Being a family is not easy. Managing work, chores, hobbies, friends, and family events takes time. Spice it with travels, and add two kids to the equation and you’ll get the perfect recipe for chaos. This is where our story begins.
We often had events or online courses we wanted to attend, but simply forgot about them by the time they started. Other times my wife committed to something and I didn’t know about it and committed to something else. And of course vice versa, so this begged for a change.
And we did make a change: we started using a calendar placed in the kitchen where everybody could see it and could note events down. This solved some of our problems, but we faced a new issue: we had to be home to see it. So overlapping commitments still occurred: while I was out with friends enjoying a beer I had no idea what I was supposed to do next Monday, so why not commit to doing something cool my friends were planning? Thus, the next obvious solution was to take the family calendar online. That should do the trick, right?
Actually, it kind of did… But that also meant we had to use another app besides our to-do list and note-taking apps. And of course, there was the chat app we were using to communicate with each other. In addition, we set out to plan our meal for the whole week… There was nothing wrong with the idea, it’s just that we ended up using so many different apps at this point that we felt it was one too many. It started draining our energy just to organize our everyday life. Sometimes we were not even sure where we added some things: was it in the notes app or was it added as a to-do?
So we started thinking. We agreed that we should cut back on our abundant app usage and start using the minimum number of products to solve our needs. We figured that would lower our energy burden. We needed an app that we could take notes in, but also has a calendar, a to-do list, a meal planner, and a chat would also be nifty. We needed one app to rule them all!
And this is how the Smart Family app was born. It took two years to finally make it, as it was created as a one-man show side-project. It was not easy, but it was totally worth it. It has all of the features we needed as a family.
It has a neat calendar where we can see the events we are committed to: when will I have to attend a conference, when will my son have his next piano lesson, and when will my wife need some alone time to do her meditation. A dedicated to-do list helps us organize our tasks and chores in multiple lists. It also features a meal planner, so we can plan our meals, and a collection of beloved recipes we can choose from. Moreover, with the built-in chat – for family members only – we can communicate safely with each other, one-on-one or with the whole family at once. What is more, the built-in shopping list further simplifies our life: the items can be assigned to a store, and when we go shopping we can filter by the store we are in. This is a real life-changer. Last but not least, for an easy overview, we introduced the day view, a sort of dashboard where we can see the entire family’s day at a glance: everyone’s events and tasks at once, or narrowed down to a specific family member.
After using the app for a few months, we decided to release it to families all around the world. We – as a family – really feel the benefit of it: it takes much less mental load to keep track of everything. With just a few taps, we can add anything to it, and we always have a complete overview of what’s going on in our dearly beloved, industrious, happy little family.
Feels like you can relate to this story? Find out more about & download the Smart Family app at https://smart-family.co.