If alarm clocks and iCal just aren't doing it for you in terms of waking up and going about your day, meet Morning Person, a startup company employing actual human beings who give you call in the morning to wake you up and remind you of all the things you have to do that day — if you want, they can even pepper in the day's top headlines and give you future meeting reminders.
The company is currently in its testing phase, and the basic goal is to personalize your calls, verbalize your day, and lead to higher productivity. For $25 a month, you'll receive five calls a week from a native English speaker who knows only your first name (for reasons of privacy) and full calendar and to-do list integration, giving this person access to the things you need to be reminded of every day. The employees for the startup make between $12 and $16 dollars an hour working out of home. It all sounds pretty reasonable.
But the nagging question still remains: WHY. What's the point of this? Who's going to buy into this? Though there is no demographic information for people expressing interest in it, it seems to target young professionals who seem to think they need a personal assistant to help them stay organized. When confronted with the "why?" question, founder of Morning Person, Dave Fryer told the website Ozymandias that if he "visualized" and "verbalized his day" early in the morning, it dramatically increased his productivity. Some users have said being held accountable by another human being motivates them to get up and get things done.
I remain skeptical about the service because when it comes down to it, I have to roll out of bed at 6 a.m. every single day, whether or not there's a stranger telling me to do so on the phone. But maybe if the service can get a wide enough user-base, expand on some of its features, and do something unique not being done by other services or apps, it'll be worth the yearly $300.
