{"id":44,"date":"2011-11-17T09:21:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T09:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2012-01-03T21:07:11","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T21:07:11","slug":"thestory","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/thestory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

New iPhone and iPad app uses CBT principles to analyze your daily activities; helps reduce anxiety and depression; provides visual data to make changes to your lifestyle or work<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian Blum, the founder and president of Blum Interactive Media<\/a>, an Israeli content development firm, had a problem. \u201cI\u2019d be working hard all day,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it always seemed like I\u2019d accomplished nothing, except maybe check email.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Blum had been learning about an increasingly popular form of counseling called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy<\/a> (CBT) which, unlike traditional \u201ctalk therapy,\u201d uses a variety of written forms, charts and tables to help patients move past blocks and stressors. There are forms for dealing with regrets, procrastination, \u201cnegative automatic thoughts,\u201d and tens of other issues.<\/p>\n

One of the forms addressed Blum\u2019s own concerns, enabling CBT patients to record, categorize and rank activities so they can see what they really<\/em> get done during the day. That form became the basis of iAccomplish<\/a>, a new app for the iPhone and iPad, that was released earlier this month by Blum Interactive Media.<\/p>\n

Most CBT work today is still done with pen and paper. Why not computerize the process? Blum thought. And going one step further: why not bring it specifically to mobile devices, which are always with you, making it easy to log an activity on the spot?<\/p>\n

iAccomplish, which is priced at $1.99 for a universal iPhone and iPad download, \u201cis like a \u2018smart diary,\u2019\u201d Blum explains. \u201cThe basic idea is that you write down everything you do during the day. Then you tag your activities and rank how much you enjoyed them and how much \u2018competence\u2019 you felt when doing a particular activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it may seem laborious at first, the process itself of writing down what you do is the CBT key to feeling better. iAccomplish users can then see how much they achieve during a particular day, week or month; where they\u2019ve been spending their time; and how they feel about the activities that are keeping them busy. \u201cIf you are not enjoying what you\u2019re doing, iAccomplish can give you the data to make changes to your lifestyle or work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blum worked with several CBT therapists and university researchers to help ensure that the methodology of the app matches the traditional approach. \u201cIt\u2019s important that the app really helps people feel better from a clinical perspective,\u201d Blum says.<\/p>\n

Online CBT has been the subject of numerous research studies, including those looking into the efficacy of the approach in much more significant interventions, such as panic disorders and post-traumatic stress. On the consumer side, the most popular book on CBT \u2013 \u201cFeeling Good: the New Mood Therapy<\/a>\u201d by Dr. David Burns \u2013 has sold over four million copies.<\/p>\n

iAccomplish is part of a burgeoning category of \u201ceTherapy.\u201d Other mobile apps that are selling well and that are based on CBT principles include \u201ciCBT<\/a>\u201d and \u201ci Can Do It<\/a>,\u201d both from Bonfire Development Advisors; \u201ciCouch CBT<\/a>\u201d from iCouch Mobile; \u201ceCBT Mood<\/a>\u201d from MindApps; \u201cCBT Referee<\/a>\u201d; and CBT MobilWork being developed at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.<\/p>\n

There are also a variety of apps intended to reduce stress that don\u2019t specifically employ CBT (iTunes lists tens of meditation, visualization and relaxation apps, for example) or to assist in logging gratitude (\u201cGratitude Journal<\/a>\u201d from HappyTapper) or habits (ala The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People \u2013 see \u201cThe Habit Factor<\/a>\u201d by Equilibrium Enterprises).<\/p>\n

Indeed, the self-help and productivity categories are two of the hottest in the iTunes app store.<\/p>\n

Using iAccomplish is deceptively simple: you type in your accomplishments, tag them (you can create your own categories or use one that comes with the app like \u201cWork\u201d or \u201cErrands\u201d), and slide your finger to rate your enjoyment and competence. You can choose from recurring activities to save typing. \u201cOnce you\u2019ve added enough accomplishments, you can start to detect patterns,\u201d Blum says.<\/p>\n

For example, in addition to seeing how many accomplishments you\u2019ve logged per day (which in and of itself helps relieve stress), you can review which categories were most frequent during the mornings, or ones that show up repeatedly on a particular day of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you find you\u2019re spending all morning responding to voice messages and you\u2019re hating it, you can think about different strategies to maximize, prioritize \u2013 and feel better \u2013 about how you spend your time,\u201d Blum explains.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it comes down to the personal. \u201cThe main reason I developed this app is that I had used CBT myself and it\u2019s been tremendously valuable in my life,\u201d Blum says. Indeed, “if I can help one other person feel less stressed and anxious, the way CBT has worked for me,\u201d Blum says, \u201cthat will be a real accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, he winks, \u201can iAccomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

For more information about iAccomplish, contact:<\/p>\n

Jody Fox
\nMarketing Director
\nBlum Interactive Media
\njody@bluminteractivemedia.com<\/a>
\n1-646-485-7266<\/p>\n

Website: www.iaccomplishapp.com<\/a>
\nApp store: http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/iaccomplish\/id481310763<\/a><\/p>\n

Promo code available upon request.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New iPhone and iPad app uses CBT principles to analyze your daily activities; helps reduce anxiety and depression; provides visual data to make changes to your lifestyle or work Brian Blum, the founder and president of Blum Interactive Media, an Israeli content development firm, had a problem. \u201cI\u2019d be working hard all day,\u201d he says, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaccomplishapp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}