Project update #3 - The lack of change is bad for you

by Lukáš Petr

First of all, let me just say that I am sorry for the last post. It was way too pessimistic.

But when I thought about it some more, the post was actually exactly what I was hoping to achieve with this blog. Honest capture of not only my progress, but also my emotions at the time of writing and the days before.

That being said, I did realize that I really needed to calm down. It's bad for someone to keep pushing themselves over the limit. So I set out to become more peaceful for the next update.

And I am happy to say that I did calm down quite a bit since then. But enough of this, and let's start with the actual update.

What I've been up to these last 3 days

1) Getting some rest

After the update last Saturday, I knew that I needed to take a break. At least a small one. That's why I joined my parents and went to our weekend house for the whole Sunday. I didn't work there at all.

On Monday, we were celebrating Easter a bit, so I also got some rest. But not as much as I hoped for..

2) The dreadful client job, still.

I know.. There were a couple of changes, bugs and little features that needed to be finished, and I promised it would be done by Monday. So I've spent Sunday evening, better half of Monday and almost entire Tuesday with it.

To say that I am seriously disheartened by the sheer amount of time that I had to give it is an understatement. But I've talked about it here enough already, so let's move on for now.

3) Apple Watch app!

Today, I finally delved into WatchKit and into building Apple Watch App for Routie! I've spent the entire morning reading some resources about it, most importantly the entire Apple Watch Programming Guide. I just tried to absorb as much as I could.

Combined with the cloudy 'knowledge' I had prior to that, I felt like I am really getting into it. It felt like I have all the answers now that were bothering me before, and that building the simplistic Watch App won't be that difficult.

Perhaps I am too optimistic about it, but with the very limited capabilities the WatchKit offers, I believe that the Routie Watch App could be done within just a few days, counting all the surrounding things like preparing it for submission to the App Store.

I continued to work on it in the afternoon, but I had to deal with some other stuff, like working on my new website/blog, and such.

My new habit - daily marketing

Today, apart from doing the Watch development, I've started a new habit that I am determined to really stick with - daily marketing. The new app that I'm planning to build and that this blog is supposed to be about, is not going to sell itself.

Scientifically proven guess: Marketing beats execution 9.2 out of 10 times.

If I really learnt something from the past 4+ years of struggling as indie developer, it's that the quality of your product is only half of the story. That's why I want to set aside quite a lot of time to marketing, and really follow through with my marketing plan for this app.

Thanks to its unique nature, I believe it will be marketable much better than Routie was, but I still have to reach out to the press and do whole lot of other things in order to at least have a chance of it becoming successful.

Now that I am thinking about it, I could make an entire update about my marketing plan in the future. I probably will. You can tell me in the comments if that would be interesting to you.

An idea - The lack of change is bad for you

I have been in the stereotype for several months now, and I presume it has consequences that I can't quite imagine. Every time I go to a conference or take a trip somewhere, it feels so refreshing and simply great. I feel like I am expanding my horizons, and my view of the world.

Now it's on the contrary. I feel like I am stuck in the same routine with very little variations for quite a long time. And I think this, on larger scale, is why so many older people (as in 35+) seem like they stopped growing as humans.

That's why I came up with this theory:

The lack of change in your life is the biggest threat to your long term well-being and happiness. Do what you can to break out of your stereotype every once in a while, the positive effects might surprise you.

To be honest, this 'advice' is mostly aimed at me. I do realize that my somewhat workoholic lifestyle with very little 'not-work' stuff is probably not what is best for me. But at the same time, I really need to give it all I have now, so I can stand a chance of going indie and staying that way. But also, more on this in a later post.

My plans for the next 3 days

Here are the things that I'd like to do:

  • finish Routie for Apple Watch
  • create updates of Routie and Quadratic Master where people will be able to opt in to receive email when my new app launches
  • submit those two updates from previous step for approval to the App Store
  • do some more work on the new app itself
  • keep my new marketing habit
  • unfortunately, I will also have to do some more work on the client job

You can head back here next Saturday evening to find out how it went.

Hopefully this update was a bit better than the last one. I am looking forward to writing the next. Cheers!