I am not much of a planner unless it is strictly for work purposes. It’s not because I don’t want to plan — I do — but I tend to get overwhelmed very quickly.
A lot of my planning is usually done through apps like Google Calendar, Gemini, and Google Keep for recorded notes.
But here’s where the disaster lies in my organization: I am always late getting to my chores and household tasks.
As a result, I tend to push a lot of this off until the weekend.
Then disaster continues to strike when I get more than I need at the grocery store, do emergency ordering on Amazon with two-day shipping, and my outside chores get really sloppy.
So I thought to myself, why not make my weekly planning actually fun, not just for work productivity purposes, but for my personal life too?
That’s when I gave the Mixboard at Google Labs a try. It’s a visual and brainstorming AI tool. It transforms words into images and adds descriptors or captions to your ideas and plans.
Basically, it’s like using a whiteboard with extra pizzazz.
I’m a very artsy person, so this was up my alley. It made it feel like I was bringing my plans to life in a more fun and relaxing way without it being so structured.
Plus, it’s a public Google Labs experiment that can be joined through any working smartphone, even if you’re not using one of Google’s top Pixel phones.
Essentially, you’ll select a Google account on the Google Labs experiment page, and you’re in.
Mixboard brings style and mood in one place
An image-oriented brainstorming board managed by AI
I never thought adding images would spruce up my thinking, but after trying this experiment, I learned how helpful it can be.
From the get-go, Mixboard is entirely prompt-based, but you can edit anything it adds afterward.
As much as I enjoy the AI creating the list for me for some ideas, it is better if I write my own and copy its structure, which, from my testing, defaults to using embedded bullets or added captions.
So far, this works well since I am quite minimalistic when it comes to writing things down. It’s just simple lists with captions.
But I will say, the platform feels more like a brainstorming board than anything else.
However, that’s not bad when you’re in the pre-planning stages of a project, but if you want more, like a set schedule, you’re better off using a content management app.
So I wouldn’t really use this for work unless I am trying to come up with project ideas on my own.
That’s what I liked about Mixboard: the AI was helpful because it was proactive, but it didn’t overwhelm me.
For example, with one of my early mixboards, I used it to create a grocery list with a few images, but it grew over time into a meal-planning board.
It eventually became one tailored to my dietary needs, and I used it to properly budget my grocery shopping and set a reminder to stay conscious of my budget.
While I was making it, it was also nice that the AI didn’t overcompensate for what I was trying to do.
In the past, I have tried using the Gemini app with similar prompts. Unfortunately, it would usually add pricing to my meal costs, which were always sorely outdated, or suggest brands I had never even heard of.
Plus, if I didn’t like a produced image, I didn’t have to regenerate it. I could click on it, make a few stylization changes, and even ask the AI to study its style.
I prefer this approach, since whatever I create with Nano Banano feels like a lottery. Some images turned out okay, others were horrendous, and some were decent.
With Mixboard, I found that describing the mood and style, or using one of the AI-generated suggestions, made it easiest to add images that weren’t overly distracting.
It was almost like a web of ideas was coming to life as I was prepping my weekly meals.
Plus, I found the initial prompt about your theme or goal in Mixboard also yielded the best results, since it gave the AI default styles to choose from, meaning I didn’t need to spend too much time editing my board.
Sharing and formatting your personal mixboard
I ran into some hiccups while doing this
After spending some time, I came to loathe creating PDFs from my mixboards.
The process takes five minutes each, and for some reason, all my text came out in code rather than actual text.
I assume this is a bug, which is why it is still a beta feature.
But it isn’t a dealbreaker, since I can save the image and paste it into my computer for reference, or share the Mixboard link if I want to brainstorm with others.
Also, your projects are saved to the same Google account. So if you want to hop into the experiment on your mobile device, you can, as long as you select the right account.
I don’t love editing or creating a mixboard on my mobile device, but it was fine to read. The Hand icon is your pan select, and you can pinch in and out to control the zoom.
Tapping the Plus icon on mobile was a nightmare. The options were often cut off from view. I recommend uploading images while in desktop view.
Surprisingly, the board looks great in landscape mode — at least for the boards I created.
Though if I needed help from the AI to generate a list on my mobile device, I used the prompt and did simple edits after it was done.
After making some edits (you can do so by tapping away from the prompt window, then tapping the text), I took a screenshot of my results to make it look more like a list.
If I really wanted to, I could add the image to a note-taking app or turn it into a checklist. Or I could add it to my collections as a way to bookmark it.
Accessing it again wasn’t an issue since I use my primary account by default.
Mixboard gave me the canvas I needed to materialize my ideas
After playing around with Mixboard for my weekly schedule, like cleaning chores, dog care, meal prepping, and grocery shopping, I learned more about myself, including my stress triggers.
I found that the more images I used, the less stressed I was compared to reading blocks of text I placed in my Google Docs and Samsung Notes.
Essentially, I need more visual reminders to keep my brain from fumbling in its own chaos.
Currently, my next step is to find a good note-taking app that visually emulates sticky notes (not Google Keep), see if I can turn my formatted text into sticky notes, and then add that to Mixboard.
