Like many engineering managers, my responsibilities shift from week to week. Tasks rarely line up neatly, and constant context switching can be exhausting. The only way I keep from drowning in it is by regrouping every week. Without that reset, the buildup of concerns can get overwhelming fast.
Since my memory isn’t exactly reliable, I lean on tools to keep me organized. Todoist is my external brain. It’s simple to use, backed by an intuitive API, and perfect for both quick capture and easy retrieval. The recent addition of Ramble was a brilliant move that makes adding tasks even faster.
Every task I add gets a date, even if it’s just a guess. Accuracy isn’t the point. What matters is accountability. If it’s on the list, it’s something I’ve committed to. I can always adjust later, but if I don’t write it down right away my brain will eject it completely.
Once a week, I also put together a short synopsis of my work for my boss. It’s partly for her, but mostly for me. It forces me to reflect, regroup, and clear out the mental clutter.
This is where AI shines. It’s ridiculously good at pulling scattered details together and showing the bigger picture. I built a simple script that uses Todoist’s API along with Jira, Confluence, and OpenAI. It grabs the tasks and content I touched during the week, then asks the model to create a summary. The result is a clear story of what I actually accomplished, not just a list of bullet points.
It turns a week of fragmented tasks into something cohesive. And honestly, it keeps me sane.