Google Wants To Help You Stop Procrastinating All the Time

If you find yourself saying you “just don’t have time” to squeeze in a workout or get some extra chores done around the house, Google wants to help. The Mountain View, Calif. company is rolling out a new feature for its Calendar app starting April 13 called Goals, which finds time in your schedule for extra accomplishments.

With the new feature, you can create a particular goal, such as exercising or reading, and Google Calendar will automatically block out time for you to fulfill that objective. The app uses machine learning to understand your schedule and preferences, allowing it to set goals for times that make sense for you without your intervention. After you tell Google Calendar about your goal and how much time you want to dedicate to it, the app will search your schedule for available times.

If you create a new event during a goal slot, Calendar will move that slot to another available time. Since it learns your preferences over time, Calendar will learn to stop scheduling your goals for times of day when you consistently cancel events. For example, Google says that if you typically call off your goal appointments set for 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, the app will no longer schedule them for that time.

Many calendar apps focus on productivity, integration with other services to keep all of your appointments in one place, and natural language processing to make event creation quick and easy. It’s rare to see machine learning integrated into a calendar app in such a way that it intelligently sets aside time for personal development on your behalf.