Goalify

The Problem Space

We've all said it before: "There’s just not enough time in the day." As a working adult, balancing tasks and personal goals can feel overwhelming, whether it's deciding what to eat, hitting the gym, or pursuing creative outlets. But time management doesn't have to be a struggle.

Traditional methods of goal-setting and task management can feel rigid and uninspiring, leading to procrastination and distraction—especially for Gen Z and Millennials, who thrive on instant gratification and social engagement. That’s where Goalify comes in. We aim to simplify time management, turning it into an exciting, intuitive experience.

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Research & Validation

After interviewing six participants and surveying over 50 people, we learned that 72% of respondents were full-time employees aged 25-40. Of these, 63.6% were only moderately satisfied with their current time management tools, and 11.4% were dissatisfied, signaling a clear need for improvement.

Survey participants juggled an average of four or more aspects of their lives, relying on calendars, planners, and to-do lists. Despite these tools, distractions, lack of motivation, and procrastination were common challenges. To cope, users reported that taking breaks and reprioritizing tasks were the most effective strategies.

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During interviews, participants shared that front-loading tasks—completing them ahead of schedule—boosted productivity and gave them more free time. However, life’s unpredictability often disrupted this rhythm, leading to task overload.

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Solution Explanation

The Solution

Goalify was developed as a progressive web application (PWA) to enhance platform accessibility. Research indicates that over 90% of millennials and Gen Z users primarily engage with applications and websites via their mobile devices. Our goal is to ensure that Goalify is easily accessible without the complexities associated with traditional app stores, providing a seamless user experience across all devices.

This product offers an intuitive to-do list, easy goal creation, and a calendar for visual progress. By gamifying accountability and providing progress statistics, Goalify turns time management into a motivating and enjoyable experience.

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After conducting usability tests, we found that users overwhelmingly prioritized two features: the to-do list and the calendar. Though we initially planned additional features like group accountability and progress statistics, we opted to refine those for future updates.

At launch, Goalify offers:

• To-Do List: A central hub where users track what needs to be done and celebrate their progress. It offers quick access to different dates, with prompts encouraging users to get ahead.
• Goal Creation/Editing: Setting goals should be simple, not a chore. We’ve made it easy to focus on what matters without over-complicating the process.
• Calendar: A visual overview helps users see what’s been completed and what’s upcoming, enabling them to reprioritize as needed.

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Implementation Details

Working as a team, we set up version control using Github to collaborate effectively and seamlessly with one another. We explored different hosting and cloud platforms such as fly.io, vercel, and render, but finally settled on Render. We chose render because of the ease of integration with Github, deployment previews, and speed of application serve.

For our fron-tend, we went with React + Vite + Typescript as the framework of choice. We used Mantine as the component library of choice, Tailwind as the CSS framework and RxDB as our offline database provider to integrate with IndexDB.

For our back-end, we chose Python + Flask as the framework of choice. Due to the needs of the application and strength of the team, we went with a fast and lightweight REST API framework for implementing our CRUD operations.

The application is integrated with Sentry & Rollbar for logging and monitoring in order to get an insight into any drop-offs from users and issues encountered while using the application.

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Technical Challenges

Due to the offline-first architecture, we have to sync the database state with the client state in real time. We are currently still working on the perfect replication protocol to ensure it is both efficient and performant.

The server is currently operating with 512MB of RAM and 0.1 vCPU, which is adequate given the current low traffic levels. However, we anticipate that this configuration may not be sustainable in the event of a sudden traffic spike. To address this concern, we will closely monitor traffic patterns and are prepared to provision a more robust server with auto-scaling capabilities to effectively manage increased demand.

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Future Steps

• Working on the responsiveness for the tablet/desktop versions of the designs– we want to allow for use everywhere. We focused on mobile first to ensure all necessary elements on are the screen.

• Focus on refining the groups page or a community feature, a lot of people valued the ability to share with their friends/family and were excited to see a a feature where they can share tasks.

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