This is a guest post from Alicia, a SELF trialist since May 2023

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As we prepare to say farewell to 2023 and enthusiastically step forward into a new year, our heads are full of all those New Year resolutions we will make and probably break before the first week of January is out.

Me? I’m 100% confident that I will be sticking to my main resolution - to be better at planning the future.

I consider myself super organised in everything I do, but the one thing that I am not so good at is forward planning. To be fair, I start with good intentions, but then something happens and the plans I had in my head fall by the wayside - superseded by more pressing priorities.

But 2024 will be different; it really will. With the aid of SELF, my digital twin, my personal planning and purchasing concierge, I have found I can effortlessly plan everything, all via message exchange.

My SELF has a digital record of almost everything that makes up my hectic life...even that I love long weekends and try to keep Fridays free for 'fun things."  

So, suppose I want to plan a theatre and hotel experience to see Hamilton: SELF will automatically check availability for a Friday or a Monday that happens to be a Bank Holiday, unless I specify a particular day or date I would like to book. SELF will even prompt me for things I might need to buy to enhance my trip. For example, SELF knows that I love wearing a particular style of dress, short and ultra-feminine, when I go out, so it might suggest a dress in my favourite colour that I would like to buy for my trip away.

SELF has a memory to rival any genius; it never forgets anything I have said to it. I only have to tell SELF something once; there is never any miscommunication, unlike platforms like ChatGPT that seem to either forget what I’ve said, misinterpret what I mean, or get facts wrong. These don't care about me personally...so why should I care about them?

Meanwhile, my SELF uses my preferences on a daily basis. So, if I take my theatre trip and stay in a particular hotel, SELF records the booking. Then, in the future, if I ask SELF what hotel I stayed in last year when I went to see Hamilton, SELF will be able to recall the details; and obviously it's smart enough to let me know if there are any special discounts!

Having plans in the diary is an essential part of my life; I reckon most of us work hard juggling daily tasks and priorities professionally and personally.  Knowing we have things to look forward to can help us stay motivated, especially when working on a laborious and stressful activity. It's enjoyable when we can count down the weeks until we go on that 'special' day out and even more so when you know that it has all been organised by your very own SELF.

I have already started my 2024 planning, and it makes my heart happy to know that I can message my digital twin at any time of the day.