In the beginning, I had some chores2do…
One cool February evening, sitting up on my bed in front of the TV with my wife, we were running through the week’s “honey, do” list — and I thought: how would it be to have a chores list that isn’t a bloated task manager? Just put in your chores and swipe them off when they’re done.
Then, being in the industry I’m in, I thought some more: what if I could incentivize my own chores — add some “No Man’s Sky” time after knocking out a few of them? The idea grew: recurring chores… and then the light bulb went off.
What if I could list all my chores, recurring or otherwise, put in my free time for the day or the week, and have the system automatically sort the work into the gaps? A schedule of the best times to do things — without them colliding with my unavailable time.
In other words: make the free time the focus, and not the activity.
The leap
I got excited. It’s a simple idea, and with simple ideas, the ability to scale is enormous. My mind instantly drifted to the volunteer community: what if a system where you enter your free time automatically returned volunteer opportunities — and you could sign up for that timeframe, no strings attached, except showing up for the event, of course? The organization could track its volunteer count through the system, and over time, any given area could finally meet a charity’s needs, spreading the work across many individuals — because volunteering becomes easy.
My mind likes to work on things without telling me about it. It kept expanding: what if the free-time focus could hold any activity you want to fit in — read a book, go on a hike, visit friends, eat out, spend time with your better-half, volunteer… whatever. Then “What2do with your free time” felt really, uncomfortably natural. Because what do you want to do with your free time? You want to live your life.
What2do.Live was born. (And then I gobbled up the domain name ÿ)
The bigger vision
Of course my mind then tried to loop the ideas together for five years down the road (scope creep!), and it was more like a Tarantino movie with the timeline. But I came back to reality and broke it out into two ideas sharing the same core:
The What2do.Live ecosystem would also revolutionize targeted marketing — delivering relevant offers in line with the system’s actual function, non-obtrusively, and NOT tracking the user (say WHAAAAAAAAAT!). The system itself was envisioned around the lowest-need personal information set, working as the foundation. A social layer could come later (how else would you know what your friends are doing), with user opt-in and no forced sharing.
But the part I’m most excited about is how the bigger idea can subsidize the volunteer idea.
A little about me
A few truths I try to live by. I was born in 1978 and straddle two generations — Gen X and the Millennials. I grew up in a stable, middle-class home, but I was engulfed in a high-competition atmosphere (I’m a little bit of a smarticle-particle): highest grades, Math Olympics, and so on.
My adult belief — as a step-father to an 18- and a 17-year-old I’ve been part of for twelve years — is that we should recognize the child who is an active participant, because that encourages experimentation and exploration. But we can’t, and shouldn’t, take away recognition for those who excel, because that’s what builds self-reliance, self-motivation, self-determination, teamwork — accepting and giving help.
I’ve found myself in situations where I could help someone — people with special needs who gravitated toward me, organizations I gave my time to, the work I do. In no way am I a saint; I don’t want that perception out there. I do not volunteer regularly, but I do help people on a regular basis. When I zoom out and look for commonalities across my whole life — when I was happiest, what meant the most — helping people, and people being comfortable around me, dominate. (It happens with animals, too.)
Where we are now
That evening in February was in 2017. What2do.Live, LLC was filed, a foundation was started, and the year-one plan was funded. Then the work went long, the world moved, and the site went quiet — while the idea kept working, as it does.
It’s not quiet anymore. The core is being rebuilt: your free time in, a matched local need out, no strings attached. When it’s ready, it will be simple, free, and private — the way it was always supposed to be.
If you want to know the minute it’s live, join the waitlist.