Having years of experience with time management on personal and organizational levels, I have become an expert in the needs and qualities of good time management. My calendar is always saturated. So saturated, in fact, I often forget about goals, aspirations, and my social life. I do my best to keep lists throughout the day when ideas come up, but most of them never make it to my calendar and therefore never exist in any tangible sense. While I am good at counting minutes and being punctual, I seem to misalign often by making bad time estimates or prioritizing poorly, resulting in an interruption in my flow. Making tasks is easy. Remembering all your priorities and goals appropriately while doing so can be challenging. Foresight Forge would solve this problem using setting and tracking data to make suggestions and reminders, basically functioning as a personal assistant for events and tasks.

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Master time, master self

Full Project Overview

Introduction
This article will cover the inner workings, intentions, and intellectual property for the time management application Foresight Forge. What will separate this application from all the other time management applications you can use is the user experience forward goal setting and tracking paired with all the functionality of a digital calendar. Foresight Forge will focus on the user’s experience because managing time is only a part of time management. Why to manage time is just as, if not more, important as how to.Project Overview
Having years of vicarious experience with time management on personal and organizational levels, I have become an expert in the needs and qualities of good time management. My calendar is always saturated. So saturated, in fact, I often forget about goals, aspirations, and my social life. I do my best to keep lists throughout the day when ideas come up, but most of them never make it to my calendar and therefore never exist in any tangible sense. While I am good at counting minutes and being punctual, I seem to misalign often by making bad time estimates or prioritizing poorly, resulting in an interruption in my flow. Making tasks is easy. Remembering all your priorities and goals appropriately while doing so can be challenging. Foresight Forge would solve this problem using setting and tracking data to make suggestions and reminders, basically functioning as a personal assistant for events and tasks.
The application would be broken into 3 major functional parts that would operate accessible at any time with a directional swipe (left, center, right) like a dating app. On the left would be the “Past” container, the center would be the “Present”, and the “Future” is to the right side.Starting with the Past section, this portion would house the achievement board, burndown charts, as well as track weekly, monthly, and annual usage of time. The achievement board would be designed to encourage and enhance the application experience. Unlocking achievements would require users to do things like “set a recurring fitness goal for 3 months”. It is important to mention here that several of the achievements will be questionnaires designed to generate specific data that is useful to the AI function. Things like a weekly small ranking sheet relevant to the events attended or not. These goals would ascend in prestige the longer someone maintained the goal. For example, using the fitness goal, if a user achieves 3 months of meeting that goal, they get a bronze achievement. If they maintain it for a year, it evolves to a silver achievement, after 2 years gold, 3 years, platinum, and finally 5 is diamond. Missing a day would have the small consequences that you will not progress during that period of the goal, whatever the frequency, and will not count toward your achievements, therefore prolonging moving forward in rank. Your burndown chart(s) would be an overview of the goals you set vs. the goals you met in a past week, month, or year. This data, paired with a checklist, percentages, and a pie chart of how time was spent will help users make adjustments to better suit their goals.The Present section is where the calendar functionality would operate. Like most calendar apps, there would be a digital calendar that can be interacted with in days, 3 days, weeks, months, and years. Also like other calendar apps, you will be able to compartmentalize your calendar into themes that stack together and can be turned on and off for viewing. Like other apps, color coordination will be a key organizational feature. One unique quality I was not able to find in existing patents is calendar “Forest stacking” in calendar suggestions and considerations. Forest stacking is a term from CISCO server environments and is an organizational strategy for small to large scale data communication. Fundamentally, it is smart stacking by feeding data through a communication hierarchy. A hierarchy in time management would allow someone to do something like make a garden calendar that is the collection of several different plant cycle calendars, organized by various means such as season, use, or nutrition, however they choose to program it. Events in Foresight Forge can have multiple color tags so they can show up in multiple groupings. Somewhere on screen at all times when viewing the calendar is a toggle which turns on suggestions and/or considerations respectively. Turning on suggestions and/or considerations would allow the app to use in app user provided data for the purpose of filling, or avoiding filling, your calendar with tasks, events, and reminders. Turning on suggestions would turn on the app's AI that would be designed to start with your goals, compare it to your availability, and then make suggestions on how best to use your time. Calendars that are open to subscription may also be fed into the AI for consideration and prioritized by setting social goals. Turning on considerations would be allowing the AI to produce data on things like drive time, meal times, breaks, bed time, and other thoughtful considerations custom to your data input and preferences.In the Future section we set our goals and adjust our work/life balance. Setting goals will look similar to creating events, tasks, and reminders because they will be used by the AI to make suggestions and considerations. Think of this section like a settings menu for your projections. All goals will require the following: a title, a category (matching current color coding or “create new”), an estimated time for completion, and a description. Optional data will be location, cost, and an invitation section. When suggestions are on, the AI will look at your desired time allowances, adhering to daily and weekly projection breakdowns, and try to help you mirror your projections through your goals and availability. You can also program considerations like recommended bedtime based on the following day's schedule. You can add non-specific events like “Take kids camping” once every 6 months and considerations will periodically remind you of this goal. I want to trademark a “prioritizer” grid to help people organize their goals by importance to them. This would look like a 10X10 grid cut into quadrants representing vertical (x) and horizontal (y) gradient scale of 1-10. The x gradient reads left to right and is scaled: 1 = disinterested, 5 = indifferent, 10 = love to. The y gradient reads bottom to top and is scaled: 1 = should happen this year, 5 = time sensitive this month, 10 = happens this week. The y axis would ideally be automated using your goal's frequency. The third factor is an optional input, we will call it the Z gradient, which is each goal may be set on a scale from 1 - 10, 1 = low priority, 5 = I’d like this to happen, 10 = high priority. If there is no (z) input, an algorithm averages [(x)+(y)]/2 = priority rank. If there is a (z) input then the math is [(z)x2]+[(x)+(y)]/4. That way your priority input is equal to 50%, while time sensitivity and interest are 25% of the net average priority score, giving you more control. Each goal can be manually placed, or adjusted through a user input scale slider for (x) and (z) inputs, and extrapolate (y) from either the event date, or task frequency. The last option is you can bypass the entire system by clicking the 10/10 icon, immediately moving that item to the top of the list, or by clicking a goal and selecting from a dropdown menu find time or make time. "Find time" will use availability and AI to make suggestions. "Make time" will take you to today's date on your calendar and have you select a start time. If anything overlaps, you will have to either move it or delete it.Innovation Claim
Time management is something we all do whether we are conscious of it or not because we cannot escape time itself. Like most masteries, there is high level time management, a skill set most all successful people have. Technology is a bridge between an individual and collective man. Using that bridge, this application will make high level time management intuitive.
“Master time management in no time.”Usage Scenario
Someone downloads Foresight Forge, first things first: a small thank you statement, followed by a brief basic profile making questionnaire. Last hurdle before they open their app is a multiple choice: would you like A) full guide and explanation B) help as I go C) I got this. This will pre stage the in app help functions as they explore. In the “Present” section, it should feel familiar to anyone who has used a calendar before. At the top is a rolling bar that changes the perspective of time on a scale from day to year. Right below the calendar is a scaling bar automatically set to ¼ screen, but a slide able to make the calendar ½ screen, off screen, or full screen. If they tilt the phone, the calendar will go full screen, but can be swiped off screen to full screen the schedule instead. Below the calendar section is the “Schedule”, a chronological, data forward breakdown of your calendar which is empty so it’s just a stack of lines representing days with a text over that reads “try starting by importing an existing calendar, or setting some goals. Preferably both!”. Any event or task you may program will appear here, including other calendars that are subscribed in accordance with the calendar hierarchy. To manage this hierarchy meaning change names, colors, and/or association with other calendars meaning it is “up or down'' stream from any other calendars besides the master calendar.
At some point they may be prompted to or choose to swipe left into the past. Since they are brand new, there is no data yet and they would see empty placeholder graphs and charts with temporary text overs explaining their function. Next they find the "Achievement" board which is populated with empty place holders. When they hover over one, an explanation is rendered on how to get and level their achievements. The easier ones are in app questionnaires or completion of tutorials they have the option of using. This inspires and teaches them how to use the app.
Maybe they swipe right into the future at some point. Here they explore goal setting and projections. A new user would be guided to start here because this is the most engaging part of the app in the beginning. Here a user can make a category container to begin filling with goals and ideas. They can run those ideas through the prioritizer and get the list sorted. If they end up with more than one goal list category, they unlock the pie. The goal pie automatically assigns each category an equal portion. These portions represent how you would like to spend your time and can be adjusted by tapping on the percentage number and adjusting it manually. Doing this will take equal parts from all not manually programmed pie pieces. This is how you A) project your preferred use of time and B) Teach the AI how to make suggestions. If this step is completed, then the “Present" screen will look different when they return, especially if any level of suggestions and/or considerations have been set. Using the goals set as a starting point and defaulting to normal working hours unless otherwise set. Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM, goals will appear semi-translucently on your calendar. To control the flow you can either/and edit your availability and block time out. Doing this will make the AI look only at available time slots to fill with goals using prioritization data and time spent in task group projections. After a week, you can use the past section to dial in your experience over time, as the AI gets better using your data to make suggestions. This feedback loop would create a personal experience and exchange between the app and users.Student Role
My role is the visionary first, designer second. My limitations that would need to be overcome through either study or out sourcing would be in application programming. I am fluent in web building and limited exposure has taught me some of it translates, so I know enough to create a programmable wireframe and the assets it would need. My understanding of programming would help me make useful thought flow and guidance, like the formula previously described for calculating priority. Long term, I have a larger pool of ideas for expansion beyond the limitations of the student innovation project that would come after a viable prototype. If I were to work on this project with others, which I am becoming more and more open to seeking programming assistance, I primarily would build system concepts and aesthetic assets for the app, as well as marketing for the app. I may consider piloting this as a website because it’s much more in my personal scope, and could outsource/learn less.Evaluation Criteria
If this project works as intended, I will have created a powerful set of tools that work together to enhance personal time management. I feel that if programming assistance or learning becomes an issue, it would be easy, and within the degree and reason, to pivot to creating a business plan for producing a fully developed application wireframe. Above all else, ease of use and accuracy over time are the highest priorities after successful prototyping.Intended Methodology, Data, and Materials
This application is meant to work with Android and iOS devices alike as a fully downloadable application. Outside of possible human talent overhead, this is a 100% intellectual product and as such, it only relies on the continuation of electricity and me paying my bills. It will cost a small fee to get any app approved for both Android and iOS, but it will be negligible if I can produce a working prototype.Project Objectives
Concept materials for idea presentation
Logic board for programming
Brand Overview/assets
Trademarks, Intellectual Property, Copyright, URL.
Prototyping
Either website base prototype, or better still a fully functional application.
Comprehensive presentation video.
Application release.Expected Outcomes
I would expect this project to teach me how to do new things, while leveraging things I’m good at. I think despite this idea not being my first choice, my personal interests and growing pool of digital skill sets will produce something unique and head turning. In other classes I am learning Chat GPT, Python, and other powerful programming skills which is far beyond what is expected of my digital marketing degree, but that’s my signature: more than anticipated. I cannot wait to have something people can experience for themselves.