I hung up the phone and fell backward onto my bed, staring at the ceiling through watery eyes.
The minutes passed conspicuously.
I lay there motionless in my San Francisco apartment, struggling to process the poignant message my parents had just delivered.
My mom had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The news shook me to my core.
I knew my mom was strong — perhaps the strongest person I knew — but I also knew that this was a battle she would not win. The cancer had metastasized rendering the illness incurable.
Put simply, she would be lucky to live beyond a year.
Plans were canceled. Dreams were crushed. And suddenly, the value of time increased dramatically.
My biggest supporter, closest confidant, and lifelong friend would soon be gone.
The way we perceive and value time can expand or compress in an instant.
The tragedy of my mom’s situation forced a new clarity in my perception of time, and my priorities shifted. It triggered a chain of events that would lead to me founding a startup and embarking on a profound mission years later.
Life is short. Everyone’s time is limited, but some have less of this precious resource than others.
From Purpose to Prototype
Suddenly, there was no time to waste on silly things.
Even my job felt less important, so I left.
I reevaluated my time allocation and began scheduling quality time to spend with my mom every day.
I also dived deep into the practice and philosophy of time management. I taught myself how to code and developed my own time management app–the very first prototype of TimeAlign.
I admit, the app was hacky, but it was a fun passion project to practice my new programming skills. I was building a calendar extension that integrated with my Google calendar to collect categorized schedule data and display it in a colorful dashboard. I spent all of 2020 tracking my time down to 15 minute blocks to better understand my life from a new perspective.
The experiment illuminated some valuable insights, garnered some interest from a few friends, but ultimately, the app was still too manual and the tracking too laborious.
A Personal Gift and Powerful Tool
In late 2020 I recruited help from Lucas, a close friend and an experienced full-stack software developer, to help improve the app.
Lucas suggested we integrate an Apple Watch app into the system to make it easier to track time on the go. I had never owned a smartwatch, but the idea intrigued me.
A watch tells time but a smartwatch could help you manage time.
The limited interface on a smartwatch also makes it a terrible device for addictive time traps but a powerful tool for positive behavioral nudges.
Always encouraging my creative ventures, my mom gave me my very first Apple Watch for Chanukah that December. She wanted me to have something physical–an artifact that I could take with me to remember her wherever I go.
Sadly, it was the last gift she gave me before she passed away in 2021.
From Passion Project to Viable Product
After taking some time to recover emotionally, I resolved to finish the app, and in 2022, I brought the prototype to my friend, Jordan.
Jordan, already an accomplished entrepreneur, software engineer, and digital marketer, understood the app from a new perspective.
The idea struck a chord with him.
Jordan saw a potential solution to some of his own struggles building businesses and pursuing goals as an ADHD entrepreneur.
Through his market research, Jordan realized the app could help improve people’s lives at scale and convinced me of the business potential.
After Jordan invigorated the project with his entrepreneurial energy, we took the plunge, founded a startup, and began working on an MVP.
TimeAlign was born.
The Time Alignment Problem
The TimeAlign concept evolved as we talked to more people and dug deeper into the common problems they faced with time management.
It seemed we were not the only ones with gripes.
Time management was being used to optimize work, not wellbeing. The focus was on workplace efficiency, meeting coordination, and billable hours — the 9-to-5 without regard for the 5-to-9.
People were working more efficiently, but struggling to spend the rest of their 24 hours in meaningful ways. They were failing to invest time in the activities that bring them happiness and squandering quality time with loved ones.
This was me before I received that fateful phone call. I had been using time management as a tool for productivity and work rather than a tool for prosperity and wellbeing.
After more research, we learned that the problem is pervasive. The data reveals a misalignment between how people say they want to spend their time and how they actually spend it.
Most people struggle to invest their time in the things that matter most.
In fact, studies show that the average adult wastes over 24 hours PER WEEK (24.5–43.8 hours/week to be more specific).
(source) (source) (source)
This is self-defined wasted time that could otherwise be spent on something meaningful.
Theoretically, the average person could have an extra day every week if they learned better ways to manage and invest their time.
We aren’t scheduling enough time for the important things in life, and we aren’t tracking our actual behavior. Without intentionality and clarity into our behavior, we are often feeling overwhelmed with life, struggling to understand ourselves, unable to improve and mired in regret.
The Mission: Align Time With Priorities
With TimeAlign, we decided to look at time management from a new angle. We took a more holistic approach to optimizing time throughout the day for the things that matter most including not only work, but also quality time with loved ones, exercise, sleep, and whatever else is most important to you.
Time management is no longer about filling your day with tasks, it’s about filling your tasks with purpose.
TimeAlign grew beyond that simple prototype in the wake of a family tragedy — a realization sparked an obsession that turned into a mission:
Build technology that empowers us to align our time with our priorities.
TimeAlign achieves this mission with a simple, yet powerful, feedback loop:
- Set goals based on your priorities
- Build an ideal schedule based on those goals
- Track progress and measure action vs intention
- Gain insights from the data and nudges to improve
- Repeat
This unique approach to time management addresses both sides of the equation — scheduling and tracking — intention and action — a closed feedback loop that learns from your past to help plan your future.
We are building a data-driven system to align your time with your priorities and optimize your life for greater flourishing.
Everyone’s time is limited, but I believe TimeAlign can help us make the most of it.
