My original goal for my April resolution was to finish and publish a personal App in the AppStore. My initial thought was a simple Disney app for tracking a few things while on your trip, but at the end of January a weight tracking app came to mind and I quickly switched gears and built a good 60% of the app in less then a couple weeks.

The only thing I really miss from my pre-iOS 11 life was Weightbot by Tapbots (the creators of Tweetbot), I loved that app and continued to use it even though it was never updated for the iPhone 5 screen. It was quick and great at showing me my current weight and the amount I lost since my last weigh-in, amazingly enough a lot of other apps don’t show you what you recently lost.

But just having an app with that wasn’t going to be enough, every app I’ve used in the past has you input 2 major things, your start weight and your goal weight. For me sadly these 2 numbers are usually pretty far off, so I usually lower my goal weight to something a little more obtainable and once I hit it, I change it to my next obtainable weight. So with the app I am building you’ll have you Main Goal and Mini Goals weight options. I am sure there are a few apps that do this, but I haven’t seen any and honestly, didn’t bother looking too hard, cause I had an idea and just wanted to build it.

I originally planned to have this app done by Mid-February 🤦🏻‍♂️, But instead I got it usable enough and started using it. During that time I have lost over 50lbs, I am not crediting the app for it all, I’ve made some better life choices, but the app has played a part and I have enjoyed using it to see my progress. But with focusing on health and a couple job changes. I fully just stopped working on the app until about a month ago. I’ve made some great progress during my nights and weekends and currently planning to finish it up in the next week or so. I am doing all design 😱 and code myself. The design is definitely out of my comfort zone, but its been fun.

I am super excited about finally finishing this app up. Mainly just to have my own app in the AppStore again. I haven’t had one available in over 7 years now. I’ll try to post more on here soon about it once I finish up the last couple features and add some more polish.

Why is it so hard to finish that last little bit of a personal app to get it ready for the store. I’ve worked on multiple person projects throughout my 8+ years of iOS development and only released one personal app. I’ve cranked out probably about 15 apps (with multiple updates) for work/clients. Yet mine I just can’t force myself to polish them up enough to launch.

I trying to change that this year I had the goal of releasing 2 personal apps this year. The first one was suppose to come out in April, but of course hasn’t happened yet, but I am hoping to at least finish it at some point this summer 🤞.

Only time will tell though. If anyone has any tips to help me please share.

I think I thought up a few items last year, but they didn’t last past February, so this year I wanted to take another swing at them and do them in a different way. So I am setting a goal for each month. Some will be easy and other will take work every month before their goal month to accomplish. Anyways here they are:

January

Use my iPad more

I love my 10.5in iPad Pro  it amazing, but since I got the iPhone X, it’s been sitting in its sleeve. So this month I’ve been getting it out more and more to read, browse and also to write this blog post with. I’ve also been trying to use it more as a second display on my MacBook Pro from time to time. I’m still hoping that one day I can easily develop apps on this device I love its portability and the battery life and would love to be able to use it less as a consumption device and more for creating things.

The last couple days I’ve been working from a screened in patio of our hotel room in Orlando, Fl. Normally I am stuck in a 12×12 office in a basement with 2 glass block windows. There are definitely some distractions that come with this view (especially on the bottom floor of a hotel room), but having a water view to look up at can be very motivating. Much more then my painted blue walls could ever do.

I’ve made one iOS app that wasn’t for a client. It was the first app I created as a way to learn iOS development back in late 2009. It was an app to scare your friends that posed as a simple tap the red dot game (stupid I know). I finally took it off the App Store late last year. I think I made a whopping $1,500 or so off of the app in the two years it was a paid app before making it free.

So the app didn’t make me rich, but it opened doors. Three months after it hitting the App Store, I started getting client work. Not a bunch, but enough to make learning iOS programming more then just a hobby. In 2011 one of those clients was ChoreMonster, which I now have the pleasure to work for full-time.

But it’s been almost 4 years since I’ve created an app for the App Store that was all mine. I’ve created a few little apps here and there to learn stuff or make my own life easier, but nothing that I thought would be App Store worthy.

I (like many others) feel iOS 7 is the best opportunity since the first SDK was released. I’ve been using it since the first beta on my everyday iPhone (stupid I know) and overall I love it and I am ready to make an app that requires iOS 7 from day one.

Sadly, I can’t say anything about the app just yet. I still need to repurchase an Apple Developer Membership so I can secure the name. I will say that I feel the name, I currently have planned for it could ruin it, but it’s direct enough that I am still fighting myself for it. Right now all I have is the domain name and the apps initial structure, but thats more then I had earlier this week. And I (probably) have a couple months to make it great.

Needless to say I’m excited and my goal is to post more about the app as it comes together.

I’ve been developing for iOS for over 3 years now and there are still numerous times where I still feel like a newbie. Not because I’ve ran into a problem I don’t instantly know how to solve, that stuff I love! It’s just this general feeling I get from time to time.
Maybe it’s because I taught myself iOS development or maybe because my only iOS friend are all online based. I’m not really sure, but if you have any thoughts or have felt the same I’d love to hear about it.