Hi everyone,
I am looking for your help regarding an app (beta/prototype) that I am currently building as a side project. Two things:
- I would love for your to look at and use the app and to give me feedback (either here, via DM or via feedback links in the app)
- I am looking for somebody who would like to partner up (i.e. co-founder - At the moment I am doing everything by myself) and work together on improving the app as well as starting to “promote” it as soon as we are happy with it.
About the app:
Missioncontrol is a to-do and personal data tracking app focused on personal development. Personally, I am not using it for projects or work tasks but ONLY around personal development / taking care of myself. The focus of Mission Control is:
a) Not only to track your habits but to establish them in the first place through e.g. gamification (e.g. if your forget to update x amount of times, the tracker will be marked as failed and you have to start again). Or sharing your tasks and trackers with the public on a public page for additional accountability.
b) Showing you where you are making progress and where you are lacking behind (I.e. you are not doing your tasks/habits, not updating your trackers)
c) Help you track anything you can think of (e.g. from habit tracking, to mental or physical health, daily journaling, mindfulness, to finance tracking or business tracking.
d) In the future, I would love to add features that help coaches to monitor their client’s progress as well as being able to monitor the data they are tracking (think workout data for a fitness coach or weight-loss coach) or even assigning tasks.
e) I am currently working on iOS and Android versions. In the meantime, missioncontrol.me is „mobile-friendly“. The way I personally use missioncontrol.me is that I set up most things on the Desktop version. Only when I am on the go, I use the mobile version (e.g. to check off to-dos)
More details, in case you want to know more before clicking any links…
With missioncontrol I am essentially trying to build a set of tools to scratch my own itch:
-
Create a framework and structure around each of my goals.
- Most of the time we don’t have this ONE specific goal but rather a collection of different things that we want to achieve. I collect and structure all of them under something that I have called so far (for lack of a better word) „Mission Base“.
Conceptually, a Mission Base is a structure around a certain area of issues or challenges. For example, I would create a Mission Base for „Health & Fitness“ and under that umbrella I would set up (recurring) tasks such as “60 min Zone 2 cardio”, “Stretch 10min”, “Run 2 miles”. As well as trackers for collecting data. For example, “Number of push-ups”, “Glasses of water”, “hours of sleep”. But a mission can be anything. I have one user collecting data about his business goals (“monthly revenue””# of emails sent”, “daily hours spent working” etc. - Why call it a „Mission Base“? Because I feel like I want to have a base or „command center“ (think of a command center on a military base or a space center) from which I set up my goals, my strategy, the tasks that I need to perform and from which I monitor whether I am making progress.
- Most of the time we don’t have this ONE specific goal but rather a collection of different things that we want to achieve. I collect and structure all of them under something that I have called so far (for lack of a better word) „Mission Base“.
-
Help me fight procrastination and give me a kick in the a… when I need it it.
-
Traditional todo apps let you set up 100s of todos. For next week, next month, next year. They always gave me the feeling that I was busy and moving towards my goal. But what if you don’t finish your to-do? Nothing happens. Each to-do continues to just sit there and wait for you to get to it when “you feel like it”. I would always look at (unpleasant) tasks and just say „ah, I will do it tomorrow“ ….So, on the one hand you feel busy and like you are doing something and on the other hand you are not really making progress (where it counts). missiocontrol.me will not only let you mark a task as finished but also as NOT finished (i.e. I did not do it). It will also mark the tasks automatically as not finished when the day is over and you have not done anything. Of course, all of this requires a certain amount of honesty and accountability. But if you are honest to yourself you will at least see if you are putting in the work or not.
-
With Missioncontrol I tried to create a sense of “pressure” with the following mechanisms (and please know that these are my first attempts at tackling these huge issues. I am more than happy to improve and build something powerful with your help & feedback). Btw, all of this can be deactivated too.
- If you don’t finish a task on a certain date one HP (Health Point) will be removed from your Mission. The Task vanishes and you have to set it up again (If it is not a recurring task). When the Mission reaches 0 HP it will be marked as failed.
- If you want to move a task to another day (e.g. procrastinate), that’s OK. However, you only have a certain “budget” (i.e. how often can you move a task). When the budget reaches 0, you cannot move tasks anymore. I am thinking about changing those virtual coins to real money at some point. Every coin lost would be donated (100%) to charity.
- I am working on other ways that could be a kick in the b… for people. For example: Sending an e-mail to one of your friends, family etc. letting them know that you are behind schedule.
- Another one would be, giving each user a public page where the user can publicly share some of his tasks and trackers.
-
Help me collect data about myself and what impact certain changes I made, have.
- Collecting the right data helps me run „Self-experiments“. Did taking magnesium have any effects on my sleep? How did my mood change after taking XYZ for 4 weeks? How many hours did I work on the app last month? How much did I meditate? How much did I work out? How much money did I earn or spend? You all know the benefits of tracking things.
- Missioncontrol combines Tasks with Data Collection. What does that mean? Let’s say you have a daily Morning Routine where you work out for 15 minutes, meditate for 10 minutes and where you take a Protein Shake at the end. You can create a (recurring) Task called, for example, „Morning Rountine“ as well as the respective Trackers such as „Minutes Worked out“, „Minutes Meditated“, „Grams of Protein“, „Milligrams of Vitamin C“, Milligrams of Zinc“, Milligrams of Selen“ etc. etc. Now, as soon as you mark the Task „Morning Routine“ as done, these trackers will be updated with the amounts defined previously in the settings (e.g. 15 minutes training, 25 mg Zinc etc.,)
-
-
Help me “brainwash” myself and keep me away from useless social media content.
- Basically what I do is, I create (recurring) Tasks that contain YouTube videos, quotes or parts from my favorite books. There are YouTube videos that I want to watch everyday. I have watched certain videos more than 200 times now because I watch them every morning. And you know what? This had the most profound effect on my mindset. Why do we know we have to go to the gym 3 times a week if we want to grow our muscles? Repeating the same exercise hundreds of times? But when it comes to our mindset we think it is enough to read a book once or watch a video one time. Now, instead of scrolling social media our YouTube mindlessly, I will watch videos that make me feel better, that install the right thoughts into my mind. Will I stop watching some of these videos at some point? Absolutely. As soon as I feel certain things have become a part of me and there is no more use in watching them. But as soon as that happens I will put new videos on my „playlist“.
FAQ
Is Mission Control for FREE? At the moment, missioncontrol is completely free. If you sign up now as a Beta user, it will be free forever for you.
Will Missioncontrol be free forever for everyone? As soon as I have a stable product I would like to introduce some kind of compensation. I am spending my own money on infrastructure and tools. Second, I am working on this for a very long time now and I have invested an incredible amount of hours, sweat, tears and sleepless nights…Third, I am a young father, I work a 9-5, I have family responsibilities and I have a small daughter of 18 month. That means I’m spending time on the development of this and not spending time with my daughter or with friends and family.
What will you do with my data?: Nothing. Missioncontrol focuses 100% on privacy. That means, your data is encrypted, we only need your email address for the login, nothing else, no in-app analytics, no tracking, no selling of any sort of data.
Do you plan on integrating with other tools and devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch? No. There are many excellent tools out there that already do a great job in this regard. Plus, I strongly believe in manually updating your data. That way you actually get a „feel“ for the data. Personally, I feel it is more about the act of COLLECTING and not so much about the analysis part. When using automated data collection that runs in the background I ended up not looking at it at all and I just keep „hoarding“ it.
Thank you so much and please feel free to ask questions
Now, about the partner that I am looking for:
- You have experience with either data science, or you are a coach or you just have a lot of experience with tracking your own data
- Ideally you are a native English speaker (because unfortunately I am not) and you are able to write about the app, its features, our goals, a manual etc. You are also able to talk to users and translate their feedback into feature requests etc. For example, if you are able to do a better job than I am with this post here, that would be great
- You are good at marketing, connecting with users, influencers and „getting the word out“
- Maybe you know a little bit about UX/UI and how a user would like to use an app like mission control.
If this is you, please send me a DM or e-mail (pat@missioncontrol.me)
If we think we are a good match we can then of course talk about the „business aspects“.