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Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

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Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#41

Post by reaperducer »

prepend wrote: post #13

This is cool, but no way am I granting access to a years worth of calendar. I like how they describe their usage and that they auto remove access. But even if I believe them, there are many errors that would expose hundreds of email, contact info, and docs. I wish they had a scrubber utility I run and can remove unnecessary data. They should not need pii for their stats.

This is cool, but no way am I granting access to a years worth of calendar.

I know everything has to be an online web "app" these days, but the privacy concerns could be completely eliminated by simply making this an actual computer program.

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#42

Post by redhale »

remyp wrote: post #12
redhale wrote: post #11

This is awesome! I can't really use it though, since I often schedule "heads-down" sessions for myself (ironically because of meeting overload). I hope a future version allows me to add a text filter rule of some kind to exclude them.

This is something we've heard from a lot of people, and we account for it. Meetings that only include yourself aren't counted in the stats.

Oh, awesome!

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#43

Post by ams6110 »

rob-d wrote: post #20

I like this a lot. A similar thing which I'm interested in tracking is the impact of meetings on flow state. I wonder if it would be helpful to have a more nuanced way for "makers" to protect their flow state time than having to block out their calendar for hours / days at a time. I envisage a system where a meeting booker is able to make the decision - "Is the meeting important enough to curtail or split this person…

I find that having even one meeting pretty much ruins my whole day. Before the meeting, I find it hard to get into a real flow state because I know the meeting is coming up and I'll have to stop. After the meeting, I feel like the day has already been destroyed so I typically spend the rest of the day surfing and reading HN.

Meetings first thing in the morning or at the end of the day are better in that regard.

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#44

Post by ams6110 »

reaperducer wrote: post #41
prepend wrote: post #13

This is cool, but no way am I granting access to a years worth of calendar. I like how they describe their usage and that they auto remove access. But even if I believe them, there are many errors that would expose hundreds of email, contact info, and docs. I wish they had a scrubber utility I run and can remove unnecessary data. They should not need pii for their stats.

This is cool, but no way am I granting access to a years worth of calendar. I know everything has to be an online web "app" these days, but the privacy concerns could be completely eliminated by simply making this an actual computer program.

It's funny how people are worried about the privacy of their calendar when it's online to begin with, and in most cases Google is managing it.

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#45

Post by jeffreym »

Very interesting. Despite thinking I knew how much time I spent in meetings, I was still surprised by the stats.

I like what was said by rob-d about flow state. There's a lot of ancillary "stuff" attached to meetings - anticipation, preparation, transportation, decompression, etc. Add the actual time in-meeting, and you have a proper interruption.

Creating some variety of "meeting gravity," which would pull in, combine, or group other meetings contiguously would be welcome, particularly amongst those who are sensitive to interruptions in flow.

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#46

Post by adtac »

Signez wrote: post #14
remyp wrote: post #2

OP here, happy to answer your questions! Most importantly: We take privacy very seriously, none of your calendar data is stored, just tabulated, and as soon as we finish we remove the token so we can't access anything in the future. The ONLY thing we store is the tabulation and your email address (which is not made public) tied to that tabulation.

If you really care about our privacy that much, please configure the GDPR popup in a way[0] that let your EU visitors to say that they are not allowing third party usage of their personal data. [0] https://www.leonpaternoster.com/posts/techradar-gdpr/

Interesting. I have a product (unreleased, still in private beta) that's in the privacy space. I want people to know I care about their privacy, and that absolutely no information is given to third-parties.

What's the best way I can get GDPR compliant? I know that GDPR isn't designed to crack down on products like mine, but I'm still legally required to comply. A simple notice saying user data isn't given to any third parties? I have a privacy policy, of course.

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#47

Post by adtac »

remyp wrote: post #28
anyfoo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say you "remove" the token, does it continue to be valid? If the token accidentally leaks (logs?), or if someone willfully intercepts it, will they have access to the calendar?

Depends on the service. Google allows us to invalidate the token when we're done, rendering it useless, so we do. You'll notice that if you run the stats tool again you'll have to re-authorize it for Google. Microsoft does not, so it will remain valid. We don't store it or log it anywhere, and the system that retrieves and processes data is not publicly accessible.

>We don't store it or log it anywhere

I know you have good intentions here, but I hope you are aware that you may unintentionally be storing it somewhere [1]. Not much you can do about it unless you keep actively searching for it everywhere.

[1] I strongly remember reading an article here on HN recently about some security breach stemming from writing production secrets in log files, but I can't find the link :/ If anyone else has it, can you post it?

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#48

Post by screaminghawk »

This is the kind of tool I've been tossing up making myself. Such a great job! Quick, well presented.

But, I wish I could correct the statistics.

* I haven't had this email for a year (doesn't extrapolate)

* My salary is much higher than $60k

* I work a 37.5 hour week

Also a way to combine meetings across my multiple email addresses would be icing on the cake.

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#49

Post by goliatone »

rob-d wrote: post #35
bwb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love that idea! We are talking to a lot of people in Product roles to do just that. Basically blocking times or days out with no interruptions, as well as giving them the insight to protect their teams so they can work.

That sounds interesting - got me thinking a little more about this. I wonder if simply by making the information available on when people are in flow state, a lot of flow state interruptions could be reduced, even without reducing the number of meetings. In particular, encouraging scheduling a meeting at the beginning / end of a flow state period rather than slap bang in the middle would have a big impact. For exampl…

How do you reconcíliate future meetings with future flow states? Unless you have the ability to pospone a meeting when you are flowing I don’t see how to do this, unless you’re able to build a pattern over time and use that information to preemptively inform the organizer of best suited times to schedule a meeting

Re: Show HN: Meeting Stats – Show your boss how much of your life is in meetings

#50

Post by bwb »

prepend wrote: post #31
remyp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good idea we hadn't thought of yet, thank you! We'd even be able to use the exact same logic to do the calculations...

Thanks. This is a great idea, but just can’t expose my calendar, especially work.

Ah gotcha, thanks for the feedback as that helps us. Any chance you could tell me a bit more details @ ben@execution.com?
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