Let them not SAP you

Huge businesses, huge complexities, huge stakes! So they made a huge product called ERP and charged a huge amount from every huge business that deployed the huge product. Coz deployment itself is such a huge project involving huge coordination.

Since employees key in all the data at every point, this ERP works or so it seems. And, seemingly, the businesses work too.

I am worried about the individual, the one who's an employee somewhere, an independent professional or an entrepreneur. I am worried about that little team of individuals for whom SAP just doesn't work. What only works is the time they have on every single work-day and the energy they have to make the most out of that work-day.

Cockpit AIT Planner is for that individual. While it takes care of the stakes at the individual level there's nothing huge about it - the product, the price, the deployment et al. There's a huge intention surely. And there's a good amount of intuition too. Try it.

Image source: http://online.wsj.com/

Cockpill! That's not Viagra!

Cockpill?!?! Oops! That's quite viagrammatic! :)

So I am finding out from friends that while recalling and noting down tasks has become really easy, they don't remember to check the Cockpit App screen so regularly. :)

Even as we were developing the app, we mulled over this possibility. For Cockpit (or any planner of the same league) would deliver best when referred to fairly regularly.

My suggestion to these friends has been doctorly. Open Cockpit once after brushing teeth, once on reaching the office desk, once after lunch and once with the evening tea.

So if forming that habit is the biggest issue in getting users to make the best use of Cockpit, the name could as well have been doctorly. But that would be promoting a solution for erectile dysfunction instead of one for a habitual function. ;)

Nike forgot explaining what exactly JUST DO IT means

Yeah so often we see an image like that and get pumped up to reach our desk and wonder rather cluelessly what exactly it is that needs to be done.

JUST DO IT. To move beyond the sloganeering and into the meaning of this magnificent little sentence, it means UNDERTAKE ALL THAT WILL MAKE THINGS WORK. You are invited to phrase the meaning better than I have. :)

The phrase DO IT is a surrogate here for the numerous specific tasks we have to do. So in spite of buying into the adrenaline pumping phrase, we can't quite fathom why it just doesn't happen.

Every single day we sit down to fill our TO DO LIST. Sometimes convincingly but so very often rather unconvincingly. And that pad on which is written TO DO LIST always assumed that we remember the specific meanings of TO DO every single day and would note them down diligently and then do, all that's noted down, diligently during the day. The result is that a typical planner (physical as well as digital) is nothing but a nice blank pad with daytime hours and date written on every single page. No wonder, a satisfactory plan was always elusive. Forget about following the plan and accomplishing things.

I realized this gravely missing part of a typical planner-diary when the stakes in my entrepreneurial venture started getting higher every single day and I was under pressure to make use of every single hour and take care of every single task at the right time.

I split the TO DO into numerous specific meanings and started undertaking my tasks on the basis of those meanings. Over time, I could distill the TO DO into a universal set of tasks that every professional has to take care of.

Do = Action + Interaction + Transaction

Splitting further...

Action = The tasks which an individual has to do all alone - physical or cerebral. Including tasks like researching, finding, thinking, designing, arranging things, cooking, dropping the motorcycle for servicing... Hope you get a hang of this.

Interaction = Connecting with someone, Responding to someone, Following up with someone, Informing someone, Meeting someone

Transaction = Buying and Paying

Is that not what we do every single day but find difficulty recalling when we sit to plan?

Pic courtesy: http://labelle-et-lebadboy.blogspot.in/2011/11/just-do-it.html

Al Toothbrush: Launching Toothbrush with an inbuilt Alarm

Sounds like Al Jazeera, right?

Here's how it looks. Nice, no?

This toothbrush is meant for those who forget to brush their teeth in the morning. They find it difficult to remember to brush and so have to be reminded somehow. So instead of relying on a separate alarm bell meant to remind us about brushing teeth, we have designed a toothbrush with an inbuilt alarm. Would love to try? Your feedback will be important for us.

Out of the many suggestions, sometimes we have received this suggestion that Cockpit App should have an alarm bell too, for important deadlines and tasks, including an alarm to remind one to open the App itself. I was enthused about it early on and I value all the suggestions. And yet this suggestion has been the most irksome to me personally, as a product developer and user.

Here's what I feel. Planning your day is a habit. Or let me say, should be your habit. When you use Cockpit AIT Planner, you realize that it turns out to be a 'go-to' tool during the day, and most effective when you fall into the habit of noting things down early morning everyday.

Yes, Cockpit is an essential habit tool. Refer to it early in the day and your day's sorted. You won't require alarms and such to remind you of what's important. If important requires alarm, then I wonder what does alarming require? Automated hammer-bang on the head?

If one can't remember to brush every morning, we'll invent an Al Toothbrush for that person? I think this person is largely beyond repair. Perhaps in need of medication or therapy. :)

I don't think there's a point in advising (through an alarm reminder) any person to plan his/her work every morning. I don't think one needs to be reminded about important deadlines through an alarm either. Alarm can't be the habit or can't build a great habit. You habitually brush your teeth or habitually smell stale.

Do you want to or don't want to plan? If you are alarming the brush into your teeth, the planet's doomed. Good plot for movies.

Image from: http://www.freysmiles.com

You can download Cockpit AIT Planner app from this page: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.planner.cockpit&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd

Pitching Cockpit AIT Planner against the gigantic Evernote

A friend told me, Productivity tools is a crowded market.

I responded, Has the crowd solved the problem?

He said, No it hasn't. But...

I checked Evernote which has been hogging the limelight for quite a while. The friend told me it's a productivity app and he uses it. After checking the app, I went to the About Us section of Evernote website.

Here's what it states:

Our goal at Evernote is to help the world remember everything, communicate effectively and get things done. From saving thoughts and ideas to preserving experiences to working efficiently with others, Evernote’s collection of apps make it easy to stay organized and productive.

Interesting, no? And if something delivers on that promise, life's sorted, right?

So here's the thing. Cockpit AIT Planner beats Evernote in 'remembering everything', 'communicating effectively', 'working efficiently with others', 'getting things done', 'staying organized' and 'being productive'.

To tell you honestly, Cockpit might not be as sleek looking to the eyes as Evernote is. But take the comparison beyond the visual sleekness and you'll find that Cockpit is intuitively usable, fast and delivers on the points mentioned in the inverted commas above. Why? Because of the AIT (A = ACTION, I = INTERACTION & T = TRANSACTION) classification framework on which Cockpit AIT Planner has been designed. Evernote seems to have a lot of whistles but lacks the framework that fulfills the points mentioned above.

Try Cockpit AIT Planner on your Android. This is the link to download. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.planner.cockpit&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd

Alternatively, if you love the charm of writing and maintaining a little planning book, just drop in a message to sidsoni at gmail dot com and I'll ship a copy to you.

The problem with planning diaries/apps so far

is that they work largely as recording pads for plans. And of course would have some feature for reminder of deadlines.

When such recording-pad like planners are designed, there's an assumption that the user knows 'how to plan'. And that's the bane of such planners.

'How to...' implies a skill. Planning is a skill. And there are variations of this skill depending on the context. That people know how to plan is a mighty and mightily faulty assumption.

Experts, craftsmen, artists, mechanics, engineers, draftsmen, etc spend years and years before they understand the 'how to...' of their respective fields and lay it down for juniors or future generations to trace their footsteps.

Cockpit AIT Planner is that sort of planning tool. It aids the user immensely in getting an understanding of 'how to plan' and lets him/her plan at the same time.

Try the Cockpit AIT Planner here.

Facing turbulence

I want more people to try Cockpit. I sense it's so simple and universal that it's gotta help anyone who uses it.

Alright, since I am perennially crunched for money :), I've been pitching my projects to friends around. For friends are all I know.

So, I've been pitching for Cockpit too.

I find it funny when they aren't able to appreciate my plans and my doings. So it turns out that a great majority of my life has been funny.

Last night, when I followed up with a friend, he said his friends (with whom he shared the app) didn't get too excited about the thing. They feel the market for productivity is too cluttered.

I was flummoxed. Entire life is a market for productivity. It will always stay cluttered.

Guess understanding what Cockpit induces a user to do is important. Here's a perspective.

When you don't respond to a dear friend, how do you think that friend is going to feel? Perhaps annoyed. Perhaps let down. Perhaps unpleasantly surprised. Or something else.

Let me ask another question. Why you don't respond to a dear friend? Likely reasons, you can't devote time or can't address him positively or don't find the friend 'dear' enough or don't have energy to dedicate yourself to whatever the request or, plain simple, you just can't remember.

If I am not wrong, most of us are victims of 'forgetfulness'. Intention's there, perhaps even time and energy. But when the thing's not present in the conscious head, how could we possibly act upon it.

Cockpit address forgetfulness in an intuitive manner. It offers prompts (buttons) which will easily help you dig out the very thought cloaked with forgetfulness.

When you don't forget, you are more likely to act, to respond. When you are more likely to act and respond, you are more likely to maintain healthy exchange with whoever you are working with. That's what execution is all about. That's what Cockpit is a part of.

But then, it isn't necessary that friends see this manner of working working out. Right?