2021 is primarily a year where I took action to improve my productivity.

It has been a very tough job. I am still not perfect at it. But my efforts during this process have helped me do something which otherwise I would never even bother.

In this Journal, I will write about a small story of me writing to an app on the Android App Store founder and getting him to roll out a lifetime subscription plan.

One of the patterns that emerged out while I tried to improve my productivity is that I missed the sense of spending. Like most of us, I become mindful when I spend ₹100 of my wallet; I know there's only ₹400 left. But I never become conscious when I spend ⏲ 1 hr of a day, I have ⏲ 23 hrs left. Why? 🤷‍♂️
 
In August 2021, when I looked for a tool to help me develop mindfulness, I came across an app called blocos.

The strategy is simple. Try the app for a few weeks. If I believe I will use it, pay for a premium.

I tried the app on and off for a few days. Eventually, I seemed to get the hang of it. Every day I wake up, the app helps me think I get 102 blocks a day to spend after sleep. I have to use these 102 blocks mindfully. So, I select multiple blocks, assign them the task I want, and get the job done. This always reminds my blocks are limited.

Eventually, with time I can also see analytics.

But getting data is premium feature. It looks like this:

I believe I did reach somewhere over a few weeks. However, if I needed to work upon myself, I needed features like backing up my data and analytics. The pricing of this app is subscription-based. It means I am required to pay monthly or yearly.

₹599/month. That's about ₹7200/year.

I sent an email to their support team.

From the app experience, I assumed the team was from Brazil, and the team could be less than ten members. Requesting them to lower the monthly subscription cost is not attractive if I were a founder. I would probably spare three months of the requested lower price and then back to usual fees.

So I planted a new idea that the app was missing out on compared to similar apps in the same category – The lifetime subscription option. I guessed someone would respond.

The founder did. A week later.

My assumption worked very well. I felt more confident in his last paragraph. It tells me a lot about his openness about learning his customers. He is open to learning my behavior and assumes there are a lot of others like me who would pay.

I taught him what he wanted to learn. I painted a customer persona for him.

We went on exchanging two more emails in between.

Finally, Frits was convinced.

A few more weeks went by.

Eventually, the blocos app released a lifetime subscription plan priced at ₹2350.