Are we consumers or creators?

"Do you have something to share today?"
"Have you created something which you can share on WhatsApp status or on Facebook timeline?"

If one has to ask himself/ herself, how much did (s)he consumed and how much did (s)he created in a day with respect to knowledge we consumed on that particular day then it would be a debatable answer. In today's world we (all of us) love to sit idle and consume content from our cellphone, tablet or computers.
The tools for human productivity is now converting to a tool for distraction.

What we do in a day is either browse through Facebook or watch some videos on Youtube, or read news to increase our knowledge on current affairs or something exciting to compensate our exhaustive day. But the most important question to ask is - whether all these browsing and knowledge consumption is helping to move forward towards your goal?

Oh wait, did I just mentioned 'your goal!'
How did I assumed that you have a goal.

Well there is a purpose for which we all live our day the way we live our day, isn't it?
So, here is the question: Does each day of your life taking you closer to your goal? Think!

Don't worry, if you are getting a mixed response from your head, it's fine, there are people who don't set their goals even and live through their life, happily :-) [no sarcasm]

Now, here is another question: How does one set their goal or more importantly how does one realise that this is my goal?
The true answer is - No One.

Yes, no one who set their goal, are very clear about their goal, but they get a direction through their decided goal and start walking towards it. Practically, all of us at some point of time, very dedicatedly - Set a Goal, then we walk towards it focused and determined. Afterwards, we get distracted. Why!
There are millions of unstructured but highly interesting content which will lure your attention and consume your time and energy. We all fall trap into the addictive algorithms written by Facebook or YouTube to keep our attention hooked into their infinite timeline scroll or the best possible video suggestions respectively, and then we feel guilty afterwards.

Don't fall in the trap of passive entertainment (i.e. doing anything which is fun but does not involves you intellectually or creatively). Here is a short para from an article on passive entertainment:

Look at the passive voice we use when we talk about entertainment nowadays. We are entertained, we like being entertained; we do not entertain ourselves or do exciting, hilarious things that also entertain us. We are largely passive participants in entertainment, while “entertainers” are an elite, select group of professionals who make good money entertaining us, and “entertainment” has come to signify the various mediums through which we consume entertainment – TV, Internet, video games, etc. Entertainment is very much about things being done to and for us, while we lay back and take it all in.

Finally, do your research on this topic and find how you are getting distracted everyday (if you are), choose what you want to ignore, list down what is not adding value to your life or helping you grow, put them on your blacklist and review it once every week. I use Google Keep for that.
If you don't take care of your focus, where you are choosing to put your attention, then that means you are consciously opting to become a victim to this attractive digital world.
"Don't be a consumer only, create something as well, craft out something from your imagination & share with your world". Next time share on WhatsApp's status or on Facebook's timeline, what you created rather than someone else's creation.

[Story] The boy who had a brave heart, but made a wrong decision.

This story is about a boy who is about to turn 18, from the chaos of the city and honks of the horns, one day he decides to take a path less traveled.. which was into the mountains. He was determined, he wanted to cross those mountains. Without telling anyone, he packed his bag and one morning left towards his destiny.

By the time it was dark, he was lost, he was afraid, he was stumbling and regretting. He thought whether he ran away from the chaos or did he ran into the chaos. All his thoughts were arguing with him for the decision he took. When he reached to the tip of the mountain, he had a look. He found nothing, it was a dump and dark everywhere, he lost the track, he lost the direction, now he was nowhere. Suddenly he slipped and fell a long way down.

When he stood up, he was already in shock.
He was forgetting who he was!
At that very moment, he sang a poem, which came out of his heart. This was his far cry:

I felt lost,
I feel the chaos.
Am I understanding the composition of reality?
Or is it just a mere basked dish cooked by time itself! which I am consuming or made to consume.

Why this noise in head?
Resonating through this darkness and loneliness.

Am I drifting?
or Am I falling!

Destination has shifted or scratched from my timeline.
Floating through the time, I am moving ahead towards a pointless turn.

Will I fall or be stamped by the events of my life?
Is this a long path or I can't see anyone in this dark!

Am I going to find myself or have to create one...

...BROKEN PIECES LOST


(to be continued)

The Peaceful Castle

"This story is about a young immature boy [young because he needs to learn a lot, immature because he commits mistakes, mistakes which are irreversible]. So now this boy who owns a land, owns a lady (who is a princess for him), owns a castle of mirrors [there is a reason why it's of mirrors]. The story is all about happiness, joy, loss and finding peace."

You tried to build a castle
A castle of mirrors
A castle of memories and emotions

Yes you wanted to have that beautiful fort to keep a princess
The princess which you have earned in this life
You wanted to live this life with her

Castle has to be as beautiful as she is,
(being beautiful is not only external but internal as well)
Or else it won't be comfortable for her, isn't it?
That castle has to be of mirrors,
Transparent and flawless.

You were there, about to finish the castle.
You were there when it was about to complete.
You made sure it gets completed.

Then!

Unspoken words,
Unspoken events,
Unspoken deeds.

You were there only,
but not the castle.

It was gone, gone forever.
You saw it going, you saw it disappearing.
It's somewhere where you don't know and can't know as well.

Ohhh, then you thought about the princess you had, yes now you had.
She is not there anymore.
You lost it, lost it in the chaos, the chaos and the tornado created by your own hands.

After all this while, when you were putting so much to build the castle,
you didn't realize that you are not capable of having that princess.
It made you void, it made me numb.

It was no more, there was nothing.
Now there is no winds blowing, no birds chirping.
Sun doesn't rises, moon doesn't glow.
It's just a plan simple barren land and blue sky with me.

I am stuck in this long large land,
It's not dark, there is pale blue light all over.
I can see myself that I am alive.
But all the dreams of the castle and green grassy lands are gone.
Nothing left.
Only the dreamt imaginations and failed wishes.

Is this called a loss or emptiness,
Atleast there is one satisfaction in heart that the princess will be happy somewhere and the castle will be standing somewhere.
Though those are not with me, but it is somewhere.

This fact gives me peace.
This fact gives me completeness.

Poetry #1

You dreamt of a train,
You dreamt of a train.

The only train, you wished to be on.
The train which you thought will take you to the destiny.

You dreamt of that train,
You dreamt of that train.

You planned how you will travel,
You imagined how it will look like from the windows.

You saw yourself being in it,
You smiled when you were crossing mountains and the terranean.

You touched the glass there was the rain,
You saw the rainbow coming out of the clouds.

Green fields and paddy grounds,
All crossed by saying you good bye.

You dreamt of that train,
You dreamt of the paths which were passing by.

All this you saw in your dreams,
So, that you wake up and make it real.

When the morning light came up,
You rushed to the station,
Catching your breathe,
You flashed through the roads.

On reaching there, you saw the train.
It already left, it was already far away.

You dreamt of this train which was already gone!
All the memories and the dreams were shouting in your brain.

You dreamt of this train,
Which you can't catch it again.

You have to see it passing away,
but still you dreamt of this train.

Tears rolled down through the eyes,
It was still raining outside.
Looking the dream pass by,
Thinking,
How will I sleep again and dream again.

Am I distracted or not paying attention

There are different channels on YouTube with lots of suggestion coming up on my home screen, I might not want to watch them but I am trapped in those suggestion. There are movies, serials, and now malls with glossy display to lure my attention. There are too many apps or solution to solve the problem which I face. 

When ever I try to download an app, at the very moment there are tones of suggested apps which are asking me to download them as well. Do I even know that I don't need to click on the suggested apps? They are just there to keep gulping my time which I spend on a certain online platform.

Somewhere I feel, "The larger part of my life is connected to internet and electronic devices, including this blog posting, rather than to nature."

 

All this which is around me is mostly man-made and I fell we creatures are worst in creation. Look at what we have been creating so far, the output of each innovation generates a new problem statement to be solved.

 

Okay, coming back to normal, there was a time when I liked to watch movies and serials, I use to do movie/ serial marathon, but today? 

I don't like it anymore. 

I have become very much selective now.

 

I use to get effected by those false creation/ dream sellers whose content were no were related to real world scenarios, though I was enjoying it. 

 

I see people love to go to a movie hall to entertain themselves by hooking their mind into a false reality on the screen rather than going to a park with their family and feel the grass and air, even I use to do so and still learning how things are getting different and we are loosing the true essence of our being. 

Malls and movie halls are much cleaner than parks, we cannot throw a piece of thrash anywhere in mall but can dump it in a green ground which was crafted by mother earth just for us, expecting that she will take care of it and later we claim it to be dirty and opt out to not go there.

We came from cellphone to green gardens in this post, isn't it, huge different?

 

Anyway, putting all this aside, I talked about myself, something for you, when was the last time you touched a leaf of a plant with your touch-screen based fingers?

Work - finding your purpose

Recently, I went to Kochi, met with Dr. Mahesh at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. I had some really good conversation with Dr. Mahesh, understood some critical healthcare problems and how brilliant minds are working on it. There are research papers which specialist like them release, available on web, which has years of research's and experiment's summary.
Doctor shared how he saved a young kid's life through 3D printing his heart, as doctors were not ready to operate him because they were unable to find a way by looking in the MRI scan and come up with a feasible solution, but what Dr. Mahesh created a 3D print of the heart and sliced it right at the area where it was required to calculate the size of the flap which will filled and thus this way saved the boy.
Now, to gather this 3D printer Dr. Mahesh contacted couple of people outside India but it was hard to bring in such printer, but somehow he was successful. After the operation, the kid was saved and on recovery asked him if he can see the 3D printed model of his heart. On showing it to him Doctor came to know that this kid had already made a 3D printer 3 months back at his home, this kid belonging from a small town near to Kochi has collected information, contacted people all around the globe, ordered items from Alibaba and built a basic prototype of 3D printer which was actually working. What a coincidence!!!

While having a conversation with Dr. Mahesh, who was 45 but use to look like 35, I asked why are he is working here in Kochin at AIMS as he can earn 5x times anywhere in India but he choose this place, why? (he is from Delhi actually but has been here from last 13 years)
He told that in north doctor are asked to touch the business goal but here we focus on saving the pediatrics (infants), with a humor he told that this morning you might have woke up and had you breakfast, right? but this morning from 6 to 10, he saved 6 lives, that also infants, just imagine the smile on those little kids when they get well. This is what he emphasized is the real reward for him, working at AIMS.

He suggested, one day while working you will get an opportunity or say path which you truly want to walk on not for money but for the cause which touch you, will satisfy you, choose that path and you will be happy, content and creative henceforth just as he is.


Addons
There are real world problems which are occurring and then there are people who are trying to solve those problems. What we are doing is crying about our own substantial problems which don’t have a real meaning and worth of, but as we are so much distracted in our own life, we don’t get time to look at these real world problems and get inspired to solve it.

There are research papers on pubMed and open source platform where people like Dr. Mahesh release their publications which are generated after months of research. Now how these people can have connect to young innovators to facilitate research work in the hands for future generation and on the other hand how these young innovators can have connects to such people who can act as mentors and guide them to give path in their life.

That chap wanted to build a 3D printing machine and he reached out to different people across the globe for help and even ordered items from Alibaba to assemble and test the device. This line actually inspired me, we are so much hesitant in our lives to even talk to someone and that chap was asking questions and help from unknowns. That's actually excellent. 

3 years of Lattice's journey

Lattice – a journey

August 28^th 2014, everyone in IT department was called in a conference room and the final decision was publically revealed that Soura, Chayan and Sahil are separating out from Glocal! Everyone in IT team was shocked and surprised, I was too. We were dismissed and most of us came down to ground floor where we have casual chitchat. I remember, out of logic, I told to Sahil that where ever you guys are going, I am coming. I was brought-in by Soura, not by Glocal recruitment team; so I don’t have any bondage to be in Glocal once he leaves. All this was illogical, but enthusiasm and energy was sprouting out through words.

Next day Soura offered me with a calculated risk that he has 6 months of salary to give, the 7^th month salary will be dependent on the work and effort we will put in these 6 months. Deal closed. It was a counting period, can’t procrastinate, and have to work.

It was scary, but it was exciting; that’s what mattered then. Every colleague around me warned me not to join, but I had already made my mind without any second thought. Though I was scared but had desire to learn.

First day of Lattice – October 13^th 2014, I came to Chayan’s house. Soura came in a short while. Our rented office was not furnished yet, but still we all decided to inaugurate it with an agarbatti. Bought tables and other necessary items to start working. Using our mobile hotspot and laptop we sat down to initiate work on it’s very first official day. It was not as glorious as working in a big IT building having a polished looking office area, it was how starting from a scratch looks like and somewhere admirable. No one was scared, even if we were, Soura, Chayan and Sahil were much mature to show it outside, and I have to resonate with them as well, so no option left.

Three years down the line – the 6 month has converted into 3 years now and we came from CK-81 Kolkata to C-25 New Delhi

Rishikesh Diaries - April 10, 2016

It was a hell of the trip. Not so known people, rafting, early morning walks and taking pictures. It was good and a decent one.
A lady from Germany taught me about reducing carbs intake and Mohit added to it by informing not to have sugar after evening.
A guy who informed me that meditation is what you learn first and then practice.

It was all of a sudden trip, booked train tickets when Mohit told me that he is planning to go to Rishikesh. I did booked the train tickets to Haridwar and left on Friday night. Though it will will reach there in the morning, but I arrived there at 4 AM, what to do!!!

I did have conversation with co-travelers, got to know who they are, from where they are. They seems to be trustworthy, the old myth that not to talk to strangers was not working here. We stepped out of the station and had a cup of tea, I was wondering what to do in this dark dawn. Everyone who were in the train were traveling to a place call 'Har-ki-podi', so even I started walking with them. There were hundreds of people going to same place, I didn't want to be left out alone in the dark. With me, two of the co-travelers also joined and we started talking and walking towards 'Har-ki-podi'.

When I reached there, couldn't resist the temptation to take a dip in the water - the fresh Gangotri water. Didn't have a towel so bought it then and there and went for a scared bath (this is what they call). The water was freezingly cold even in the month of April, but it gave a feeling of relaxation. Nobody was there who could see me and judge me by having the knowledge of my life, there were two acquaintance whom I meet in the train but they don't know me well. I was calm and relaxed, looking around when the sun was about to rise and bring that place to life.
At 5:45, there was a morning Aarti to welcome the sun, it was good to be present there at that moment and watch it.

We had our breakfast after that and went to a temple which was located at the top of a mountain, did darsana of the Gods. It was those two acquaintance's idea but while going to the top, it was a beautiful sight of Haridwar. After coming down, we headed to Rishikesh. There we parted our ways, I met with Mohit, went straight to Zostel.

Rishikesh - was cool and adventurous. Went to river rafting, cliff jumping, it was so extra ordinary experiences. Chilled water of the river, different activities, fear of jumping from the cliff - at that moment you feel gravity at it's best. By evening we came back to our zostel, then we headed to have dinner at one of the oldest restaurant, by 12 we were back and slept.
Don't know from where the thought of waking up early in the morning came to my mind, I was tired but though got up at 5 and left for a walk around Rishikesh.

Ram Jhula was the best spot I felt, cool breeze at it's speed, the sight of the mountains and the river. The most amazing part, there was no one around. I was standing on the Jhula, only I was there, that's it. I stopped and felt the breeze and the moment for a while, trying to consume the enormity of the moment and nature for a while.

     

Moving forward, I walked through the streets of Rishikesh, all alone, no one at my sight. Slowly people had started appearing at a distance. It was silence and serene. I was smiling profoundly from inside, feeling up gasp of oxygen in my lungs and absorbing the sights and atmosphere.

        

I thanked myself to wake up early and going out for the walk. It filled a sense of having the feeling of being alive in me, being present in the moment and in your surroundings. I loved it.

This was the part of Rishikesh which I saw and perceived, rest everyone experience the same thing, only this part was different.

Welcoming 2015 with a Sunrise

We slept at nearly 2 o' clock in the morning after walking through a mile. It was 1st Jan 2015.

All of us went to the beach that midnight, to see the fire crackers and the joy of new year. The sparkling of fire crackers, for 10 minutes we looked up in the sky. We all were really enjoying the moment. It was nice and fun.

Then we returned to our hotels, it was late around 1:30 AM. Sitting on our bed, me, Anup and Ankit decided to watch the Sunrise. I really wanted to, as it inspires me. The soft red color Sun, rising from the horizon and reflecting through water, which later will glow so brightly that it's hard to look at.
It says, you can be weak or posses less skills and quality now; but that doesn't mean you will be like this all the while. Try and give time to yourself, practice, persevere and be patient, you will reach where and what you are determined of. This view fills up energy in me to grow and glow. That's why I really wanted to go to see the Sunrise.

Darsh and Binay were tired and they didn't want to go. We decided, we will try to wake them up, if they don't then don't, but we three will go. :-)

Slept at 2 might be, I don't remember that whether we actually slept or not, but at 4 AM, we woke up, tired and went to the beach.

August 4 2015

I hear my senior executives talking to people in English and have a very good conversation with them, like for an example by the end of the conversation they mention that how it was good to have you on the call/conversation, this clearly reflects the quality of conversation and creates a bonding between them professionally.

Am I not enjoying the work at this moment or I am getting weak in coding? I don't like to code in any language any more. I just like to think about the logic, design the system and write the SQL queries.

I am still dangling with the thought that what is better for me? The technical part which I am finding I am not good at or the one which is more managerial stuff. I am not good in english and communication hence I can't go in front to the clients or our customers because I may lower the quality of the organization, I am not a perfect professional with the quality of the professionalism.

My problem: Conversation and Communication in English. Here is where I lack. I need to make myself good at this one.
I will work on it.

Integrating linkedin is really taking me time. Have I became lazy?
No I wasn't lazy, I was not clear what to do exactly. After discussing it with my colleague, now I know what to do and how?

I was able to achieve something today i.e. to display the authorization box to the user.
But today was not so productive too. After the lunch I took a break to play an addictive game, then worked something related to CRY, then browsed through social media. In this way I spent 3 hours of my time and did almost nothing kind of.

Sales call

August 9th post:

Today I called all the students who have registered themselves for the platform, ReCoin Lab. Some were excited, some where okay and some where like I don't know who you are!

Sometimes it was embarrassing to talk to some as they were least interested in the conversation, there was this guy who showed interest first then he told if I can call him up after sometime, then after 2 hours when I called him; he simply disconnected the call.

These are called sales call, you are not going to make all of them, turn into a success sale. Somewhere you need to keep trying and pushing to make your initial sales. Yes I know these are not the part which you have ever done and are comfortable to do. It's okay, you can take this as your practical MBA course. If you fail, you may fail but you need to come up with strategies and build those around them.

I need to make a lot of sales call I guess in upcoming months and keep trying to get all those call towards affirmative directions. Sales call are the most tough part in the business until and unless you create a value which is really required and there is demand for it.
Yes I need to focus more on the product which I am trying to build and keep improving the quality of it.

Marketing will automatically happen when there is a quality and once I have a brand value, most of the marketing channel targets will convert to successful sales as well.

Next day edits (June 26th): Some of the students were asking if this is an online platform!

Failed #5

Okay I failed, I left Delhi, a good paying job and came to Kolkata to start something of my own, to create something but I failed bad. It was not okay and comfortable to accept that I failed, but the reality is I did.
Now what?

From last 10 days I was drowning in my own darkness and heavily low in energy. I don't know what to do now and what to do next! Completely feeling lost somewhere. Talking to near by people and friends is only helping me cope up with the situation.

What are the points which led to this failure:

• I thought I would be able to start this thing but I was wrong and then I remember that one should never try to start a company all by itself, he or she needs more than one co-founder to keep the enthusiasm level high. 
• Moreover before starting up I should have done a ground study and research properly, I don't know how to conduct that as well.
• Checking whether the idea will work or not? conducting surveys and getting feedback from the potential users that whether they will be willing to pay for it or not.
• Is there any already working model (i.e. competitors). If so then that will validate that there is already a market for it, but now I should have looked that what they are offering and how they are offering? Might be my way would be incorrect.
• Location - yes it matter a lot because the mentality of the people depends as well, sometimes the community is not ready for that kind of product or service, hence one needs to identify where it will work. One can even solve this problem by educating the community about the product and services, spreading awareness about it, but the choice is always on the others hand whether to buy it or not.
• Hope - perseverance, I have less patience i.e. it would help me to go for a long run. An empire can't be built in one day, it takes time. I get fragile and impatient. I still haven't found a way how to fix this problem in me and figure out the process/ steps to follow to achieve where I want to reach.

Collectively all this has resulted in my failing, but at the end the major question is: Have I given up?

Starting-up and learning on ideation phase

Even 1 new registration fills so much of encouragement in me. When I open the form link to check how many has been registered yet, if the number remains the same as the last one then it really hurts some where, but if the number rises, then the encouragement and excitement gets multiplied with the increased number count.

Now this is dealing with a venture, when you start something there is a huge anxiety which we have and that thing spikes when there is a positive thing happening in the process. Now what to do when there isn't any positive happening and more drastically if there is a negative happening, then how you are going to deal with the your mind and fight with your anxiety.

First stop the thought because they are not going to help you anyway - meditate or best do a yoga.
Second instead of thinking useless thoughts, you need to brainstorm, now if you choose to do that in your mind box then it is of no use. Brainstorming should be in reality, not abstract. Take out a pen and paper, or white board and marker, start with writing there. Use colors (different color pens or markers), sticky notes like stuff. Don't represent your idea in a black and white fashion.

This brainstorming will help you think through the hurdles and sketch out what you may do next, hence in a separate paper list to-dos out of it.
Now, finding out how much time will it require to complete it. This is called effort estimation.
Last part, sequencing - until and unless you don't sequence it, how will you know what to do first and then after. You will be directionless.

Will soon post some image to this showing sample on how brainstorming looks like.. ;-)

Preparing the path to uncertainity

Soon I will be leaving my job to start something new in my life. Yes that's exciting as well as daunting too. Previously I was financially dependent on someone else now I have to take responsibility of my own income.
Throughout these years when I have been frustrated about not being able to make it through with an idea, now is the time when I am taking a full on complete risk to work on this venture, name: ReCoin Lab

This is a whole and sole try to entirely change the foundation of human grow in our civilized society i.e. education system. Every child goes through it, learn from it and that's where he or she get her nature shaped into.

While talking about today's education system, it's really lame and outdated, now there are a lot different sources from where a student gets to learn. Online courses, information on Facebook, video tutorials on YouTube, and etc. Lots of things are there. Now what content one needs to curate to, has become a huge question out there. One can either evolve or may get completely distracted using these information, the only thing which matters is where is the attention.

What is my vision is to convert the present way of learning i.e. where we make students sit in a closed room and expect them to be creative to making things happen in practical world and then helping them to learn, which is learning by doing.
One can understand a topic only when there is a curiosity in him or her, without actually giving a real world taste how can we generate curiosity in someone's mind!
Once this curiosity is being created, then reading about the topic, gaining theoretical knowledge will help them connect the dots.
Creating the dots is hardly done through sentences (i.e. theoretical knowledge), the impact comes from real world objects, hence practical exposure should come first and that's what ReCoin will do, flip the coin.

Habit Tracker version 0.7.4

Releasing version 0.7.0 which had the 21 days progress bar - that functionality didn't worked well. There was a slight glitch in it. Fixed it after 10 days.
My perception regarding 21 days was like keeping a challenge in-front of the user. But that didn't work. Two reason:

• 21 days should be used to build a habit, not to track something. That's the concept behind it.
• Plus, user don't know how to use the app or are not aware about the purpose of the 21 days functionality in the app.

I have decided to break the app in 3 different module. Habit building, Tracking something, & Challenge and Grow ;-)
Building this structure will take time.

First thing which I need to incorporate in the app is Tutorial - this will help user to understand what's the purpose of the app and how to use the app. The app with Tutorial version will come to the market on 2nd April 2017.

A new idea which came in my mind today was - Track with your friend. If you and your friend are tracking a same habit or an activity then both can be notified on completing it everyday i.e. when the user mark as done, this will trigger a notification to the friend, asking "your friend marked for today, have you?"
This may encourage friendly competition among two of them and hence will help them achieve the goal or task through surrounding support.

Losing motivation - next release version 0.7.0

March 17, 9:00 PM:
In the next release I was planning to release notes, one can add some notes while marking yes or no, but I dumped that plan.
Now will be releasing 21 days habit tracking functionality in the app.

March 18, 5:00 PM:
Completely loosing the motivation, why am I working on this app!!!! What is the use of it? Will this app help anyone get better?

March 19, 1:44 AM:
 Finally published the app with the 21 days challenge functionality, the concept behind this is - to adapt any habit one needs to keep doing it consistently for 21 days. Once he/ she achieve this - that means one don't need to be reminded for that habit henceforth.
Using this principle, app will encourage users to achieve the habit which they are tracking for at-least 21 days via push notification and progress bar percentage display.

Glad that even though I lost the motivation in the evening but was able to pull it off by mid-night and complete the functionality. The version 0.7.0 has been deployed and published to the market. Hope user will like it and I am gonna send a push notification asking for feedback as we are running out of motivation. Along with this I will also send a mail to all the users who has registered so far giving them a story to read and encouraging them how to take advantage of the app to achieve their goals (i.e. inculcating new habits or eliminating bad ones)

Moreover, got a chance to talk to other person who can help me with the android app development part for Habit Tracker, I have asked him to take time and put down a duration of from when and till when if possible, don't want to keep loose ends. Hope so he gets ready and multiply the output which I am doing on a weekly basis.

God bless everyone. Peace. :-)

After a tiring event, getting back to Habit Tracker

On March 14th, night:
Sometimes I think, why habit tracker?
Recently, I was in an event called Jugaadathon, a medical healthcare related hackathon. What I like the most about the event is the way it is being structured and kept forward.

Digging deep in the problem. Understanding why the problem exists, what is the impact of the problem then coming up with solution. This model is one of the helpful way to create a valuable product.

Continuing the same post on March 15th:
Coming back to habit tracking, one of the reason which I learned is user stop using the app after sometime as they loose interest out of it as the same text is being displayed on the notification bar, hence the usage of the app starts declining after few days of installing the app.
There is no on-boarding mechanism in the app as well.
Moreover to take the app to the market, once you have reached to a functional milestone then you can start asking people in your network to download the app and test it. If one doesn't market the app or the product or the services then it is really difficult to expect or set goal of # of downloads within a targeted date.
Today as in 15th March, I want to cross 100 downloads on Playstore, right now it is 72 and I have 47 users registered. By the end of the day I want to acquire 100 users and cross 100 downloads as well. Let's see if that happens.
Just calculating in my mind that do I need to do something in the app before spreading it in the market?
Will try to keep it minimal so that I can start sharing the app with users as soon as possible. This much for now, will update at night where I reached.

Release and the struggle with Habit Tracker version 0.6.0

It's 1:06 AM and few hours back we released the version 0.6.0, notified all the users that a new version is on Playstore, please download and update.
Working full Sunday to implement the functionality which we decided i.e. on click of Not Done, record that as well and mark with a light orange background for that date on calendar.

Now, made those changes along with some other changes. Without testing much, and following any protocol check, built the app and published on playstore.

The movie starts now, at 11 PM, a friend of mine, roommate, informed me about a severe bug! Damn!
It was a core functionality where we mark YES or NO on the notification everyday. On click of YES it was taking no, but NO action was working fine. Tried to think of how to solve it, but couldn't.
It was late and I had to finish off some other important task as well, status mail!!!

At 12 shifted my attention to the other task, in 30 minutes completed it. It was quite late and was feeling exhausted. Thought of going back to sleep and look at this matter tomorrow. Took a break, re-imagined the possible problems which might be happening due to which this issue is coming. At 1 AM, came up with some idea after reading some manuals and tutorials. Tried, tried, tried. It was 1:30 AM and nothing which I was able to achieve.
1:36 AM, bang!!! solved it. Checked through the code if I am missing something, forgetting something, made any changes which I should revert, tested the app twice or thrice, bug was resolved. Phewwww!
Compiled, built and yes something which I missed to revert. Rectified it, 1 line of change, compiled the code again, built it and yessss finally released on Playstore.

Lessons learned:

• Having a test case and getting it tested before generating a release version.
• Following a protocol while going or releasing to live, like version code and name is upgraded and all the FIXME block as has been fixed.
• Once released even, get it tested from couple of near by users, then send a push notification to all your users.

Finally, version 0.6.1 is out there. Khooolll!
It's 2:10 AM, off to sleep.
Good night.

Habit Tracker version 0.5.0 released

This version had very minor changes, UI level changes has been made and also considered some UX point of view as well. Mostly the next version which I am going to roll out will have the essence of taking short notes from the user and even showing the days when he or she missed to do.

Planning is such:

• v0.6.0 - will also mark when user failed to do the habit on a specific date, to be shown in slight red background on the calendar, to give a visual representation on the month view of calendar at one glance.
• v0.7.0 - will start asking notes, if user is interested, to go through it by the end of the week or by the end of the month.
• v0.8.0 - will show a progress bar related to 21 days of continuous habit tracking. This will be the major change and help user to motivate to keep doing the habit which he or she wants to pick up at least for continuous 21 days.

 Along with all these updates coming down the line, minor fixes and upgrades will keep happening. I am not clear about the timeline of these releases, but most probably keep releasing each incremental version every week i.e 1st week of March - v0.6.0, 2nd week - v0.7.0, 3rd week - v0.8.0.

God bless me and give me energy to achieve this and come up with really helpful app to be useful for the customers.

4th round of Habit Tracker Release

After adding Google Sign-in, added the functionality to cloud backup. This 4th version release has given me a huge push to work on the app more and more. As it informs the activity log as how the app is being used and how many users are signing up in the app from different regions.
This reflects that there might be a need for such type of app.

Made the 4th version released in the last week of February, then worked on marketing mail as well sending it to existing users. Though it didn't have any effect on the app download or usage.

Now, what? I am consistently working on the app but the major role is played by the motivation! Looking at the app usage which I thought people would like something like this or there might be a need to track the habit but there isn't such thing. Very less app downloads, very less app usage at the client's end.
I still haven't decoded what's the cutting edge feature which I can give in the app so that it may touch user's attention and they may find a meaning in using the app. I still need to find the why of the app and how it will help.

Though still trying to work on the app and release it at minimal to keep going and pushing to reach somewhere. This initial stage is difficult. 

3rd fold working on habit app

While going to GOA for a break I did published a small change i.e. reminding the user at 6pm asking whether they did the habit today which they are tracking. But there was a bug in it. It didn’t give any notification as such!! Aarrhh!!

On Feb  19th, released the 3rd version of the app, which has the Google Sign-in. There was a bug in it too but fixed it in 2 days.

In this version,

• One can edit the habit name which is being tracked.
• Changing the notification reminder time.
• Moreover, made some UI changes

Finding time to work on the app is very scarce. It took me a month to release the Google Sign-In functionality.
Now I would be able to know people who are signing in the app. Learning about marketing mails and assisting the users with the app to help them improve daily, a process which needs commitment and daily check.

As our mind is a great slave, one needs to master himself or herself and focus on a specific path to achieve success. In today's world when you get more than 10 notifications popping down from the notification bar and grabbing your attention instantaneously (most of them are of no use) distracting you from the important task which you were focusing at, thus pulling you down from your productive capacity which one can reach but can't.

Habit Tracker will at least remind you once in everyday, that one distraction will remind you about the habit you want to adapt.