No matter the occasion, the team is always interested in hearing about how busy people use the app to stay happy, healthy and productive. If you’ve been inspired by these posts, don’t hold back! Send us a note at mystory@astrid.com

Meet Kelly

We selected Kelly as the grand prize winner of the spa gift certificate. In addition to being a mom she is an entrepreneur and business owner. We applaud her for the risks she’s taking and for switching to Astrid!

I have been a mom for almost 4 years now. By far, it has been the hardest job of my life. I have forgotten just about everything at one point or another during this learning process – from toilet paper at the grocery store to making important doctor’s appointments for my son.

To make things more fun, er, complicated, I decided to start my own business last year. Now, in addition to worrying about whether dinner meets all our nutritional requirements, checking in with daycare to see if there have been any potty accidents each day, and making sure Mommy/Daddy date nights happen, I also need to remember to contact clients, create invoices, schedule emails, post blogs, etc.

I have no fewer than 5 notebooks of varying shapes and sizes containing notes from client meetings, grocery lists, books/websites/blogs/articles I want to read, apps I want to test, etc. Oh, and doodles I’ve drawn to entertain my son on various planes and trains. I wish these notebooks were organized in some way, but they aren’t. When I need to take notes, I grab the nearest one and start jotting.

I have only been using astrid for a week and already it has made such a huge difference in my life. Now, when I think of something I need to do, I pull out my phone, open Astrid, and swype it in. I do it when I’m with my clients, I do it when I’m out for date night, I do it when I’m walking home from daycare with our lad. Today, I took a ton of notes during a phone conference with my client … after the call, I opened Astrid and converted my notes to an itemized To Do list, tagging by project and assigning tasks to my assistant on the fly.

WHAT A LIFESAVER!

Most days, I take a look at my tasks for today and get started. Some days, I pull up a specific list – by client or task-type – and approach tasks that way. Things seem so much simpler now. I no longer sit around with long lists running through my mind when I could be enjoying a meal with my family. When a to do item pops into my mind, I check  my Astrid list and add it if it isn’t already there. Easy! And I can only begin to describe the sense of satisfaction I get when I can check things off and they just go away – no longer taking up mental space.

I don’t have a dramatic story about a life that was saved … but boy have you helped this mama maintain – nay, RECOVER some semblance of sanity for the first time in four years. Thank you!!

Kelly is photographed above with her son

So much of gift giving in our culture centers around buying the right gadget. It’s true that the perfect gadget can be a wonderful addition to our lives, but when you think of your mother, is it really another gadget that will make her happy?

Two years ago, my children and husband took me (a baseball fanatic) to an A’s game on Mother’s Day. Little did they know, that game would make baseball history. The day was filled with May sunshine and the park was packed with families. My kids pooled their allowance to buy me an A’s jacket. My husband bought me a cup of our favorite ballpark beer. (He had also bought the tickets, good seats behind first base). Everything about the day was special. I felt pampered and known by my family for the gift of this day together. The game was slow in terms of action, but we were having fun being together and didn’t mind watching a pitching duel.

Around the seventh inning stretch, we began to take particular notice of the scoreboard.  There were more zeros on it than usual, which was strange, given that the A’s were playing the Tampa Bay Rays, one of the hottest teams in baseball that year.  But here it was… the Rays had not succeeded in hitting or walking a single batter in seven innings. Our pitcher, Dallas Braden, was pitching a perfect game.

At that point, we and most of the fans around us began cluing in to what was happening. You could feel the tension in the park, a collective holding of breath. With every subsequent at-bat, Braden drew closer to that ultimate honor. One more inning passed without a hit or a walk. In the 9th, with three outs to go, everyone in the park stood, even the Ray fans. A perfect game is rare in baseball and no true fan takes it lightly. We were all standing on sports’ history holy ground.

The final out was grounder to short stop. We watched with eyes unblinking and erupted when the ball was caught by the A’s first baseman.

The beauty of the event washed over all in the stadium, especially the mothers as the narrative unfolded. Braden’s grandmother emerged from stands. She joined her grandson on the mound as we heard the heart-wrenching story of Braden’s single mother dying from cancer when he was a senior in high school. We learned about this heroic grandmother who took Dallas in and supported his athletic aspirations. What baseball fans learned that day was the story of true mother love.

On Sundays at the A’s stadium, children are allowed to run the bases after the game. On Mother’s Day Sunday, mothers are also allowed to run with their children. I did so, and as I ran, I bent down and scooped up a handful of infield dirt that I clutched as I crossed over home plate. To this day, I keep it in a Ziploc bag in a very safe place.

I am thankful that my husband and children knew me well enough to buy those baseball tickets. In no way could they have planned the  events as they unfolded, but sometimes we initiate a memorable event, and the fates smile on us in a very particular way.

Meet Meaghan

Our team loves Meaghan’s story because she takes complete advantage of Astrid’s shared list features to  accomplish things with her spouse. 

This past March my husband and I hosted our son’s first birthday party at our new home. This was kind of our parental debutante ball, we had family coming to DC from Boston and Philadelphia, and for many of our guests it was their first time to our house. So we were feeling the pressure to have the house look great, the food be delicious, and for all of our guests to enjoy themselves. Operation: Sam’s First Birthday Party was underway.

The feature of Astrid that really worked for us in planning the party was the ability to cross-list tasks. So I had a master list of party prep, with items that had to do with minor house repairs, supplies, food shopping, and random one-offs. For most of these things, we cross-listed them in existing to-do lists, so I could see all the food shopping items in the birthday list, and also in the shopping list. Organizing this way allowed me to integrate the tasks into our everyday systems but also monitor progress towards the party. Within the birthday list, I used the priority settings to sort things by cleaning (highest priority!), food shopping, and miscellaneous, so I could get a quick overview of where we were with categories of activities related to party prep. Being able to have things this organized, and sync the list with my husband (we definitely used the assign task to feature), allowed us to keep our cool, be organized, and ultimately pull off a super fun first birthday party for our little guy. I remember, a few hours before the party started, jointly checking off the last task on the birthday list: “CLEAN ALL THE THINGS”