS Planner/open source alternative.

Calendars#

Notes

I need my calendar(s) to do the following, in order of priority:

  1. Do basic calendar things. Make events, invite people to events, support locations, etc.

  2. Allow me to sufficiently organize (visually) what various event types are.

  3. Make things visually appealing, especially in an interface.

  4. Give me full control over my events (renaming, etc.) even when I’m not the owner.

  5. Allow Annie to see my full calendar (or at least the personal parts).

  6. Allow coworkers (especially students) to see my “busy” times vs. availability.

  7. Use ASU-specific locations in events.

My current solution is to do a two-way sync between my personal Google calendar and my work Exchange/Outlook calendar. I will do all editing from the Google Calendar client, but will assign events to calendars based on the personal/work split. Google Calendar does everything I want it to do for basic functionality, visual categorization, good interface, full control, and family sharing. Exchange/Outlook supports syncing external calendars while still showing them to coworkers as “busy”. The only thing I lose out on in this workflow is ASU-specific locations, which if really needed I can do from the Exchange/Outlook client.

The above doesn’t work because, evidently, ASU has Exchange set up so that its calendars can’t be edited from outside the organization. This means that I can only create or edit events on the Exchange calendar via the Exchange client. The best alternative I can think of is a two-way sync with any client for viewing but multiple clients for editing. What a pain in the ass. In a way, this sort of ended up mirroring what I’m currently doing for email, so maybe it won’t be so so awful.