zygonic - Integrated Productivity

Dashboard
Create and modify tasks
Example of some n8n workflows we use
Starting a task triggers workflow (fully automated)

Inspiration

The Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. We created a productivity app that takes advantage of this effect (and named it after a common mispelling of the effect). We believe that the best products have a strong purpose in order to stand out, and so we wanted to use this as a unique spin on productivity. It is simply a task management system and productivity tool that leverages human psychology to make your work easier. Existing task management systems are rigid, forcing users to 1) rely on their own motivation to get tasks started and 2) complete entire tasks at once. Instead of trying to complete work that only you can do, it simply gets the ball rolling and makes things easier. The biggest problem with AI generative tools is that they aren’t consistently accurate - this bridges the gap by leveraging generative AI without forcing it.

What it does

We created a Swift app so that you can use our tool directly from the MacOS icon bar. You enter in any task like you would on a todo list, and it takes the task and integrates with other apps to get you to a starting point of doing the task, without actually doing it for you. For example, if you need to "send an email to my friend about a birthday party", it would create a sample email directly in your drafts in Gmail, so all you have to do is fill out the rest of the email in the Gmail app and press send. If you wanted to "build a personal website", the Zygonic tool will create a directory for you and populate it with starter files, like an index. If you wanted to "journal more", it could open a Notion page and give it some headers for journaling. These tasks are also kept track of in the app, so you can also go back and see your progress on them.

How we built it

We used XCode to create a Swift app for MacOS so that we could integrate it into the icon bar. The Swift app then sends an API request to our flask server, which then handles prompting Gemini to figure out what is needed to be done according to the task. The task request is also added to a postgresql database so we can keep track of progress. Then Gemini's request is sent to N8N for an agentic approach to interfacing with things like Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, and Google Sheets.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into challenges regarding newer experiences with using agentic workflows and also coding with Xcode for Swift. We hadn't done either of those things before, so there were problems with connecting to the webhook in N8N and also with just using Swift, a language that is unknown to any of our groupmates. Fortunately, we spent a lot of time figuring things out, and now it is able to go through the entire process cleanly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of being able to create a fully integrated demo, from pushing a button on the typical mac icon list to being able to get to automatically adding a google calendar event. I think that this entire process was fun to struggle through, and I am glad we are done for now with plenty of additions for later.

What we learned

We learned that keeping features manageable while planning helped us to create a base finished product. I think that keeping the possible integrations low was a good idea, since currently while we can't do something like create a youtube video, the framework is there to add it in the future.

What's next for zygonic - Integrated Productivity

In the future, there are definitely more things we can add. We can work on adding more integrations with what Zygonic can do for you, like Youtube, an improvement on VSCode, Canvas, or more. We also can use ai agents in the N8N process instead of Gemini calling specific api calls, since it doesn't know what the tasks need for parameters in N8N, just what it can give. We can also return a link to whatever was made all the way back to the mac icon Swift app.