A day with your familiar.
There’s nothing to learn. Pick a familiar, set the dials, and your day can start. Your familiar is there when your day begins, present while you’re in it, and asleep when it ends. Here’s what a day looks like.
Morning
Beginning the day, together.
Your familiar is up when your day begins. There’s a short check-in: how did you sleep, and how are you doing right now? If your phone already knows how you slept, it’s filled in for you to confirm. If you left yourself one thing to carry into today, your familiar has been holding it for you. Then it offers a first small step, sized to how you’re feeling. In a hurry, or already having a hard morning? Skip it. Familiar picks up from wherever you are.
If the day ahead looks heavier than the energy you’ve got, a small card says so, with an easy way to lighten it.
Daytime
Something to do next, sized to right now.
A couple of suggestions wait on your home screen, chosen from what fits your energy, your mood, and the time of day. Take one and a timer starts; pass on one and something different appears. When you’d rather browse, a board of activities lets you narrow by what you’d like to be today (Active, Kind, Creative, and so on), how long you have, and how much effort you’ve got. And when the plan is too much, say a run on a day with nothing in the tank, skipping it brings up a few lighter options: a stretch, a walk around the block, ten minutes outside.
When you’re in the middle of something, or a calendar item is under way, the suggestions wait.
Focus
Starting, and staying with it.
Starting is often the hardest part, so the timer can begin with a short lead-in: a few minutes to finish the other thing, arrive, and settle. It waits at “Ready when you are” until you say so. Once you’ve begun, run it plain, in focus rounds with breaks, or with check-ins that ask now and then whether to keep going, check back in shortly, or wrap up. No answer is wrong, and it learns how often you’d like to be asked.
Run over the time you planned and you get a grace window, then an offer of a little more time. The timer stays in sight the whole way: in the app, in your browser tab, on your lock screen, on your watch.
Calendar
A plan that fits the day you’re having.
Set a time for the things that have one, and hand the rest to Familiar with “find me a time.” It fits flexible items around the fixed ones, ahead of any deadline, and leaves room to travel. Give an event a place and it works out when to head out, so you leave on time without the math. If your energy drops during the day, today’s heavier items move to a better time, with a one-tap “Put it back.” Your Google Calendar and Familiar stay in step, so the day you see is the one you’ve actually got.
Capture
Out of your head, into the queue.
Capture is always one tap away. Type or say the thing and go back to what you were doing. Later, when you have a moment, go through the queue: this one onto the calendar, this one becomes a habit, this one belongs in the journal, and this one you can let go. Written like a sentence (“dentist tuesday 3pm”), a capture can turn itself into a calendar item with one confirmation from your familiar.
Wellness
A glass of water, a bite, a stretch.
Every so often while you’re deep in something, your familiar offers a small wellness check-in: water, food, or a bit of movement. It’s a card you can answer or dismiss with one tap. If your phone already knows you’ve been moving, the movement nudge stays out of the way. The point isn’t compliance. It’s a soft reminder that your body is in this with you.
Evening
Putting the day down.
As your day winds down, so does your familiar. There’s a short close-out if you want it: empty whatever is still on your mind into Capture, set the dials one last time, and name one thing to carry into tomorrow. Then your familiar goes to sleep. Heading to bed early? Tell Familiar and it ends the day now, quiets the suggestions and wellness check-ins, and moves what can wait.
There’s a full journal here too, whenever you’d like it: write freely, or from a prompt that matches the energy you have left.
Coming back
When you’ve been away.
When you come back after a few days, or after time off, Familiar shows what’s still open from the last couple of weeks in one calm list: complete it, skip it, or give it a new time. There’s no pile of pings waiting, and nothing is counted against you.
Insights
What Familiar notices.
Familiar notices things and tells you about them in plain words. Active and Mindful tend to go together for you. You tend to write in your journal around the middle of your day. The half-hour you set aside for reading usually runs to forty-five minutes, so it offers to move the estimate. Each observation waits until there’s enough of your own data to be honest, and every one is yours to act on or ignore. Once a week, and once a month, a short recap puts it all in one place.
Want a day like this?
Familiar is in private beta, with people coming in a few at a time. Leave your email and you’ll get a note when there’s an invitation for you. No spam. No more than one email a month while Familiar is in beta.