Good on you for reaching out. Burnout can be draining and not having someone that understands/doesn't judge makes the experience harder to deal. There are different types of burnout which can affect everyone differently. Slow down and start making changes in small increments to improve your mental health.
A few changes that helped me (that are more generally applicable for you/others)...
- Make friends with yourself and then support yourself - I mean, wouldn't you cut your friend some slack and offer this kind of advice if they were in a similar situation? Forgive yourself for feeling scared. It's OK. Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself when you indulge (no matter if it is procrastination, retail therapy, ice cream, media consumption, or whatever).
- Remember that not every day needs to be 'productive'. So, slow down and take some pressure off. This can take a bit getting used to because you may feel you're cheating yourself or your client/employer. Break work into smaller chunks. Remember, not everything needs to be done right away, in one fell swoop, or at all.
- Segregate work and play, times and places. Try to set some office hours for your support work. Might be easier to physically step away from the B&B during those hours, if explaining your need for private time is difficult.
- Sleep, wake, eat, and exercise at regular times everyday. Don't surf/watch/read in bed and screens off ~30 minutes before lights out. Follow a healthy and balanced diet (more fruits and greens, less meat). Introduce a schedule slowly.
- Add an exercise regimen. Even light exercise such as a daily 45 min stroll will help (and Maui should have some beautiful views). Cycle, run, hike, or swim if you can.
- Develop some regular social interactions and find a supportive community/group/individual. Talk to a therapist/counseller and/or a supportive partner/friend. Talking, letting it out, helps.
- Do more things that do not involve computing/screens. Fulfill a new creative urge or rekindle and old, long cast-aside interest. Read a book; volunteer - even a little helps others and helps you; meditate - I found guided gratitude-focused meditation was helpful. I still watch plenty of stuff, but I'm now more aware when I'm doomscrolling or experiencing video fatigue+mesmerism.
- If you have interests in cycling, dancing, painting, writing, board games, wood working, etc., now is a good time to seek out groups or places that organise casual events without major commitment. They will afford you conversations and social interaction that is helpful.
- I found fulfilling non-computing interests made a positive impact and helped me deal with exhaustion, anxiety, and depression. Don't worry about being good at these other interests. Start small, at whatever level you are comfortable with.
- If you feel good/bad on a particular day, consider your activities, food consumption, media consumption, for the last 48 hours.
Recovering from burnout takes time - I have been making changes in the last 18 months, and it has not been easy. That spark is relatable, and it will come back (perhaps in a different form).
OK. That was quite a bit more than I expected to write. I hope some of it is helpful and I haven't come off as soapboxing.
I really like that you've added second ticks and a starting countdown.
Will's version has a nice whistle to start and pause & stop buttons. He also has a small 'info' link that explains the exercise routine. Please consider integrating these as well as a skip button.
Unfortunately, neither version works with sound on my phone.
Checkout LifeSlice by Stan James (https://github.com/wanderingstan/Lifeslice) for OSX - the script takes a screenshot, picture of the user and tracks web browser usage. The sample report leaves much to be desired from a design aesthetic but the data is available.
o/t dabblet.com is a really wonderful concept (and would be even better if I had a larger-than-13"-screen :-)
Reminds me of the editor used by Bret Victor in his presentation https://vimeo.com/36579366
on-topic... the technique is interesting. What kind of real-world applications can we expect?
My two bits:
It's great that you're having fun developing apps. I can't say much as to the robustness of the app. But, you should not discount the user experience when developing an app.
What does the site do? Why is this easier/better/nicer than X/Y/Z? I have no idea.
What need or issue are you trying to address? Why should I use this over other services?
A reader for the lazy would ideally do something like NewsBlur (which is fabulous, BTW) and pick up my feeds from a competing service. Consider providing an 'import from Google Reader' option.
You're asking me to add sites one by one, in a non-intuitive manner - if there's only one feed, just let me click 'subscribe' - don't bother giving me a (non) choice.
I like that you're loading the actual site within your app.
However, I have a 13" screen at 1280x800 and there's all sorts of scrolling required, which makes for a messy experience. Gets worse when that lower frame is pulled up to view the site. Design for multiple resolutions.
From a usability perspective, the site is confusing. I've spent more time crafting this response than using the site because of this.
I could possibly click on things and see what they do, but that's 'risky' and not lazy. For instance:
1. What do the up & down arrows do?
2. What does pull up mean?
3. I clicked on a link in a feed and nothing happened. Oh no, this site doesn't work! (If I hadn't scrolled down, I would not have realized the site had loaded in the lower 'box', which I also had to then 'pull up'. This process is not obvious or easy.) Consider an email inbox view - just titles to click on, and full previews in lower 'box'.
4. Keyboard shortcuts?
5. Why is the default post count only 3? Once read, a post remains in my view instead of minimizing itself. Infinite scrolling would be great to load more posts.
6. UI-wise, what happens once I have 30 feeds? How does your horizontal nav handle that?
There's more obviously, but this hopefully this is a start.
It's always easier for someone (me) to criticize, so keep this in mind with my comments.
Why should I send you an email so I can get some 'free' software which will allegedly improve my online experience? There isn't even a proper description or screenshot.
Why should I trust you with my contact information?
You 'remove the hooks'? Elaborate please. Are you deleting cookies? Are you packaging a Fluid-style browser as facemenot?
You've got great karma (atleast on HN), but it's not enough because you're using some survey link for feedback with no authorship info on the site. Unless I see a reasonable explanation of what your software does (and how it does it), I'm not going to sign up for a beta/alpha release. No, this doesn't at all seem suspicious.
Would you accept "Welcome to Google's university search of Adrian College" to be less confusing, since the word 'university' is not repeated?
O/T
Their university-specific search is nothing new; they've had the feature for several years.
Other topic specific searches are at the bottom of this page: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
This is a very cool site. I can quite appreciate the amount of work you've put in here. I was trying to get something along these lines going myself, albeit unsuccessfully - I was unable to do a good job scraping LS/RS :(
Second sgrove's suggestions. Further, it isn't immediately obvious that I can click on the graphs to get participation details, attendance details, party members in LS, etc. When comparing records, I found it difficult to identify exact values in the bar graph - there are no axes lines or values provided.
Testing in IE7/IE8 is a must. IE6 has certainly diminished in popularity, but your target audience doesn't necessarily live on cutting edge (or even close to it), so some testing is required (atleast so the site degrades gracefully).
As for UI, I think you could make better use of the white space on some of the pages. The search box at the top right is too small, yet search is a primary navigation tool. The logo is a bit jarring on the blue bg. A breadcrumb would be nice too.
If my search returns a unique result, like your example for 'Gujarat', it would be nice to be taken directly to the result instead of seeing the intermediate page with only one result - one less click, but a big step in usability, friendliness. Also, are you using exact matches only, for the search? Would full-text be applicable here?
One thing I see you haven't addressed is localization (unless it's there and I'm missing it, I apologise). Translations to regional languages is important when targeting the rural markets.
It's important to make this information more accessible and I think you've made a great start.
PS: I know you've done a lot of the work already, but I'm interested in helping out if needed. Email is in the profile.
Totally agree with other posters. This is a neat interface - I like how it completely takes away the clutter, allowing you to focus on the current story.
User configurable, perhaps? No-cycling, custom feed selections, etc.
Personally, I would like longer excerpts...two to four line excerpts just don't cut it for me. However, I presume that's a function of the provider's feed settings.
Also, some of the feeds are just...meh. I don't care for Abby, Drudge, etc.
It's pretty basic - changes body width to 120ch, centers body and main, and updates body font. Despite some issues, works great for a one-click fix.