Unfortunately, I haven’t done much video before, so I look a bit stiff in the interview, but it worked out.  Tech Ranch has been a great help to me.  It’s nice being around people who just want to help others.  Also, make sure you check out the other video entries on Jonas’ site.

BG Alert would love to hear any comments or suggestions, as it is still in development.  Our goal is to help as many families with children with type 1 diabetes as we can.  I have a 12 year old with type 1 diabetes, and this service has helped our family a great deal, and I want others to be able to benefit from this.

3 hours ago, I decided that I would track all time in my day.  Sleep, eating, coding, IMing.  Everything.  I feel this will help me track the things that are eating away at my time in a negative way.  I started this at 10:30PM on Tuesday, August 5th and plan on doing this until I go to bed next Wednesday, August 12.  I then plan on doing this every 4 weeks.  My goal is to track my weaknesses in my time management, and hopefully eliminate them.  Tracking them on an interval of 4 weeks should show me productivity gains over time as well.

In my spare time (is there such thing?), I plan on making a super simple web application that makes tracking and logging this as easy as possible.  However, if there is already a site out there that is free and does this in an intuitive manner, please leave the URL in a comment, as I would love to use it.

Has anyone else done something like this?  What was learned from it?  Am I wasting my time?  In the end, I’m hoping this will open my eyes to what is really going on with my time, and help me become a more efficient person.

Update:

I am now using my new iPhone to track my time.  The Voice Memos app is awesome.  Hit record, say what I’m doing, hit stop.  Already records the time on it.  Still going strong!

For us entrepreneurs getting close to a launch, make sure you keep this in the back of your mind.  The product is not going to be bulletproof in your first version, at least with software.  There will be bugs.  People will have change requests.  You can always take the time to go back and improve a software’s architecture.  Don’t take this as an excuse for lazy coding or poor product design.  The architectural phase of a project is vital to maintanability of the software and will have a big impact on the overall time it takes to create it.  Concentrate on a good design, then implement it as fast as you safely can.

After all, there’s a reason people use the phrase “first to market,” in press releases so much…

I am a software developer, with much experience with Microsoft’s .Net Framework (2.0/3.0/3.5).  I’ve worked on projects ranging from architecting financial applications using WPF, WCF, Windows services, and an ASP.Net web application, to small websites using the new ASP.Net MVC Framework.  If it is something you can program with a Microsoft .Net technology, I can do it.  I also have expert experience in database modeling with MS SQL Server and MySQL, including the configuration of the servers, writing stored procedures and triggers, and deployments of these solutions.

I would be more than happy to help a fellow entrepreneur figure out the architecture of an application or help review a database schema and anything in between.  I can help you figure out things before you pull the trigger on some $50k piece of software.

So here’s my call to action: What can you do?  What do you need?  Post it here as a comment, write a blog post, do something to get the word out!  The more people involved in this communal effort, the higher chance of success for us all!

Let me give anyone considering doing this some advice…do not do this unless you have a rock solid support network (family, friends and family).  Doing this would not have been possible for me without my family and friends.  Finding a local support network is helpful too.  I’m lucky to live in one of the best cities for startups in the nation, one of the cities that will help bring the country out of this recession.  Local groups like Tech Ranch Austin help keep me inspired and going.  Tech Ranch is full of good people.  Their first question when meeting you is usually, “How can we help you?”  Their goal in life is to spark small business growth, and help entrepreneurs succeed.  I am actually in the process of completing their Employee 2 Entrepreneur program, which helps jumping over a lot of the initial hurdles small business owners encounter in the early stages.  Not only do you learn a lot of important concepts, you network and find others who are more than happy to help out.  Everyone in the class wants the others to succeed and will do anything they can to help with that.

So what am I actually doing you ask?  I am currently splitting my time between working on my diabetes management company, BG Alert, and starting up a software development company with two friends and my wife.  I plan on launching the first version of BG Alert at the end of the month, just in time for the upcoming school year.  Version two will hopefully be released 2-3 months later.  Tech Ranch has been a great help getting me in contact with members of the community that can help me advance this service.  So, if you know anyone with children with type 1 diabetes, have them contact me, I’d love to get their input and hopefully get them testing BG Alert.

Currently, I’m not 100% sure of the direction I’m going to take with this blog.  If you have suggestions, please comment.