Idea: An iPhone app that helps you use your time more effectively.
“What you measure will improve.”
Back in the 1980’s,the Timex Ironman was the watch that active people wore. It had unheard of features like two stop watches, an alarm and a countdown counter that would beep at a preset time. I wore one of the Ironman watches and used the features to create a time management exercise. Its purpose was to help you record how you were actually spending your time. It was the height of simplicity and it really worked.
Basically you first estimated how you thought you were spending your time and then you were given a watch with the timer set to beep at some odd time like every 48 or 63 minutes. When it beeped you were to record what you were doing, with whom and where. The reason for the odd time was that it kept most people from manipulating the data. After recording for a couple of weeks there was enough data to give you a reasonably good idea of what you were actually doing with your time.
Almost everybody who did the exercise was surprised by the results. Usually they had estimated that they spent much more time on their core job than they actually did. The incentives I gave to get people to do the exercise were the watch and a guarantee that their boss would not see the data without their approval. Still only about 25% of the people completed the exercise.
Now with smart phones and a well written app it would be possible to automate many of the steps. When the random timer went off a screen could come up that had names and activities listed and you had only to click on the appropriate ones. The location could be set by the phone.
Who is the target market? Sales managers, entrepreneurs and other motivated people. The same people that buy time management books and attend motivational seminars. With a sell price of $10 it would be possible to sell at minimum 100,000 a year of this app. This is a million dollar idea waiting for an entrepreneur.