Aspirations

Aspire Current Status

2010-01-05T10:31:22-07:00

Understandably, a few people have asked about what is happening with Aspire, given there haven't been any updates in a very long time.

While not abandoned, it's true that it hasn't been actively worked on for a while. This came about as a result of some tough decisions about priorities... ironic, no? Between an extended (but recently completed) major cross-country relocation mostly for family reasons, and some work shuffling aggravated by the economic downturn, Aspire needed to be put on the back burner in the short term. It doesn't always make sense to work on the things that are fun to work on unfortunately...

With things starting to settle down, I do expect to resume work on Aspire in the not too distant future, though I can't promise any specific timeframes.

In the meantime, if you have any improvements or changes you'd like to see, please let me know.

Thanks for your patience, and the fresh sense of possibilities that come with the new year.

Life imitates... err, software?

2009-04-20T09:04:48-06:00

Given that Aspire is really a tool to help people find balance in their life and priorities, it's perhaps not as odd to tell the following story as it would be in the traditional formal stuffy software company blog.

Very late in 2008, just as Aspire 1.0 was being completed, my wife and I made the fairly major decision that we were going to move across Canada, from Guelph, Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta. It was a difficult choice, meaning we'd leave a really great place to live and her a great job, but it would allow us to be much closer to family (needless to say, when we moved out east 10 years ago, pre-9/11, flying wasn't nearly the hassle and time sink it is today, plus we lived much closer to an airport).

Needless to say, all the various tasks involved with putting our house up for sale, job hunting, navigating provincial licensing authorities and professional organizations, and planning for the transition itself ended up taking way more time than we'd planned. That meant we had to make some difficult choices, and put a few things on hold for a while. Aspire ended up being one of them. So if you were wondering about the radio silence here over the last month or two, that's what happened.

The good news is that we're well over the hump, and as of a few days ago are nicely settled into temporary accommodations in our "new" home city. As things get ramped back up over the next few weeks, I'm itching to get back to working on Aspire, and have a long list of things I want to add or improve.

So my sincere apologies for the delays and quiet, and thanks to everyone for their patience. I hope that in the not too distant future I'll be able to make up for all the lost time and then some!

Aspire 1.0 Now Available!

2009-02-17T06:27:00-07:00

At long last, Aspire 1.0 has been released and is now available for download on our website! Obviously, this is a bit of a milestone. :-)

I just wanted to thank everyone who tried out the preview and beta releases, shared their ideas, reactions and comments.

Woo hoo!

Last chance before we leave beta...!

2009-02-09T16:28:59-07:00

I've gotten some good feedback on the Aspire public beta release, and so far no show-stoppers. Given that, I'm expecting to make an official 1.0 release very soon.

That means this is your last chance to purchase your Aspire license at the pre-release price of $19. Remember, this gives you the free upgrade to 1.0, as well as all minor (1.x) releases. In other words, the only difference between purchasing a license now and purchasing after the release is that now you get to save a few bucks.

Aspirations!

2009-02-02T11:05:34-07:00

Thanks to a suggestion by Dave Price, this weblog has been renamed to "Aspirations", which I'm sure you'll agree is much better than "unifiq.com weblog"!

Public Beta Available!

2009-01-27T12:53:08-07:00

A public beta of Aspire is now available for download.

I wanted to thank the various people who have tried out the earlier "preview" incarnations of Aspire, and provided such thoughtful and useful feedback! The program is much improved (and more stable!) thanks to you.

I hope it will be a quick journey from this public beta to the official 1.0 release.

During the beta period, the same special pricing as for the preview applies. This means you can purchase a license now, which gives you all the upgrades to 1.0 and in fact any 1.x version, for only US$19, compared with a regular price of $39.

Of course, this price goes up once we release.

Please try out this beta, and let me know any problems you run into, and of course any other suggestions you may have.

Work on Stuff that Matters.

2009-01-14T11:33:48-07:00

A very good post by Tim O'Reilly about why you should work on stuff that matters. He elaborates... (a) work on something that matters to you more than money, (b) create more value than you capture, and (c) take the long view.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T05:34:00-07:00

While I'm not much of one for new year's resolutions, some people do seem to be fond of them. I wish a few less were, particularly those who will be rudely crowding up the gym for the first few weeks of January. But I digress...

Resolutions or not, January is a good time to take a fresh look at things, a chance to get a new perspective, to rethink your priorities. Particularly given the sharp changes in the economy the last few months of 2008, this is probably relevant for more people than ever.

Best wishes to you and yours for 2009!

Productivity means managing tasks and subtasks... doesn't it?

2008-12-22T09:33:15-07:00

Aspire is initially surprising or puzzling to many people. It doesn't look or work like "productivity applications" are supposed to.

Everyone knows that productivity means tracking things you need to get done, usually with lists, outlines, charts and schedules. It means itemizing the tasks to complete, breaking them down into subtasks, and estimating times for each of those.

We know there are lots of great tools for doing that, ranging from paper-and-pencil, to methodologies like Getting Things Done, to group or individual wiki tools, to calendars, or to dedicated task management applications. We're lucky to have so many well-designed and effective tools on the Mac to help us be productive.

So if that's how productivity is done, and everyone seems to more or less agree, why did Aspire get it so wrong?

Well, if you think of Aspire as a replacement for traditional task management tools, I think that would be getting it wrong.

Think instead of Aspire as a way to add value and complement your existing day-to-day task management. It offers a different perspective, not only conceptually but visually, that I think is a very important and useful one. It helps you to see the work you're doing from another side, to "think differently"... now where have we heard that before?

So why might this other perspective be important?

Traditional productivity and task management approaches focus on time as the variable to be optimized. Getting more things done in a given time makes us more productive.

Many people are familiar with Stephen Covey and his seven (or eight) habits. His categorization of activities into four quadrants based on importance and urgency is also well known.

This matrix underscores that we should be spending more time in the "important" half, and that in particular important but "not urgent" activities are all too easily neglected in the rush to get our ever-growing daily tasks done in what seems like ever shrinking time.

Ahhh....

So while task-based tools often provide some notion of task priority or sorting, their primary focus is helping you get what you need to do done in a finite time. Importance is a consideration, but secondary to time.

In Aspire, importance is right up there front and centre as the dominant organizing principle, while tasks, sub-tasks and time are secondary.

Because screen space varies with importance, Aspire very graphically puts importance right in your face. Look at your existing work from that perspective. Is all of your time spent in a small area of the screen (small importance)? Are you completely ignoring things taking up the bulk of the screen (large importance)? Does the overall gestalt presented by Aspire jive with how you're spending your time?

Both ways are "right", but they help you look at things from different perspectives. Both of those perspectives are important, and valuable. Ultimately, you don't want to just get things done, you want to get the important things done.

So did Aspire get it wrong?

If the goal was to unseat existing productivity applications, make a boatload of money, or appeal to the widest possible audience, the approach taken by Aspire would be wrong. But those weren't goals.

I think some people — not all, and not even a majority — will be motivated enough and would benefit from taking a fresh look at their long-term productivity through the lens of importance. Not giving up task-based and time-based perspectives, but augmenting them. I also think that particularly applies to the creatives, free thinkers and innovators who tend to gravitate towards Macs in the first place.

If even looking at Aspire motivates you to revisit and widen your perspective on productivity, in my mind that's a success. Not that I mind if you actually buy the software of course.

Another Update.

2008-12-11T11:45:36-07:00

Version 0.9.2 has been released, which fixes some memory management problems that were causing crashes. Thanks kindly to the great people on the Unifiq User Forum for their help in hunting this down.