How grad student TAs can keep track of everything with Nirvaana

The real worry

You are a student and a teacher in the same week. You have your own reading, your own problem sets, maybe a seminar paper. You also have a section to prepare, office hours to hold, and a steady trickle of messages from students who need an answer.

Most of the stress is not the work itself. It is the small promises scattered everywhere. "I'll look into that and get back to you." "I'll send the review problems by Tuesday." "Let me check with the professor about the extension." Each one is easy. Together they are a lot to carry in your head, on top of your own deadlines.

Nirvaana is built for exactly that kind of load. It keeps track so your mind can rest, and you can put your attention on the thing in front of you.

A day with Nirvaana

Here is an example, not a real user story. Say you're Priya, a second-year grad student. You take one seminar and TA two sections of an intro course.

8:00 am: Catch me up

You open Nirvaana and type "Catch me up." It tells you what is due, the late things first. Maybe your seminar response is due Thursday, and there is a note that you told a student you would send practice problems. You see all of it in one place, instead of in three apps and a sticky note.

Your own classes come in by themselves

If you connect Canvas, each class you take comes in on its own, with its files, its facts and every due date. Nirvaana only reads Canvas. It does not post or change anything there. The files are kept on your computer.

That covers the classes where you are the student. It is a good way to stop your own coursework from getting lost under your teaching.

11:30 am: A promise made in the hallway

A student catches you after section and asks about the quiz format. You say you will confirm with the professor and email the class tonight. Later, you tell Nirvaana in your own words: "I told the section I'd confirm the quiz format with Dr. Lee and email them tonight."

Nirvaana keeps that promise in view until it is done. Today shows what you owe and what you're owed. If Dr. Lee says "I'll send you the final room by Friday," you can tell Nirvaana that too, and it remembers the promise people made to you.

2:00 pm: Section prep

You are planning next week's section. You can keep your notes and files in Nirvaana's Brain, which is your notes and files on your computer as a map you can search. When you want to find that example you wrote last term, you ask for it in plain words.

If you like working in code or data, Notebooks are on by default. You get Python and writing on one page, run on your own computer, and you can open any notebook in VS Code when you want. That is handy for building a worked example you can show your section.

9:00 pm: Close the loop

Before bed you type "Catch me up" again. The quiz email is still open. You write it, send it yourself, and tell Nirvaana it is done. Nirvaana does not send anything for you without your yes, so the last step is always yours.

Sharing with co-TAs, carefully

If you and another TA split a course, you can make a world for it and send it to them. A world is one part of your life with the people in it. Your own world stays yours alone. Nothing from it goes into the shared world until you press Approve, and a shared world is shared only with its people.

That means you can share the section schedule or the answer to a common question without sharing your private notes about your own coursework. You choose what goes across, one item at a time.

What it won't do

• It only reads Canvas. It does not write to it.
• It is built to stop before it sends, posts, pays, signs or deletes, and hand the step to you. Where it can, it does the work up to that point and points at the button. You press it.
• That check is automatic and not perfect. Look over anything that matters before you send it.
• It is one agent for one person. It is not a course tool for your whole class, and it is not a replacement for your department's systems.
• It is not a grading tool. It is a place for your own deadlines, promises and notes.

What stays private

• Your own world is yours alone.
• A shared world is shared only with its people, and nothing from your own world goes in until you press Approve.
• We do not train on your world. We sell nothing and share nothing for advertising.
• You can download your world, or delete your account, from Settings.

If you are handling anything about students that your university treats as protected, follow your institution's rules about where that information can live. When in doubt, ask your department or the instructor of record before you put it anywhere.

Where to start

1. Download Nirvaana for Mac, sign in, and connect the AI you already pay for: ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. No plan? Google's free Gemini works with a Google account, and the app sets it up during the first run. Windows and iPhone versions are coming soon.
2. Connect Canvas so your own classes and due dates come in. Then type "Catch me up."
3. Tell it your first three promises in your own words. The ones you made to students are a good place to begin.

Give it a week and see whether the "did I answer that?" feeling gets quieter. For more on keeping on top of due dates, read how to stop forgetting assignments. If you also share work with classmates, Nirvaana for group projects covers who owes what by when.

Nirvaana is for people 18 and older, and it is available in the US for now.