This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Eric
Imagine it’s a Monday morning. The sun peeks through your window blinds, and your to-do list glares back at you—a tangled jumble of tickets, meetings, and half-finished side projects. You sip your coffee and wonder: “How will I actually get deep, uninterrupted work done this week?”
That was me (Hi, I am HyungWoo, you can call me Eric), a software engineer buried under an avalanche of context switches. I loved Linear for tracking issues, but it lived in its own world. Google Calendar managed my meetings, but had no idea about my development tasks. Worse, every time I estimated a card in Linear, reality laughed in my face when I discovered I’d actually spent twice the time. Weekends blurred into evenings of “catch-up” work, and burnout loomed on the horizon.
The Spark of an Idea
I always blocked out chunks of time in calendar, but was lazy to write what I did; I just wanted others to not bother me at that time with meetings. Others saw the block and was sometimes frustrated at me for having too much "focus time" because they didn't know what I was doing and I do understand the frustration so I tried to keep updating the calendar but it was tiring.
I pictured a simple web app: you authorize Linear, pick the issues you want to tackle, drag them onto Monday through Friday in hour-long chunks, and watch as those time blocks flow into your Google Calendar. No more guesswork. No more open-ended tickets that stretch endlessly. A genuine commitment to focused work and other teammates can see what I am working on.
I called it MBTJ because MBTI is popular thing in Korea and J trait of MBTI is preference for structure and order.
Building MBTJ
I quit my job. I had free time. I got to work. It took me about a week to prototype, a month to iterate couple times. and a month to add subscription (first time doing it)
Prototyped the UI in React
- A calendar grid for one week (Sunday to Saturday)
- A dialog for creating time block with tickets from Linear directly pulled
- Drag interface just like google calendar
Putting MBTJ to the Test
The real proof came when I invited a handful of colleagues to try the beta. Here’s what they experienced:
- Clarity: No more blank calendar grids—each hour had a purpose: “Implement user auth,” “Bugfix: payment webhook,” “Research new SDK.”
- Accountability: Shared calendars meant teammates could see when I was in “deep focus” mode. They respected those blocks, and I respected theirs.
- Reflection: On Sundays, the auto-generated retrospective dashboard highlighted productivity peaks—and valleys. Carla, one beta user, said: > “I always think I’ll be productive, but mbtj forces me to plan productivity. And it actually works.”
Lessons Learned
Building mbtj taught me far more than React hooks or Google’s Calendar API. I learned:
- Simplicity wins: Developers want three things: select, drag, and done—no multi-step wizards.
- Feedback loops matter: Real-time estimate vs. actual keeps you honest and helps you recalibrate.
- Positive social pressure: Public focus blocks encourage team respect for deep work and turn individual planning into a shared habit.
What’s Next?
mbtj is now live at mbtj.app with a free 30-day trial and a straightforward subscription plan. I use it everyday. There are still more things to be done. Report bugs if found! (Thank you in advance)
These are some features in my mind. I am still trying to see what heavy users think seem necessary
- daily scrum slack messages you can use to copy and paste
- how to do weekly or monthly reflection well with the analytics
If you’re tired of aimless to-dos and want to turn your Linear issues into actual, scheduled focus sessions, give mbtj a try. Plan your week. Own your time. Build better habits—one block at a time.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Eric
Eric | Sciencx (2025-06-11T03:47:17+00:00) Linear Issues to Google Calendar: MBTJ. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/06/11/linear-issues-to-google-calendar-mbtj/
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