Busy Status Bar

This is at least the 3rd version of this product idea that I’ve seen in the past decade. Certainly the nicest design!

The first time I saw this was some friends of friends who were trying to make it into a startup. They quickly discovered that their users liked the idea of a busy light for the office, but didn’t like to update it on or off throughout the day. So after the first few days people just defaulted to leaving it marked as “busy”. Within a week or two their coworkers realized that the light was always on busy, so they started asking if they were really busy.

At that point, the entire busy light idea had been defeated.

This product looks more versatile. Being able to automatically tie it to meeting status or set pomodoro timers could make it more interesting.

However, I predict the same fate: Eventually people will realize the light is busy when the person isn’t really busy, and then return to the old habit of interrupting to ask if they’re busy.

That seems like an easy fix: Tell visitors to look at the light.

That’s the problem: If the light is always on, or almost always on, then it quickly loses meaning.

Unless the user actually adds green available time at regular intervals throughout the day, people learn that they have to ignore the red busy light and ask.

Sounds like a fast to way to get nicknamed “Larry” around the office.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dont-make-me-tap-the-sign

Or the person is always busy, and to contact them a person should use slack, email or some other method.

> Eventually people will realize the light is busy when the person isn’t really busy

Like the geniuses that block off their whole day everyday on their calendar or set their Teams status to unavailable all day.

Perhaps the real solution is to default to "busy" and only show "available" on a trigger, like web-browsing or staring into space.

You'd need to have it be host specific. Stack overflow? You're researching a problem and still might be elbows deep in a problem. Bluesky or FB? Not so much.

But that will open up the market for a "Seriously Guys, I'm Actually Really" device that can be attached on the left-hand side, and activated when you really mean it.

I see a lot of growth potential in this space.

Staring into space is what I do when thinking. Lots of my job is thinking. Maybe that's why folk ignored my busy indicator.

Nobody will mark oneself as not busy, either because the management might be taking note or one truly doesn't make time to be open to more work.

It looks like to me that due to previous solutions, people try to improve upon in the same domain. May be the premise of the solution is wrong.

That is certainly an issue. However, in reference to this design, I don't understand the point of having apps like weather and notifications if the large screen that would display such things is meant to face away from you so that others can see your status.

> the geniuses that block off their whole day everyday on their calendar

as someone who leaves themselves open to hear out others with their "hey do you have a second to check this out" ideas

y'all are missing out

It is an LED screen that I can put anywhere. While the intention is as a busy screen, it can be utilized in a variety of ways. So, ultimately, why not?

True, and if someone tries to avoid communication in whatever way I highly doubt they actually work on meaningful tasks...

Or we work on meaningful tasks that require extended periods of focus and concentration.

Oh come on. There are lots of tasks where not avoiding communication will set you back long time or even prevent you from finishing the task at all.

I have checked your busy / free calendar information and it seems you do nothing around here. We thank you for your service but it is no longer required at this organisation.

Staring into space is when I am busiest of all.

I would probably buy a device like this not to show status to others but to myself;

I use a Life Calendar in Obsidian[1] which shows the weeks elapsed and remaining to my set life expectancy(concept made famous by Tim Urban), it helps me focus with ADHD.

Something like Busy Status bar on the table can help display the life calendar 24x7.

[1] https://fosstodon.org/@abishek_muthian/113281548403039832

I dunno guys, I've become really, really used to the whole "wired in" protocol where if you have fully over-ear headphones on, it means you are either in heads-down coding or writing mode, or you are on a call. It works as long as everyone observes it. But maybe they don't and hence the demand for this product. It just adds another layer of complexity to office politics.

I’m constantly looking for a physical worktime chronometer. I’d like to track how much I work, and leave after my 7 hours, or log extra time if I overdo it.

The only things I’ve found were impractical objects, or apps that cost $10-50 per month because they’re designed for consultants who bill their time. Apps are not accurate while one is in meetings, since the computer is off.

The thing is, even for consultants, they get no value from a red “Busy” gadget, but having an object on the table which you can punch to set on which client you’re working, would certainly be useful. More fun than an app, because sometimes you need physical objects.

I’d just like to clock in and clock out.

Yea I always try to block off at least two days a week (ideally 3) of complete focus and move meetinga, conversation etc in other days. Both are useful and are needed

I use an app called aTimeLogger on Android that just pins a little notification with a play/pause and stop button, and a little time counter. When I start working, I hit play. When I take a break, I hit pause.

Been doing this for years. It's great to help me focus on working when I'm actually working, and doing other stuff when I'm not actually working.

Looks like the app is available on iOS too if you're an iPhone user.

Doing this every day is a problem.

Doing it 1-2 days/week is the difference between being able to get some focus time to deliver something of value, and just being an internal search engine.

My job has lots and lots of calls. I am happy to leave most of my calendar open. But most mornings, and at least one full day every 2 weeks is mine, and no, you can't have it, you're not entitled to it, it's important to me I have that time to actually do focus work.

I wrote a free app [1] for the Stream Deck (not Steam Deck!), with which I can start Clockify timers with a press of a physical button. Yes, Clockify can do more than just checking in and out, but for the simple use case it's free to use and has an API.

[1] https://github.com/eXpl0it3r/streamdeck-clockify

I obviously cannot speak for every business in every country, but at least in those I’ve worked at, you’d never get fired for based solely on the number of available slots in your calendar.

Unless you are some cerrah i highly doubt this.

Absolute skill issue. These kinda tasks usually demand lots of communication

There is a lot of space to stare at!

What skill? Skill of ignoring notifications? And a lot of tasks don't require lots of communication. Maybe your tasks do.

>This product looks more versatile. Being able to automatically tie it to meeting status or set pomodoro timers could make it more interesting.

Seems this one automatically enables "Busy" if the microphone is activated on the device, though I can't see any reason a similar product couldn't check your calendar

Tbf if people isolate themselves like that their manager should have a word with them or their job description needs to be updated.

A stopwatch is a good place to start if you want something readymade and ubiquitous; get a few cheap ones and label them per customer.

When I did that kind of work though, I had a time tracker application that kept track of which window was in the foreground, based on what project I had active in Eclipse (at the time) I could give a rough guesstimate about what project I spent how much time on.

What if your developer community is in those spaces, or you work for them though?

I’ve blocked out 2 4 hour blocks for some work mandated sabbaticals for months now. It’s been great! People now remember the days and which block they can’t contact me, and work around it. It’s become such a successful thing that we recommend this to others within my team.

No one who is in engineering would say something like this. I can only conclude your job is auxiliary to engineering. In which case: I don't think someone who isn't an engineer should be talking about what is and isn't possible with respect to how engineers work. It's also a good idea that when engineers do tell you how they work -- not to ignore everything they say. Since Afterall -- you're not actually the one doing the job.

I was being glib and using this as basically a way of illustrating how this isn't really a practical solution. I know when I'm working hard on a difficult the "endless googling bizarre behavior" is when I'm least ready to help field ad hoc requests.

1 day every 2 weeks?!?!

Just put "literally" before it.

And then they don't respond to email or slack. Are they missing it? Ignoring it? No one knows. Meanwhile, time sensitive deadlines come and go.

There's no clear, easy protocol that works for everyone, unfortunately. Some people are always going to operate on the 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' model. And I say this as someone who is often in the 'always busy' camp.

I am a software engineer and most of them I have met throughout my career do not work on tasks that require 24/7 silence. Basic communication is important for every task and if you cant handle that you are simply not suited for the job.

Maybe Timery? I've never tried it since I learned about it while laid off but I will definitely use it when I get a job.

https://thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-time-tracking-app/

I'm more in project management these days. It makes me laugh when an engineer says "I didn't get any work done today, as it was all meetings" - means I don't work for 20-30 hours/week.

The trick is balance for the role. For engineers it should be a lot more focus time, for PMs and managers it should be a lot more managers, but you should still be able to block out calendars for focus time if you need to - just not all day, every day, forever.

I've never noticed the busy indicator preventing people from asking me this question. And when I message others, the busy light is merely an indicator of how long I may need to wait for a response. My advice to anyone reading is not to be deterred by status lights and calendar blocks.

If it’s on the record then it would be simple to assign blame on them for the consequences… and then punish accordingly, so it seems like a self correcting issue?

Most employees probably have enough credibility to explain away one or two missed deadlines, but not 5 or 6 in a row without providing actual proof.

In my experience a lot of large corporations are absolute distraction machines.

Urgent message! It's time to complete your annual anti-bribery training refresher.

Urgent message! It's World Mental Health Day, and we're rolling out a new employee health and wellbeing policy.

Urgent message! Don't click 'yes' if you're offered an OS upgrade, crowdstrike doesn't support the new version.

Urgent message! All employees are required to complete mandatory training on chair usage. Click here to get started now!

Urgent message! The production website is down, please join the conference call we'd like to ask you about query explain plans.

Urgent message! Would you recognise a phishing attempt? Take 5 minutes to run through this refresher training and keep our corporate data secure.

Urgent message! The lyon office squash club is looking for new members.

A professional needs a strategy to stay productive despite the noise, while not missing the occasional needles in the message haystack.

That's easily solved: make that either be "interruptible" or an indicator if you are in "deep focus" or not.

However, one does not always plan in advance to get into deep focus, so I don't really believe this problem is solveable in a useful way. Basically, we need to learn to regain focus quickly and push people away when busy.

Also, async interrupt methods are great when used properly: don't you hate it when someone pings you with "hi" or "hi, I have a question" or similar and waits for your response? Good practice is to ask a full question which allows the other side to respond when they can without interrupting.

Just give me lockable cubicle please.

Also don't forget the cow-orkers:

Urgent message! Do you have a moment for a quick call? [It's never quick.]

Urgent message! Hi $yourname.

Urgent message! Hi, so I hit this problem where this-and-this doesn't work. Here's an irrelevant part of the logs. We need to sort this before deployment tomorrow. [After couple of these, eventually your PM tells your team to stop fulfilling such requests from other teams, and instead first ask what the billing code for that is, or if they wouldn't rather file a Trac ticket.]

You’re not an engineer, so that comment isn’t relevant to you.

I have been Principal engineer at a company you have heard of, and hands-on CTO at multiple start-ups. I feel qualified in stating that my views hold across multiple job roles, from engineering to project management.