Block & Flow: Stay focused

Thank you for the review and helpful feedback. What would you like to happen? Would you prefer the block is just paused if you stray to Facebook, or that the block is cancelled and reset back to the start? This is an area that I plan to improve in the future. I would like someone to be able to change how strict the app is depending on their preference. Once again, thank you for leaving a helpful review and thank you for updating your review to answer the questions.

RESPONSE TO EDIT Thank you for editing your review. I am pleased that you received the refund. I wanted to make the refund generous and much more than your original in app purchase price. I appreciate that you have recommended the app in the past. Best of luck with finding an app that works well for you. ORIGINAL REPLY Thank you for taking the time to write a review. It is helpful to hear both the negative and the positive. I appreciate your frustration and would like to see if we can find a way to move forward and for you to enjoy using the app again. If you would like to send me an e-mail via the ‘Feedback’ button in the ‘About’ page in the Block & Flow app, I would like to try and help. I would like to address your points and to also be candid with you. With regards to how the people were treated that had upgraded, I do feel I could have done this better. My big failing here is that I did not explain the change. Of course people will support or disagree with my course of action, but at the least I should have explained the change. I understand your expectation about the in app purchase upgrade. I have reviewed the in app purchase upgrade and it enabled someone to create a further eight categories, to be able to export their data, and does not offer anything else or make any promises for the future. Irrespective you still had an expectation and if your contact me, I will try to make it right. The in app purchase upgrade earned a tiny amount of money and was not enough to support the future of the app. If I had continued down this road the people that love using Block & Flow would end up not having an app. App pricing and business models can be tricky and I am trying to find a business model that creates a sustainable business and that works for the people that love the app. The first step has been to introduce ‘Pro’ subscriptions, which means I have a responsibility to provide a great app and to keep improving it, and in turn this is funded through a monthly or yearly subscription. When I introduced this, I did not know how people would respond and whether anyone would subscribe. I am grateful to the people that choose to subscribe and I believe Block & Flow has a great future because of their support. Thank you to the people that have subscribed, it is a big encouragement to see. I did think long and hard about introducing the pro subscription and how to treat people that had previously upgraded. My aim was to give people the best experience of Block & Flow and for all the features to be available to use in the free one month trial. The intention was to keep it simple, and that if someone finds the app useful, they can continue using the app after the free trial month and purchase the monthly or yearly pro subscription. For someone that had previously upgraded, they were given three months before being prompted about the pro subscription. I really did not know whether people would choose the pro subscription or not. People do write to me with their stories of how they use Block & Flow, and what they have accomplished with the help of it. My thinking was that I need such people to support the pro subscription and that these people would probably be the people that had previously upgraded. I needed to find out if they would support me and the app going forward. It is a relief that people have as a majority been supportive and I am determined to do my best for them. Having taken the first step, I do intend to revisit the free to pro subscription experience and to improve it. There are aspects of it that I do not like, and that could be done in a way that makes for a much better experience. I have had several good suggestions and am open to ideas for how to approach this. Once again thank you for your feedback. I do hope that you contact me and that we might find a way forward.

Hello Scott, thank you for the candid review. I also want to say thank you for the encouragement and useful feedback that you have given over the last couple of years. Your points are valid and there are definitely some actions that with hindsight I would have done differently. If you send me an e-mail to stefan@blockandflowapp.com, I will try to make amends for the situation. In case it helps, I am sharing my thought process and how I handled the switch to a subscription model. For people that had previously purchased the upgrade in app purchase, I did give a 90 day window to use the app before moving to the subscription model. When considering what to do, at the time, I was really concerned about whether anyone would support the change to the subscription model and it failing was a huge fear. For Block & Flow to have a future, it does have to generate enough revenue to be a sustainable business. Whether people supported the change to the subscription or not, would decide the future. My reasoning was that if the people that have used Block & Flow for 1 year, 2 years, or more, do not see the value in the subscription, then the app does not deserve a future. This is why I choose 90 days, versus grandfathering, as I needed to find out if people valued what I have made. Thankfully people do value Block & Flow, choose to subscribe, and choose to continue their subscription. This means a lot to me, and creates a great opportunity for the future. I am full of respect for the people that use Block & Flow, want them to do well, and want them to keep going with the different challenges that they set themselves. I imagine the change in a person if they keep doing the good work that they do with the help of Block & Flow, and imagine how far they will be after 7 years of such effort. I am trying to steer the future in a direction where Block & Flow becomes more and more useful, and that it is there for people for many, many years. There are still many challenges ahead and I will keep taking them on one block at a time. I care about the people that use Block & Flow, and do keep pushing myself to keep improving, so that I can do more for them. They are very special people. Once again, thank you for the fair feedback. I have been lucky to have you as someone that has used my app.

Thank you for the review. I really appreciate it. Of course, if there is anything that I can help with, or any suggestions that you have for Block & Flow, please do let me know. That is great to hear that you have customised the app to what works for you. An idea to try is setting the block length to match how long you can typically concentrate for. For me, a sign that my concentration has dropped is when I look at the timer. In my experience there is a practice effect for concentration. You are training your focus, and with more practice you can focus quicker and more consistently. If you want to test yourself, then I find reading is a good measure of this. To do this, as you read, notice how often you need to start at the beginning of a line, or that you loose your place. With practice, I find that I loose my place less when reading, and instead find flow. A person working from home is someone that is top of mind when I think about Block & Flow. I know from experience that it can be difficult to not have a structure, and also the feeling of unsuccessful days. My approach to this challenge, is that I have an 'easy' goal each work day for how many blocks I must at least do. If I hit this 'easy' goal of getting my blocks done, then the day is a success for me. 'Easy' may be an uncomfortable idea, but in practice it makes me always able to start and has meant I have kept going and dong my blocks for many years. Think of 'Easy' as saying I must do at least this many blocks. A second criteria is that you can say I will do no more than. When you hit your easy goal for the day, you then have the choice to continue and do more, or to stop for the day. I think the hard part is starting the day. Keeping it easy, means that getting started is not intimidating. When I choose to do more, it makes me feel that I am getting ahead, and putting in extra effort. I hope the above helps. Best of luck. Stefan

Thank you for the constructive feedback. I do try hard to listen to the people that use Block & Flow. The aim is to make an app that helps someone for the long term (many, many years). I have reread our e-mail exchange, and apologise. Re-reading it, I did misread and misunderstood your original point. Your suggestion that pressing continue starts the next block is a good idea and a change that I will make. Best of luck with your productivity.