Calendar tool finds free time for users to spend becoming better people.
Google wants to help users better manage their time for making dreams of self-improvement come true. It’s introduced a new feature for its Google Calendar app that draws on artificial intelligence to juggle important personal tasks against the demands of daily life. Dubbed Google Goals, the feature was launched in celebration of Google Calendar’s 10th birthday. The new tool removes the time excuse so often used by those who wish to work toward goals such as learning new languages, working out or reading books.
The new tool, developed by Google with help from Duke University’s Dan Ariely, enables people to fill in unscheduled hours in their Google Calendars with time staked out for working on personal goals. Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics and psychology, is the founder of Timeful, a time-management app Google purchased last year.
“Goals aren’t easy – especially when the unexpected comes up – but Calendar can help you adjust in a number of important ways,” Google explained on its blog. “For example, Calendar will automatically reschedule if you add another event that’s a direct conflict with a goal.”
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That automatic time adjusting is one of the features that makes Google’s tool different. Goals not only reschedules important personal activities – it learns from rescheduling and previously completed tasks when users are most likely to achieve their goals. For example, if a user has a history of tackling personal tasks on Sunday nights, Goals will reschedule to that timeframe.
Goals not only reschedules when conflicts crop up, it also enables users to defer tasks. Those tasks are automatically slated for a time that is more appropriate.
Goals is currently available as a feature of the Google Calendar app for iPhone and Android users. All users need to do is download the new update and start setting goals. The app will ask questions about how often time should be dedicated toward the goal and the best time for scheduling. Goals will take it from there to pencil in the best times for the pursuit.
“Calendars should help you make the most of your time – not just be tools to track events,” Google product manager Jyoti Ramnath wrote on the company’s blog. “We’re excited to invest in more updates like Goals, and to help you find time for everything that matters – from your daily must-dos, to exercising more, to just a little ‘me time.’”
