Hey, Boss...Can I have a moment of your time?

2009-02-09T10:56:00.001-05:00

I would like the attention of all of you that are business owners, employers, office managers, anyone that is "The Boss". I had this idea and I'd like to hear your thoughts and opinions.

As some of you may know, I am the developer of Instant Boss, a time management/productivity tool for timing work/break cycles. (Windows only)

I released it to the public as donationware, making payment optional, with the amount to be decided upon by the individual user, based on what they feel my software is worth to them, and their ability to pay.

Unfortunately, this hasn't worked out too well in the last year for me. Donations are way down, to the point where I only earned $1 during the month of January, despite all of my software having had a total of over 7000 downloads.

A great many of my software users are starving students that are up to their eyeballs in student loan debt and barely able to make ends meet. They are using my software to help themselves reach their goals and make their dreams come true.

For them, my software is the push they need to get their studying done, papers written, and projects completed on time. I have had a number of PhD students tell me they could not have obtained their degree without my help. Without Instant Boss, their dissertations would never have been finished.

If I am going to keep all of my software available to the public, and continue with the donationware license model that benefits those that need it the most, I am going to have to find a creative way to fund it.

Now here is my idea and my question for you.

In its current form, Instant Boss contains a dialog that pops up at the end of your breaks and tells you to get back to work, featuring a cartoon graphic of an angry yelling boss.

What if I were to replace that graphic with an image of you (the boss), telling your employees to "get back to work!" at the end of their breaks?

Please note, I have not made up my mind if I will actually be offering this, yet. This is not a sales pitch. I am not taking any orders. I just want know if there would be an interest in this sort of thing and at the particular price I am considering. I just want your opinion.

What if I were to license this special edition, at a price of about $25? All of the employees in your company could use this special addition, for that one flat fee. You wouldn't have to pay per employee. $25 would cover all of them, current and future, in all locations in which your company may operate. (if you ever need to change the boss image, or have an additional one made for another department or division, that would be an additional $25)

Besides getting an application that encourages productivity by helping you stay focused on your purpose (work), you also get one that discourages a habit that can lead to lost productivity and increased healthcare costs for your company. Instant Boss can help prevent repetitive stress injuries (RSI) in office workers by encouraging frequent short breaks. And for those employees that are already recovering from RSI, Instant Boss can help them gradually return to full productivity, safely.

Is this worth $25 to you, your employees, and your company?

Would you willing to pay for a custom vanity edition?

Concept image, final design may differ

Procrastinators: Beware of magical mops

2008-07-17T13:10:00.005-04:00

Some of what makes anti-procrastination tools work, is their novelty. Once that novelty wears off, you are right back where you started, procrastinating again.

A hypothetical example:

Let's say I hate mopping my floor and I always procrastinate about doing it. Then I see an ad on TV for a wonder mop, with a handle that twinkles when you push it. You stop pushing, it stops twinkling. You push it faster, it twinkles more. And even more amazing, is that it also sings! I order this mop, because it seems like it could make mopping fun.

So the mop arrives, and I can't wait to get it out of it's packaging and try it. I fill my bucket with soapy water and begin mopping. The singing & twinkling is pretty cool, and before I know it, the whole floor is clean. Great! Wonderful! Terriffic! It's working. I didn't procrastinate and I got the job done.

I like this mop so much, I am having no problem mopping my floor and keeping it clean. I am not even procrastinating about it any more. This is the best mop ever! It's like magic!

But a few months later, after the novelty of the twinkling & singing mop begins to wear off, I find myself beginning to procrastinate about mopping the floor again. What happened? This was supposed to be the best mop ever. What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. I just had an unrealistic expectation that some wonder tool was going to make me like doing a task I hate.

The truth is that nothing can make me like mopping floors, not even a magical, singing, twinkling wonder mop.

So if you try an anti-procrastination tool and it works for awhile, but then stops working...the problem isn't the tool. It's you and how you feel about the task...your real feelings.

Instead of looking for a new tool to trick yourself into thinking that you like what you hate, work on the real problem: the task itself, how you feel about it, and why.

If you can be honest with yourself, you can begin to look for a real solution instead of tricks. If you fix the root problem, you won't need a singing, twinkling mop to get things done.

Cranial Soup

Hey, Boss...Can I have a moment of your time?

Concept image, final design may differ

Procrastinators: Beware of magical mops