Today’s Creative Q & A feature is with Mark Ostach, founder of mymentalspace – a free tool to help manage emotions from Internet use. I met Mark more than a year ago when he joined our conversation at Tweetea one evening. I was really intrigued by the concept of mymentalspace and how it could help people who are negatively affected by the Web. Mark has been working hard to get the tool launched, and I recently snagged some of his time to have him share more about who he is and what his company is all about.
What’s the story behind mymentalspace? How did you come up with the idea, and how long have you been working on the launch plan?
The idea started when I was studying psychology and neuroscience at Albion College. At Albion, I received a great foundation to how the human brain works and common trends in human behavior.
I also noticed trends in the way classmates and friends would use websites like Facebook, sometimes to an addictive degree. After going to Walsh College to study information systems management, I realized how I could merge the psychological aspect of treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with the curriculum I was learning at Walsh.
It was a clash of the two educational disciplines — human behavior and how information systems work and learning how memory stored in a computer has some overlap to how we store memory as humans. Today, we have so much information at once. Where do we store it and how does that affect our mood?”
The Mentalspace Manager and mymentalspace.com aim to help people manage Internet behaviors that can sometimes be detrimental to their emotional well-being. The Mentalspace Manager is all about self-awareness. With Mentalspace Manager, users can set time limits for being online, block certain websites and report their daily moods to see how the Internet affects their emotions and mental state. We’re focused on helping people realize how the Internet affects their emotions.
As for our launch….we are going live this summer. We’ve been in development for two years. I have two amazing technical gurus and good friends, Paul and Chris, leading the development team. Paul and Chris are just as excited as I am to release all of our hard work from the last two years.
Most companies that revolve around the Internet or social media show the positive attributes of those worlds, but mymentalspace is meant for people who are experiencing negative effects of the Internet. Do you have any competitors in this space? If so, how does mymentalspace stand out?
There are companies that try to help monitor Internet usage. However, none of these companies are focused on managing emotions from Internet use. This is how mymentalspace stands out. Using “The Mentalspace Manager”, a plugin for your Web browser to manager Internet behaviors, we allow people to “self-monitor” their time online and block websites that may be harmful. Moreover, our experience when going to a blocked site is unique in itself. Let me explain…
Other applications that allow you to block sites do just that, they block them, so when you try and visit them, you see a blank page or a standard 404 “this page does not exist” message. The Mentalspace Manager displays positive quotes, images or videos when you attempt to access a blocked site. Using positive content, we aim to stop the impulse and make you aware of the negative effects that may result to your mental space when accessing a non-productive site like Facebook.
There are other companies and programs focused on Internet addiction. One such company is called reSTART. They have a 45 day in-patient program for online junkies. The program costs $15,000 and provides a technology free environment for the entire 45 days. Mymentalspace is not a clinical application per say. We want people to use our application to prevent Internet addiction by becoming more aware of the websites that impact their emotion and mood…..and if your emotion and mood are down, so is your mental health and overall mental space!
When you need to refuel or recharge your creativity, what do you do or where do you go?
Great question. I often find myself needing to recharge on a daily basis. Excuse the long-winded response as I explain how I know when to recharge. I was told by a good friend to imagine that I had 100 units of energy to spend a day. During the course of the day, the energy units get withdrawn from my mental space bank account. A nasty email from a manager or a harassing Facebook message may deduct 25 units. A long meeting, missed lunch, flat tire, or any of the millions of things that go wrong throughout your day can take away from you emotional bank account. The point is, I often find myself getting overdraft fee’s from my bank. When I’m in the red, I’m not able to be creative, which means I need to recharge.
Here are the three things I do to recharge:
1. Walks
2. Yoga/Meditate
3. Play the piano
Can you share details about the mymentalspace launch? How can people sign up to participate?
We will be launching our first release of the application in June. The Mentalspace Manager plugin will be available for Chrome and Firefox. Shortly after, we will finish development for other browsers and begin efforts toward a mobile application. If anyone has experience doing iPhone or Android development, please contact us at mark@mymentalspace.com.
Anyone and everyone is welcome to visit www.mymentalspace.com to watch our video and sign up for the beta group.
What is your advice for entrepreneurs who want to take a creative idea and develop it into a business?
Write your ideas down. In order for anything to manifest, you must put your thoughts to paper. I’d also suggest placing reminders of your vision around your environment. For example, my favorite author and soon to be mentor, Wayne Dyer, creates the cover of his book before the book is written. This helps him manifest each page knowing that the book is already real. Other ways you can accomplish this would be to pin your logo to your bathroom mirror, or print your one page business summary and stick it on your fridge. Write down your goals and read them every morning.
And remember mind rule #1: What you think about and focus on grows. Make sure to think your thoughts wisely and keep believing in yourself.
Previous Q & A features:
Hajj Flemings – Founder of Brand Camp University
Ryan Doyle – Founder of Live to Give
Cara Rosaen – Owner of Sweet Plum Vintage