Introducing the Harmony AI Planner

I recently had what you might consider a spiritual experience, where I felt I needed to build a very specific product.

Today, I finally act on that impression.

As you may know, I am the grandson of Stephen Covey, author of the pivotal book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has sold over 40 million copies to date.

Consequently, I grew up in a household that lived and breathed topics of effectiveness, leadership, and how to lead a great life. These principles were rooted deeply within my soul from a young age. And as I've grown, I've witnessed that they actually work! They've not only made me want to be a better person, but complete strangers still approach me and say "Your grandpa's book changed my life."

Me with my grandpa, Stephen Covey

In addition to my grandfather's work, I've also been greatly influenced by related books such as Man's Search for Meaning, How to Win Friends and Influence People, How Will You Measure Your Life?, and the modern bestseller—Atomic Habits.

These inspired works stand in stark contrast to the world I've grown up in as a Gen Zer. An onslaught of social media, pornography, videos games, and constant stimulation besiege us from every side. It has numbed much of my generation into the generation of apathy.

And now we have AI. Amazing things are being done with this technology. But as with all tech, many use cases so far, like AI companions, are just inherently harmful.

Rather than run away from the new reality and become a local fisherman in Guam, however, I hope to do my best to leverage AI in positive ways that make us more human, not less.

A few months ago, I launched the Harmony app, an AI email voice assistant. If I'm being completely honest, I only built this product because I thought it was an interesting AI use case and had potential for VC funding. I have nothing against venture capital, but it definitely can distort what ideas you should be working on, since they need to have billion dollar potential.

What I really wanted to build all along is the product I'm about to show you.

Of all the books I mentioned earlier on how to live a great life, one common principle stands out to me as an extreme need for our time: having a plan for your life and making time for what's most important.

The Harmony AI Planner will help you do just that.

Here is how it works:

1. Establish your mission

First, take a step back. What do you really want in life? Harmony helps you create a Personal Mission Statement, establishing your deeper why. You really can't think about what's next week until you know what's at the end.

2. Plan your weeks by role

We've found planning at the weekly level, based on roles and your mission, to be most effective. Daily planning or to do lists are a good start, but they're too short sighted. The week is a perfect frame of reference.

Why roles? It's not enough to only be successful in one area of life. As J.E. McCulloch once said, "No other success can compensate for failure in the home."

The goal of Harmony is to help you find success in all areas of your life. So the app has you list your roles and set the 1-2 most impactful goals for each role for the week. For example, my roles are Husband, Father, Entrepreneur, Disciple of Christ, and Personal Wellbeing.

Obviously, these roles and goals should be backed by your mission statement, which is like your personal constitution.

3. Daily follow through

Instead of daily planning, we review our weekly plans daily and make any necessary adjustments.

Harmony's Al helps you time-block your goals and nudge you to do the right things at the right times, so you can live in accordance with your mission and plans every day.

Harmony helps you create a mission statement, weekly plan based on your roles, and time block those goals

Why another app?

Some people might wonder, "why a new app for this? Can't I just use paper, or like my notes app?"

You could do this in other ways, but as someone who has been trying to plan like this every week, Harmony has made it WAY better for me. Here's why:

• Portability: it's important to always have your plans with you, so you can check them off, make edits, and get reminders no matter where you are. This is why app > paper. You always have your phone on you.
• Reminders: it's super easy to forget about your goals, so having notifications is crucial.
• Structure: If you're doing this on paper or a notes app, this biggest problem you run into is lack of structure. They give you a blank canvas. We give you a structured, proven system. Guided weekly planning sessions. Up to 6 roles. 1-2 goals per week per role. Weekly cycles based on your timezone. Other canvases aren't built for this so they lack the structure.
• Time savers: Harmony is specifically tailored for this use case so it saves you lots of time in little ways. You don't have to rewrite your roles every week. The AI suggest goals based on your mission, and suggests time blocks based on your availability and preferences. It syncs your time blocks with your Google Calendar. Little things like this make everything much more convenient!
• Engaging: We made the app fun and engaging to take advantage of your dopamine, but for good! When you check off a goal, you'll see confetti fly in the air. When it's time for weekly planning, we will make you feel the urgency with reminders and a 24 hour countdown.

Our results

One of the reasons I'm so excited about this app is our awesome results so far.

Among our pilot user group, 87% of them reported "good" or "very good" health in all their roles after 30 days, compared to just 23% at the start.

I honestly think the main benefit of the app is it just helps you be mindful. It helps you reflect every week on what's most important and connect to your inner conscience.

It's this inner conscience that is so suppressed in our day and age.

I hope that Harmony proves useful for you, and helps you connect with the deep worth and potential already inside of you.

Download on iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/harmony-ai-planner/id6746949011

Android coming soon.

- Nathan Covey