Seems I have a bug...

Someone in Germany had an issue with the app Mood Sentry.  It looks like it only worked for a week.  I think I fixed it and apologize to anyone who had the same issue.  I think it was a technical issue associated with mixing numbers of different storage length.  Please post if you have had any such issue, in particular if your trial version lasted less than 30 days.

Napping

OK, this has nothing to do with Mood Sentry or even how I manage my depression.  However, I have to give a shout out to the activity of napping.  I find it useful every now and then to take a short nap.  This has helped me defeat anxiety and lethargy that can come at the end of a hectic or stressful day.  How?  When I manage to take a nap, or even just try to take a nap, my energy level in the evening is a bit higher.  I don't actually have to sleep to get the benefit, which is a good thing because I find it difficult to sleep during the day.  The alternative is not napping and spending my evening awake but fatigued which can lead to negative moods and thoughts.  Hmmmm.  Maybe this is one way I deal with my depression.  Go figure.

What do you think of the reminders?

Too intrusive?  Do you find them helpful?  Per earlier posts, I created them to mimic reminders I set in my e-mail client to take an action.  I find that they help.  I thought about having a small window open to give the user the option of either opening the reminder or not opening the reminder.  But when I thought about it, the user either has to select a button to see the reminder or select a button to not see the reminder.  The way it's implemented, the user either does nothing to see the reminder or touches a button to close the window.  I figure this implementation  is more efficient.

Knocking stuff off the Daily Goals list...

Can really help me defeat thoughts on not getting anything done.  I can look at the list at the end of the day, and see multiple things that I've accomplished.  This helps defeat those feelings of not getting anything done during a given day.

Neat article in the LA Times today...

regarding phone based apps.  There are several options out there, most developed for the iphone.  Mine would have been developed for the iphone too, had I had an iphone.  We all take different tacts, which means there's a lot of room for experimentation by the user community.  My guess is that there is no one app for all people.  Probably pretty far from it, and at this time, there's a pretty good probability that there is no app for any one person.  We developers are a persistent lot, and we'll keep trying to make our offerings better and better.  You'll see.

3 or 5?

So, any thoughts on if you'd like to see more items on the daily goals Accomplish these list?  I have three.  My intention was to keep it short so I can focus on only a couple of things.  If I accomplish something and I have time to add another, I can always do that.  Having too many items on a list can be detrimental to productivity.  Focusing on things that I can complete and get of my mind is good, and limiting the list to just a few items can really help in that manner.  However, right now I have lots of things vying for my attention, and I can't simply put some off.  Hmmmm.  I'm tempted to kick the list up to 5, but I do like keeping it short and focused on a few key items.  Thoughts?

Sometimes I Forget...

To review my reminders.  It's kind of odd, but I usually put it off during times of stress, the exact time I really need to review my entries and prepare for my day.  I've gotten better at minding my reminders when I'm busy, either at work or at home.  I make an effort to get a little time to myself.  If my desk area is too busy, I've used empty conference rooms, benches outside (I live in Southern California), my car, and even the Starbuck's down the street.  I find that reviewing my entries can really help during stressful times.  Perhaps this is an Observation.  Hmmmmm.

How are the hints?

I added a hints page via the options menu because I thought people might need some support figuring out how to use this app.  I read and re-read the hints, and thought they looked good to me.  However, I often have the symptom of reading what I meant into what I wrote.  If you've accessed the hints page from the options menu, did they make sense to you?

Stressing...

I'm not sure "stressing" is really a word, but that's what's going on right now.  Mostly work related, but of course supporting this app gives rise to some stress too.  What's a guy to do?  Address the causes as best I can, address distorted thoughts as they pop up, exercise (that really helps me).  Planning ahead doesn't hurt either.  Using the app to help anticipate what might pop up helps.  Using the app to record what happens helps.  Using the app to review past entries that relate to similar circumstances can help.

Working on some new stuff...

Looking to add a list of "steps" to each Daily Goal item.  I'll keep it simple to start, probably keep the list to 5 entries.  This will take a little while to get working because I have other things on my mind these days.  Lots of little things to consider for the next update to this app.  Mostly structural, and I won't bother you with them.  I think I can finalize the list of pending updates this week.  We'll see.  In the meantime, how are things going with you?  Any problems figuring out how to use this app?  Is it useful?

Forecasting...

I have a strong tendency to forecast conflict and failure.  Often I don't have a specific event or activity in mind, it's just a feeling that something bad is going to happen.  Reviewing this in My Experiences can help me get my thoughts together early in the day and help me recognize when I am forecasting.  When I recognize this early, I can often mitigate it's impact on my mood.

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

This will never end!  I'll start and spend the rest of the night working on this!  These just aren't true.  Of course they'll end.  I have most of the information entered already.  I really just need to add another account and associated interest, and then check things over.  The rest of the night working on this?  Only if I choose to.  I don't have to finish tonight, and can choose to stop at any convenient point.  There's really no need to finish my taxes tonight. The fact is, I only spent about 45 minutes working on our taxes.  Glad I was able to put these thoughts to rest.

Quick Fix...

for the time change issue.  If you have reminders set and they are now off by an hour due to the time change, the simplest fix is to go into the reminders and toggle each "on" reminder to "off" and then back to "on."  This will reset the reminder timers.

May have an issue with the time change...

My alarms may be off by an hour.  I'll need to look into this.  This is the first time change I've gone through.  Rather than update the reminder today, I'll see if it works itself out by tomorrow.  If not, I'm sure I'm not the first person to experience this, so there's probably help on the web.

New Tool Suggestions?

If you have an idea for a tool you'd like to see in the tool, drop me a line via the support page.  I have a couple of ideas I'll be working on in the next month or so, and I'll post more on them later.  In the meantime, think about what you'd like to see in this tool and drop me a line.

37 Downloads...

all the trial version, which was my original intention.  No requests for help, nor likes, nor comments at this time. I'm in a marketing phase right now, so we'll see what happens over the next couple of months.  I hope you're all able to figure this out.

My Healthy Eating Ideal Self

Here's one I've been working on.  It's an Ideal Self entry focused on eating healthy...
I will seek out healthy items, focusing on whole foods.
One benefit is better health.
Another is better endurance when hiking.
Think about eating fresh, lean, and healthy, and visualize myself doing it.  Think about some healthy food items and "see" them on a plate.  Imagine myself selecting a healthy item and eating it.
Recognize that I'm attracted to high cal foods due to their sugar, fat, and/or salt content.
Recognize that this attraction is probably genetic and good in times of feast or famine, and thus not bad but beautiful.
Buy healthy items for house, make my own lunch most of the time, eat in more than eat out.

How's that?

Current State - March 7, 2012

I've been going through a moderate funk over the past week.  Not sure if anything specific set this off.  I've been stressing on work recently, though not that much more than typical.  However, I do find myself getting drawn to the dark side and seeing the worst in things.  The fact is, most things have good parts and bad parts.  Recognizing this can help keep me from going too deep.  Reviewing my experiences sometimes seems like a waste of time because I know what's there.  However, when I do, I usually pick up on something I forgot about and realize that I've felt this way before, had these thoughts before, and gotten over this before.

Sometimes I get in a funk.

It just happens now and then.  I get to feeling lethargic and fatalistic.  For me, this means lots of thoughts that things are going to go badly.  What things? Everything.  The app helps.  It doesn't cure the feelings or thoughts, but helps me keep them from getting too deep.  I think as I use the app more, I'll continue to get better at capturing these thoughts early, and having my mitigations at the ready.

Contact Us

Just want to take a moment to make sure any users who need to contact us know how to do so.  On the References page you'll see the support option down at the bottom of the list.  Select that and you'll be on our support page.  We're using a fairly new capability from our bulletin board vendor for this feature, which is formatted for smart phones.  It works OK.  I find that I have to adjust the screen a bit, but I think it works.  Alternatively, you can contact us at support@moodappsllc.com.  Hope all is working for you and you are getting a benefit from Mood Sentry.

Editing

I created this app to make it easy  for me to record my thoughts when and where they happen, with minimal time delay.  I can't always stop what I'm doing and document, but often I can at least jot down a few items to jog my memory at a later time.  The editor limits the number of characters that can be entered, and the app provides this to the user in the text that appears above the edit box.  I'm thinking of putting an indication of the number of characters left, but then I start thinking I should put down the number of characters used.  We'll see if I make that change in the future. Editing items is never that easy for me, and takes multiple iterations.  I'll go into some of that in later blogs.  In the meantime, please take the time to check out the edit function and the associated menu items.  As long as you don't save your changes, you won't mess things up too much.  Good luck!

Tools - random thoughts

I've covered all the tools that are part of Mood Sentry over the past few posts.  These tools were mostly based on things I did for myself and transferred to the phone.  They are handy for helping me capture the gist of my thoughts, and because they are on the phone I can access them just about any time I need to.  There's extra capability that I put in there that I didn't cover, such as being able to change the entry name.  Check out the hints and option on the menu to learn more.  I've stated this before and will continue to do so, making entries for me is never a one shot deal.  I tend to "rough out" the idea with nouns and verbs, then revisit the entry over the next few days or even weeks, thinking about what happened and the ensuing thoughts, and then modifying my write-up.  Sometime things bubbly up over time, sometimes a similar event gives me new insight to the thoughts, whatever, I just keep refining the descriptions and with every refinement I get to know myself a bit better.  I sincerely hope the tools help you too.  Best of wishes in you journey.  Now I get to stress on what to blog about tomorrow.

Mood Sentry Tools - Ideal Self

This was the last, but probably not the final tool I added to Mood Sentry.  I wanted to capture my ideal self to help keep myself focused on where I want to go, as opposed to where I am or where I was.  Sometimes when I'm in a funk I can get so focused on the present and the past that I feel stuck in the feeling.  Documenting what I'm trying to achieve has been good for me and is a good thing to review because it helps me focus on the future.  I have no idea why I have provisions for up to 5 in the free version or 30 in the paid version, because it doesn't seem like you really need that many end states.  However, it was easier to program that way.  Right now I have 3 "Ideal Self" entries, the example, one related to treating other people well, and one related to healthy eating.  That last one I put in there after the holidays.  I kept the format of the ideal self fairly free form.  I originally was going to make a form with specific items, but different people with different goals might find such a form too stifling.  Try it out and see what you think.