Tides: Tactile After-School Energy Pacing for My 11-Year-Old Daughter
What I Built I built Tides for my 11-year-old daughter, Nia , who just started 6th grade. Entering middle school is an immense sensory, physical, and cognitive leap. Every afternoon around 3:30 PM, Nia walks through the front door carrying an oversized backpack and an empty mental battery after 7 hours of changing classrooms, navigating social dynamics, noisy cafeterias, and intense physical…
Tides is a new app designed to help my 11-year-old daughter, Nia, manage her energy levels after a long day of school. Entering middle school brings a lot of challenges, and Nia often comes home exhausted from navigating social situations, noisy cafeterias, and intense physical education classes. The app aims to solve this problem in under 10 seconds.
When Nia opens the app, she sees a simple question - "How full is your tank, Nia?" - and she can drag a fluid slider to indicate her energy level. The app then creates three tactile zones for her afternoon: Focus (deep blue), Reset (sage), and Joy (amber). She can't spend too much time in Focus, as the app automatically limits it to 20 minutes when her energy level is low.
If Nia logs an arrival battery level of 30% or lower, the app triggers a fail-safe, reducing Focus time to 20 minutes and reallocating 40 minutes to Reset. It also detects patterns of fatigue, like missed after-school activities, and tries to protect her schedule. Tasks can be sorted into three categories - Must Do, Next Up, and Later - using large tactile cards.
Nia can then complete a 15-minute sprint focused task, followed by a tactile reflection. Completed tasks in the Later category that sit untouched for 21 days are automatically deleted, without any nagging notifications.
Parents can monitor Nia's progress through a Parent Dashboard, which shows four key metrics: Average Arrival Tank, Joy:Focus Ratio, Task Drag Rate, and Zombie Days. The app's code is open-source on GitHub, and it uses a pluggable rule engine to avoid complex if-else logic. The Battery MVP Rule is designed to prevent overuse when Nia's energy level is low.
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