24 Colors of MyStats

Have you tried the new colors of MyStats? Originally, there were only 12 colors in MyStats but from Version 1.12, we have doubled the number of colors, and now there are 24.

Since "More Colors" was one of the most popular requests from users, I'm guessing that these additional colors may have been welcomed by many.

By the way, did you know that these 24 colors consist of 4 groups of colors? Each group has 6 colors and each color has been modified to each group separately.

Each group looks like these on the Pie Charts.

I think that knowing this concept may help you to select colors.


Of course you can use those colors all together at once like below;-)

To tell you the truth, I don't think the current Color Select Screen design is best suited for this grouping concept. So we are planning to redesign the screen sometime in the future.

Anyway, please play around with those new colors and find your own prefered combination of colors.

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Unit Expression, "kB"

Have you ever tried the Email CSV Data function? It's a new function and it's on the General Settings & Tools menu. When you create a csv file with this function, you will see a message like the one below.

During the design process, I saw this message and felt that there was something funny about the unit expression "kB". I thought it should be "KB" or "kb". So I asked one of our engineers who wrote that message.

His answer was that it should be "kB" according to "SI". He explained that SI stands for "Systeme International d'unites"(in English, "International System of Units"), and it's the world's most widely used system of measurement.

According to SI, the prefix for 1,000 is "k" and "K" is for Kelvin. In the same manner, "b" stands for bit and "B" is for byte. Therefore, "kilobytes" should be written "kB".

I understood what he said but he continued his explanation and asked me, "if most of the users would think that "kB" looks funny and should be "KB", should we go with "KB"?"

I replied that we should go with "kB" because he really wanted to be accurate about it and I liked it.

Though you might think that it's a tiny thing and it wouldn't really matter, I take this seriously and I am personally proud of it. Because I believe that this way of thinking makes the quality of application a lot better.

By the way, the engineer I talked about graduated school and joined us this Spring. Though he is fresh out of school, he already works like an experienced engineer. We have many engineers like him in our company, and I consider myself very lucky to work with them.

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

WIKIPEDIA: International System of Units

A Self-Management Competition, "Master of Self-Management"

Now we are holding a self-management competition, called "Master of Self-Management" in Japan.

In this competition, contestants apply and tell us how they are managing themselves with MyStats. The judge committee will select four individuals as Masters of Self-Management. Those masters will be gathered at Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo this December. It's going to be a talk event. In this event, masters will display their methods and techniques for their own self-managements, and one of them will be selected as the Great Master of Self-Management.

The prize for the Great Master is a MacBook Air. The winner will also receive a chance to be in newspapers, magazines, news sites and so on.

To be a contestant, there are very little conditions. There are no conditions on nationality, gender, age, occupation, etc. Only if you can manage yourself with MyStats very well, you can be selected as the Master.

However, if you are selected, you have to come to Tokyo for the talk event on your own. Therefore, if you are not living in Japan, it could be difficult to participate in this competition.

In the future, although I don't know when it will be, I want to hold similar competitions not only in one country but in multiple countries throughout the world. In future competitions, we will pay travel expenses for selected masters and we will gather them in places like San Francisco, London, Cologne, Beijing, Mumbai, Cape Town, or Cayman Islands.

My dream is that one day, a ticket will be delivered to somebody who has been trying things very hard and is very good at self-management. He or she is not wealthy nor famous at all, but the ticket will open a door and that person will walk through it, take a chance, and make great achievements.

If you can come to Tokyo, be a contestant. If you cannot, but are still interested, tell us where you live and let's think about how we can hold the competition in your country.

Let's one day hold the International Self-Management Competition, together.

Kenji Komai

Executive Vice President

NEOREX Co., Ltd.

Master of Self-Management official page.

(Japanese Only)

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Maximum & Minimum Value for the Line Graph

Did you know that you can specify Maximum and Minimum value for each line graph?

On the line graph settings screen, there are "Maximum Value" and "Minimum Value" boxes. Your Auto settings might be "ON". You can turn Auto settings "OFF" and specify values.

Let's say you are managing your weight. Your current weight is about 160lb and your target is 150. After a party or something, your weight goes up but has yet to exceed 165lb. On a day with no breakfast or lunch due to a heavy hang over, your weight may go down to 157lb in the evening.

In this case, I would set the Max and Min Value as 165lb and 145lb. With this setting, I get a line for the goal of 150lb, as well as the maximum limit of 165lb. You can see how close you are to your goal, or how close you are to your limit.

Give it a try. Turn off the auto settings, and you can have better views.

Good luck!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

The Number of Downloads of MyStats Exceeds 50,000 on September 1st.

It's taken about four months to happen.

I heard that there is an app which was downloaded 100,000 times on its very first release date. There should be many apps which have been downloaded over one million times. But at the same time, I heard that 99% of iPhone apps' download numbers don't exceed over 10,000.

It seems that, so far, MyStats is not doing so badly.

This past spring, we had no idea how many users would download MyStats and we had very uneasy feelings about it. Thinking back then, it feels like a dream.

I'd like to express my deep gratitude to everybody who supported us to come this far and also to our 50,000 users.

When I think that this many people are using MyStats, I feel so happy and also feel a very big responsibility.

We will continue to improve MyStats more and more for our 50,000 valuable users and also for another 50,000 or one million future users.

Please look forward to seeing MyStats evolve into something even better;-)

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

I Just Quit Recording Body Fat Percentage

I just quit it:)

The reason is very simple. I noticed that I don't need it.

I had been measuring my body fat percentage with my scale at home. But it is very inaccurate. I don't think I gained or lost 4% of body fat in a day.

A couple of days ago, I just asked myself "Do I really need to record body fat percentage?"

What I actually want to manage is my waist size. As long as my waist size is in my target range, I don't care how heavy I am and what my body fat percentage is.

I started recording body fat percentage casually. I thought that it's very easy to record, because I can measure it by just stepping on the scale, and I thought it would help me to manage my waist size somehow. But my scale didn't give accurate numbers, and it was not useful at all.

- Body fat percentage is not the main focus for me.

- Recording body fat percentage is not troublesome, but it is.

- It's inaccurate.

So, thinking about these three reasons, do I really need to record body fat percentage? NO!

Then I quit recording.

Of course I'm not saying that "recording and analyzing body fat percentage is unnecessary in general".

I'm saying that I don't need to record body fat percentage because it's not that important to my actual goal.

The point is that you can quit recording something if you don't need it.

Don't you have some activities which you don't need, but you just keep recording it in your Activity Set anyway?

To be honest, it took me a whole two months to notice this fact.

What we want is "better results with less recordings". Stay aware that recording is not the purpose. Have a great life with MyStats;-)

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Case: HR Specialist

I interviewed a MyStats user who is an HR specialist working as a leader of HR and General Affair team in an enterprise.

------------------------------

- Records 24 hours including “Sleep”.

- Activity Set has 13 activity masters.

They are divided into 5 categories such as, Work, Amusement, Exercise, etc.

He named his activities like, “Work–Meeting”, “Work–Simple Tasks”, and so on.

- Reviews the pie chart every night, and he says something like these to him self:

“Oh, only Simple Tasks is filling my day! I got to do something with my brain!” or

“I need more sleep, but I’m sleeping too much on Sunday…”

- Records “schedules” on purpose.

MyStats is designed for handling the things that happened and not the things that will happen, but he sometimes inputs things that will happen which are schedules. For example, something like a promise to himself, he would record “Study” into the next day; in order to make sure if it gets done. “However,” he said, “Since MyStats is a real easy-to-operate app, it is easy for me to change what I scheduled into something more amusing.

------------------------------

In the morning of April 26th, he was thinking that he should start time management based on Peter Druckers’ method. He looked at Nikkei Industrial Newspaper and found an article about MyStats. He thought “This is it!” and downloaded MyStats.

At the beginning, he didn’t think that he could record the entire 24 hours, but since it is so easy to operate, he was quickly able to record his entire day, after all.

As he used MyStats everyday, his technique of recording schedules came naturally.

“The best part of MyStats is the easy-operation. I love this!”

That’s a great compliment!

Thank you so much for using and loving MyStats! We will continue to develop more and more features but we promise not to forget about the simplicity of operation!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

(Original article was written on July 13rd.)

Country List

So far, the number of the countries in which MyStats has been downloaded is 54. The following is the Top 30 countries.

1. Japan

2. United States

3. Australia

4. United Kingdom

5. Taiwan

6. Canada

7. Germany

8. Korea

9. Singapore

10. China

11. Hong Kong

12. Russia

13. Thailand

14. Sweden

15. France

16. Netherlands

17. Mexico

18. Czech Republic

19. India

20. Turkey

21. Philippines

22. Norway

23. New Zealand

24. Brazil

25. Italy

26. Kuwait

27. Saudi Arabia

28. South Africa

29. Slovakia

30. Malaysia

We are very glad to see so many different people in so many different countries using MyStats. I believe that all of us are together making the world better little by little.

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Case: Shihori, Singer and Song Writer

I interviewed piano singer and also known as song writer, Shihori!

Shihori wrote many songs for famous Japanese singers like Shoko Nakagawa, Nana Mizuki and many others. She is also famous for singing a popular TV commercial song called “Papapapa-n Song”!

Surprisingly, we found that Shihori is using MyStats and she loves it. So, here we are. This is Shihori’s case…

------------------------------

Q: What were some of your issues with Time Management?

A: I didn’t know where my time went. I unintentionally would just waste time. Whatever I’m doing, I always get into things so deeply that I would lose track of time. As a freelance artist, I am my own manager. But I can’t manage my time unless I have a strong determination or something.

One example is music arrangement. To tell the truth, I don’t need that long of time for writing a song. It just comes to me. But music arrangement is different. It takes me so many hours. I get so into it that I forget about eating, sleeping and everything, and then I fail to keep myself in good shape.

I am the kind of a person who can get into things so much. This is the reason why I needed something for my time management.

Q: What was your first impression of MyStats?

A: “This is it!” That’s what I thought. A friend of mine Eri told me about MyStats, and I understood what it could give me right away. When Eri found out about MyStats, she immediately thought, “I have to tell Shihori about this!” I knew that I needed something to manage my time, and it seems Eri knew it, too. Haha!

Q: How did you get started using MyStats?

A: It actually took some thinking. It was like, “What are the classifications of my time?” But looking back at that moment, I think it was something really great that happened in my life. I can say that even only with this reason, MyStats is very valuable to me.

After a long time thinking, I came up with an Activity Set with about 10 activities. As I use MyStats everyday, I think I’ve changed some activities a little bit, but most of the activities that I defined in the beginning have not changed.

Q: What are the outcomes you get by using MyStats?

A: First of all, my mind has been changed. Now I am always aware of the kind, quality and meaning of time I am spending. I can say that I am now good at time management. For music arrangement, in order to avoid spending too much time, I first decide the end-time before I start working on it. I also keep my eyes on the amount of time I waste and reduce those “meaningless times”. I have two different activities for “Break Time”: Meaningful break time and meaningless break time. Since I gave them the colors pink and grey, I can see the ratio of these two break times on the pie chart anytime, and one of my goals is to have as little grey as possible.

Q: Have you tried the new function, Daily Activity?

A: No, not yet. I haven’t figured out how I can use it.

At this point, I explained how people are using it, and I gave her examples like Weight, Number of Sit-ups, Time Spent Practicing Guitar, Amount Spent on Groceries, etc. And her response was…

Wow, this is so cool! I’m gonna try it right now!

Immediately she started making her own Daily Activity Set. She got so into it that it seemed like she forgot that she was in an interview. Then I thought yeah, she really does need time management.

The following are some key points of Shihori’s case.

------------------------------

- Her activity set has about 10 activities such as Song Writing, Arranging, Meeting, Transportation, Sleep, etc.

She colored activities with her own meanings. For example, red for music arrangement, blue for sleep.

- She does not record her activity for 24 hours, but it is close.

The percentage of recorded time shown on Bird’s-Eye view was 82.5%.

- Non recording time is time she thinks not worthy to be recorded. i.e. Changing Clothes.

- Two different activities for Break Time colored in pink and grey.

She occasionally checks the ratio on the pie chart.

- No activity for meals.

Since she’s usually doing something else while she is eating. Meal times are included in activities like Song Writing, Meeting Friends, etc.

------------------------------

Shihori’s songs have both vigor and sensitivity. After meeting her in person, I see that she herself have both vigor and sensitivity.

While she is relaxed and talks personally, she gives an impression of being soft and gentle. At the same time, with her facial expressions and words, she showed that she also has a strong mind and heart.

Shihori, thank you so much for your time and for using MyStats. Next time, let me ask you how you use Daily Activity Function!

I also would like to thank Eri for introducing MyStats to Shihori! Eri is an artist producing mainly leathercrafts and illustrations. Eri’s works are available at her web site or at the shop called Garandou in Karuizawa, Japan. Take a look!

Shihori Live

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

(Original article was written on June 21st.)

Dreams and Goals

We did some statistical research on MyStats users' dreams and goals.

The research showed that there are more money related and language related dreams and goals compared to others. It can also be said that there are many dreams and goals with dates to be accomplished by.

The following are some results from the research.

------------------------------

- Ratio of money related to dreams and goals: 9.1%

- Ratio of language related to dreams and goals: 5.6%

- Ratio of dreams and goals with dates to be accomplished by: 8.4%

------------------------------

Other than the above, there are various dreams and goals related to health care, diet, occupation, certifications, love, musical instruments, and places to live.

As we predicted before the research, dreams and goals vary a lot. Although they all are different, they are the same in that they require a lot of effort, and everyone is doing their best to accomplish them.

How about us? So will we;)

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

(Original article was written on June 29th.)

Image: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Not Seeking Perfection

The following are reasons for not seeking perfection.

1. A lot of things do not have to be perfect

2. Perfection costs too much time, effort, etc.

Making something 100% from 90% costs more than double than making something 50% from 40%.

3. Perfect things are hard to change

Most of the things have to be continuously adjusted to the surroundings, but perfect things are difficult to adjust.

Of course there are some things we should seek perfection in, but other than that, we should be careful not to seek it unintentionally.

This is just a general statement, but FYI!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

First Bug Fix

Last Thursday, we found a bug through a user review on the App Store. It's an error you get when you have a certain combination of conditions and once you get the error, you can't record.

The following is how we responded to the bug.

Thursday May 26th

Noon

- The user review appeared and the problem was found.

We added a message on the App Store description to inform the user that we started working on the problem.

Evening

- Identified the bug and started working on fixing it.

We added a message on the App Store description to inform how users can avoid this problem.

Night

- Fixing complete.

Friday May 27th

Morning

- Started the test on the new version, V1.04

Night

- Completed the test

Uploaded V1.04 to the App Store.

Thursday June 2nd

Morning

- Received "Review Done" notice from the App Store.

Noon

- Found that the new download for MyStats was switched to V1.04 on the App Store.

Night

- Found MyStats on the App Store Updates list.

We'd like to apologize to the users who experienced this problem.

At the same time, we'd like to tell our users that we believe that we solved our first bug in the shortest period of time.

There is a lot more to do for making MyStats the best app for self-management, but we can do it!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

How To Define Activity Master - "Action" and "Objective"

Have you ever thought something like this?

"I can't define my Activity well."

"Sometimes it's very hard to pick one Activity for recording."

Here is a tip for you.

------------------------------

In your Activity Set, don't you have both Actions and Objectives?

For example, "For New Contracts" and "For Existing Contracts", these are Objectives. In other words, these are in regards to what you did.

For Actions, "Meeting", "Mail", "TEL", etc., these are the things that you actually did.

If you have both Objectives and Actions in your Activity Set, you may run into some difficulties.

For example, if you had a meeting about a new contracts, you would need to choose either "For New Contracts" or "Meeting" for your record.

We don't recommend using Actions and Objectives together in your Activity Set.

So which one should you use?

Well, it depends on why you are recording and analyzing your activity.

If this is your reason: "I want to manage my time use for existing contracts and maximize my time for new contracts." Then go with Objectives.

If this is your reason: "I want to spend less time for emailing and spend more time for making sales calls." Then go with Actions.

FYI!

P.S.

For advanced users;)

- Mixing Actions and Objectives purposefully in your Activity Set.

Let's say you are recording with Objectives and one day you think that you might be spending too much time on emailing.

If this is the case, while continuing to record with Objectives, you can add an Activity named "Email" and record the duration of the emailing time.

Though you won't see the Objectives of your emailing time with this method, you can find out how many hours you are spending on emailing while still keeping track of time for each Objective.

- Change entire Activity Set at the beginning of a month.

Start recording with Actions first and then switch to Objectives when you get a feeling.

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

A Month Has Passed...

It's been a month since we started providing MyStats.

Guess what has happened in this month...

------------------------------------------------------------

- Introduced on Yahoo! News, The Nikkei Business Daily and many other sites and newspapers in Japan.

- Ranked #5 on Business "Top Free" category of App Store Japan.

- Downloaded in 38 countries worldwide.

- Opened a blog

- Introduced as #1 "New & Noteworthy" app on Business category of App Store Japan.

- Introduced on a Russian news site.

- An old friend called me up and said "I'm using it."

- Got a reply saying "I downloaded it" from a company president.

I read in Nikkei Business Magazine that he was making his own pie chart to manage his time. I gathered up my courage and tweeted him about MyStats. Then got the reply.

- Introduced as #6 "What's Hot" app on Business category of App Store Japan.

- Got a contact from a top manager of world known enterprise and explained about MyStats in his room.

- I introduced MyStats at App Store Ginza.

- Now we can see a few tweets on MyStats everyday.

------------------------------------------------------------

What a month really!

So what I WANT to happen in the near future is...

- Being introduce as a "Staff Favorite" app.

- To see a stranger on the street using MyStats.

- It appear in a magazine.

- To have our own event at App Store.

- Being introduced on a news site in US

- To rank #1 on Business "Top Free" category of App Store Japan.

Dreams are what you make happen.

Stay tuned!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Calculation: Client Meeting Time / Transportation Time

It's not a "MyStats Case" but...

I met an experienced sales rep recently. He is kind of a go getter.

This is what he told me.

------------------------------------------------------------

Client Meeting Time / Transportation Time

Once he recorded his time and found that it was 15% to 20%.

He thought that it was really inefficient and worked on improving his activity while he kept recording and analyzing this indicator.

Then he figured that the limit is 45% for him and he could not improve it futher.

However, while he was keeping this indicator at 40% to 45%, he was winning new contracts continuously.

So he thought that 40% to 45% was good enough for his business.

------------------------------------------------------------

A good number for this indicator depends on what you sell and how big your business area is, but this calculation can be useful for anybody.

Time A / Time B = Efficiency C

By the way, this person has even published a book about sales in Japan;)

FYI!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Case: Cello-Playing Business Person

This is a second example of how to use MyStats.

------------------------------------------------------------

- Record only Cello Playing time.

END

------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, this is a simple one!


What this person told me is something like this:

- At first, he wanted to record everything he does.
Then he thought that he couldn't keep recording in that way.

- So he decided to record only one activity that he really wants to do.

- He once heard somewhere that, "anybody can play a musical instrument if he practices it for 10,000 hours" and he believes it.

- Because he has only one activity to record which he really wants to do, it's now very easy for him to keep using MyStats.


This is a story about a serious business person who works as a marketing planner at a big enterprise and decided not to record his working hours but to record only his cello playing time which he started just two years ago.

This is quite opposite of My Case, isn't it?

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

My Case

This is how I use MyStats.

------------------------------------------------------------

- Record and analyze only working hours.
Eating, Sleeping, and other private hours are not recorded.

- Set the Activity Masters based on "Objectives" not based on "Actions."
Using the Activity Masters like, "MyStats Business", "Management in General", and "HR"
NOT using like, "Meeting", "Writing", and "Emailing"

- Define the monthly time allocation at the beginning of each month.
"I will have 250 hours for my work in this month."
"I will have more than 80 hours on marketing and it should be more than 30% of my working time."
"I will limit my time for HR matters to 20 hours and it should be less than 8% of my working time."

- Keep eyes on the difference between the planned time allocation and the actual time allocation.

- Change the Activity Masters for each month.
Start with two questions, "What activity I want to spend more time for?" and "What activity I want spend less time for?" and revise the Activity Sets.
* Usually the revisions are small.
For example, I was using an activity called "MyStats" which is for all of my activities for MyStats business. From this May, I divided the Activity Master into "MyStats Development" and "MyStats Promotion."
When I start a new project, I set a new Activity Master for it.

- Record in 30min range.
I sometimes record activities in 5, 10, or 15 minutes range but over 90% of my records are in 30 minutes range. (Because I don't think I can keep track of such small pieces of times.)

- Record after I finish each activity.
But to be honest, I often forget recording and record everything for that day at the end of the day.

- Record with I-think-the-most-of-the-time-was-spent-for-this judgment.
When I spent 30 minutes for MyStats business but actually some part of the time was taken by a call from somebody for something else, I just think that most of the time was for MyStats business.
At the same time, I sometimes think that "I spent this 30 minutes mainly for "activity A" but I used many small pieces of the time for "activity B" today, so I record last 30 minutes as "activity B" in order to adjust the balance.

- Intentionally use an activity called "Dandori", which means "planning" or "arrangement", in order to organize To-do.

- Don't have any Activity Master for "Transportation."
If I do any work on the way to somewhere, I record the time as that work.
If I study on the way to somewhere, I record the time as "Study."
If I daydream on the way to somewhere, I just don't record that time and keep it blank.

------------------------------------------------------------

I change the Activity Masters for each month as I stated above, I might be recording only private hours sometime soon, though;-)

Just FYI!

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

The Sentence Which Follows The Drucker's Sentence I Talked About

As I mentioned in the press release (at the end of this article), one sentence written by Peter F. Drucker led us to develop MyStats.

The first step toward executive effectiveness is therefore to record actual time use.

Peter F. Drucker, "Efficient Executive"

When I read this sentence, I thought "Yeah, let's do it!" Then I also thought "But how do I do this?"

The next sentence is this.

The specific method in which the record is put together need not concern us here.

Peter F. Drucker, "Efficient Executive"

Oh well, you won't tell me about it, huh?

So I started the trial-and-error and then came up with my own recording method with a pocketbook, a blue pen, a red pen, and spreadsheet software after a good six months of struggling.

It's the very first prototype of MyStats.

So, should I say, TWO sentences written by Peter F. Drucker led us to develop MyStats? ;)


P.S.
After the second sentence, he continues like, "have your secretaries do it for you." No secretaries around? You got MyStats.


Press Release:
A New iPhone App "MyStats" is Released For Self-Management  - A Lifelog and Analyze Tool -

Time Management, Productivity, GTD... MyStats
Available on the App Store (For FREE!)

Trial

We would like to provides updates for MyStats. The updates are new features, user experiences, tips, and so on.

This is a trial blog for MyStats.

We'll see if it works well here or not...