FAQs
Why log activities?
One of the things I noticed when my son’s pain was at its worst was that all I saw was his pain – what he couldn’t do. He couldn’t get out of bed to eat with us. He couldn’t make it to school. He couldn’t play or be with friends.
I had to look hard to see his success – how he struggled and SUCCEEDED making it to the kitchen to get himself tea. How he’d feed the chickens every day. How he could play video games and chat with friends online. How he’d make it to school – maybe hours late, but he’d make it!
Developmental research clearly demonstrates that adolescents are motivated by pleasure and reward. They are also motivated by short term gains more than long term promises.
I think all of us are.
In addition, research on pain rehabilitation shows that functioning – getting on with your life – comes before pain improves, not after.
Those two findings provide the basis of this app. You focus on what you succeeded in today. You’re reminded of what you hope to do tomorrow. You celebrate each step forward.
Can I log pain?
Logging pain can be useful, but can also make things worse. When people are asked about pain, they do a fast body scan and become more aware of pain that had dropped into the background.
That’s why we give you a choice. We can ask you about your pain every day, every week, every few weeks or never.
Start with the Weekly Log
The Weekly Log asks you how you’re doing in six major areas, including sleep, diet, exercise, relieving stress, and going out with your pain. That helps you think about where you are now and what you want to do next. Then, you can set up to three goals. We recommend setting one goal that’s a realistic next step, one that’s a stretch, and then something that will just improve you happiness, quality of life, or joy. The goals you set will appear in the Daily Log.
Check in with the Daily Log
The Daily Log is where you’ll start or end your day. You can log both positive and negative feelings. We’ll ask whether you accomplished the goals you’ve set for yourself as well as dozens of activities that can be hard for people living with pain – checking in with family and friends, exercising, and caring for yourself and others.
The Daily Log focuses on success. Activities are tailored to you – we ask different questions of those going to school and those who work, those with pets, and those living alone.
Caregivers can log the activities of those they love – parents can log their children’s activities, for example. They can also log self-care and best practices in caregiving.
Logging is the core of the app and serves as a record of all you’ve done, as well as a reminder of what you hope to do tomorrow.
What Is Caregiver Mode?
In Caregiver Mode, you can log all the same things as a person in pain can: Emotions, Activities, Self-Care and Pain.
But Caregiver Mode does more. It supports you as a coach by letting you log the support you provide, the standards you set, and the everyday interactions that help you sustain a loving relationship.
Why don’t you see what your child logs?
Logging and keeping yourself accountable only works if you are honest with yourself. And privacy is essential to honesty. What you record about your child is private from them. And their data is private from you.
Why do you charge for the app?
Do I have to pay a monthly fee?
Buying the 1step2life app is a ONE TIME fee. Once you download the app, it’s yours. That’s it.
I’ve recently been asked why we don’t give it away. After all, it helps a lot of people and our goal is to get it out to as many people as possible. The truth is, developing the app was very expensive. We also pay monthly fees for the servers that house the app and data, for a service to help you when you reset your password, and for all the little things that add up when you’re running a small company. For example, every time Apple or Google update their operating systems, the app has to be revised so it keeps working. It costs money to do that. To keep the app going, we need to meet those costs and eventually break even. We aren’t there yet.
How do other companies give their apps away?
Almost all apps make money in at least one of three ways.
- They sell you ads. We considered funding the app by selling ads. It would allow us to provide the service for free. Unfortunately, most of the companies who would be interested in advertising with us were health-related, pharmaceutical companies, or businesses that were interested in reaching our client population – you – those who live with pain or chronic illness. We feel that we can’t vet the claims or content of those ads and felt that accepting advertising money would reduce the independence and credibility of our product. Anyone who has been on websites for folks with chronic pain have seen lots of ads that look like scams or snake oil. No way. We decided against it.
- They sell your data. Most free apps that don’t show ads make their money by selling data about you. They collect data from your phone and user ids and sell it to other companies. We were dead set against that. This app collects personal information about your health. We don’t sell it. Period. That wasn’t an option.
- They charge for the app. This was the most straightforward option. You decide you want to buy the app. You pay for the product. It’s yours. We decided this was the most honest and straightforward way we could support this service in a sustainable way.
We hope to be able to provide the app for free to people who wouldn’t be able to use it otherwise at some time in the future. It’s one of our goals. We just aren’t there yet.
Download the 1step2life app!
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