Ivan back then: ewww, tea blends are trash, some milk oolong? What kind of nonsense, only real tru teas, only hardcore.
Ivan now: mmm, berry pu-erh? Sounds nice. Rooibos with vanilla? Gimme thaaaat...
Happened to any tea lovers? 😄
This morning alone: trials from the US, South Africa, and Australia. Lifetime sale from Spain. New yearly from Germany on two different apps.
10+ apps. Solo.
The line goes up. And the mood too!
Old Saturday: wake up at 11 a.m., hungover, eat junk food, scroll, half-attempt the gym Sunday, feel behind on Monday.
New Saturday: in the gym at 6 a.m. after 6 hours and 53 minutes of sleep, including 2 hours and 36 minutes of deep sleep (yeah, I'm a GARMIN MAXXER, sorry) and only 4 minutes awake all night. A 45-minute strength session completed before most people get out of bed. The rest of the day is extra.
Getting sober is also about unlocking the best hours of the week. The cheat code is to be sober on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Nobody is awake. The gym is just empty. And empty gyms are the blessing.
I posted here before about my supplement tracker. Just shipped 2.4.0!
What is that app? Log supplements and vitamins, get reminders, and see your stacks over time.
The main thing in this patch: scheduling. Used to be daily only. Now cadence is per-supplement: every N days, specific weekdays, or on/off cycles. Vitamin D 3x/week, magnesium 5 on 2 off, iron on alternate days. The Today list, widget, and reminders only show what you're supposed to take today.
Subscriptions from $1.99, but the core tracker is free.
AppLink: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/supplement-vitamin-tracker/id6759703178
I posted here before about my tea timer. Just shipped 2.7.0, got an update for you, guys! I don't see previous flair for the self promotion...
Main thing in this patch: I reworked the caffeine tracker on the Home screen. Now it is more informative!
Added a bedtime warning too. You set your bedtime in settings, and the app warns you if that next cup will keep you up. It does the math with caffeine half-life (~5 hours) to estimate what's still in your system.
The Quick Start widget now has a Play button. Tap it, timer runs. Should've done that from the start.
I've got subscriptions (from $2.99), but for the core functionality they are not needed for sure.
AppLink: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/steep-tea-timer-brew-guide/id6751850664
$2,040 / 28 days 215 subs, 31 trials $534 MRR.
80% of revenue is yearly + lifetime, that's why you see this difference.
10x better, productivity 10x better, mood always stable and normal, just a constant good vibe underneath everything.
Obviously this isn't a miracle, my baseline was just too low from regular drinking. The return to normal feels like a massive life boost. People who didn't have serious benders don't get this deep about quitting. I do.
The coolest part is finally being able to actually prioritize my current goals, have them, and consciously sacrifice things for them. Without feeling particularly guilty.
Indie dev business for example, I'm climbing out of "this is a fun thing" into "this is my main income." All of that became possible only thanks to a certain madness and detachment, which became possible only thanks to quitting drinking, because stability matters.
Anyway. This led to a certain toxicity in me, but whatever, I'm an obsessed person and I feel like a very old dream of mine is starting to actually work.
Now I'm getting serious about nutrition and fitness too. Eating strictly to my calorie target, training as much as I planned, tracking measurements, all of it.
All these things are going from "would be cool" to "I'm doing it."
NO BOOZE!
So, it's been a while since I've said things like my socialization is terrible and so on (in on my previous posts). And after some time, I finally get it. It isn't bad! It's just more focused, and I have some social battery limits that were ignored by abusing alcohol.
I am not a very social person, which is fine. I prefer online and text messaging, as well as a small group of close friends. I dislike attending events and would rather stay at home and play games than attend any kind of social event. Maybe it will change in some future time.
I enjoy morning events (gym, running, ... EATING) and travel, but not with a large group of people. That's fine. Nothing to worry about or fix.
Furthermore, the amount of time I can listen to or talk to someone is now more limited than it was previously. And I can tell when I'm not enjoying a conversation or something. The previous five hours of beer talk were pointless and resulted in nothing.
A relieving thought.
Solo indie dev, about a year full-time. I wanted to share an honest April recap because the result genuinely surprised me.
Background: I run 11 small mobile apps under one brand. Health, fitness, utilities. Flagship is a sobriety tracker. All on RevenueCat for subs. Most apps make $0-$150 a month. Flagship is most of the revenue, Sober Tracker.
What I did in March: ran $25-30/day on Apple + Google in the US. ROAS was weak. Killed it on March 25 and decided April would be marketing-only. No new features. No ads. Pure optimization of the current performance.
Repriced all 11 apps into 3 tiers with PPP adjustment for ~30 countries
Fixed lifetime pricing (was 1.0x yearly, raised to 1.4x and lifetime sales started showing up)
ASO refresh in 20+ locales
WinBack offer for cancelled subs (30% off yearly)
Paywall audit on the flagship
- March: $1,307 (with ads)
- April: $1,554 (no ads)
- +19% MoM
- Sober Tracker: $1,002 (+17%, trials +29%)
- Supplement Tracker: $159 (flat, second month after launch)
- Math Zen: $125 (up from $9, second month after launch)
- Steep: $107 (+114%)
- Smoke Tracker: $65 (was on pause, still grew)
- 4 others: $20-$35 each
- 2 are at $0 and probably getting killed
My goal is $4-5K MoM from apps. I am at $1.5K. Real talk: this is not a victory lap. $1.5K is small. 11 apps is too many for one person to maintain well... so, I need to optimize this a bit.
Paid ads were masking how thin my organic was. Killing them forced me to fix pricing, ASO, and paywalls. May will show whether this is sustainable or if I am just riding lagging effects from prior work.
Thanks for reading!
Hey all, just sharing my joy in hitting the sub-30 mark of 5K. I already did that in Thailand, but here it was harder for me because of the elevation. Happy!
I still love Garmin watches.
So, it's been a while since I've said things like my socialization is terrible and so on (in on my previous posts). And after some time, I finally get it. It isn't bad! It's just more focused, and I have some social battery limits that were ignored by abusing alcohol.
I am not a very social person, which is fine. I prefer online and text messaging, as well as a small group of close friends. I dislike attending events and would rather stay at home and play games than attend any kind of social event. Maybe it will change in some future time.
I enjoy morning events (gym, running, ... EATING) and travel, but not with a large group of people. That's fine. Nothing to worry about or fix.
Furthermore, the amount of time I can listen to or talk to someone is now more limited than it was previously. And I can tell when I'm not enjoying a conversation or something. The previous five hours of beer talk were pointless and resulted in nothing.
A relieving thought.
Hey, indie dev here. Just shipped Flow Breath 2.1, a small breathing app.
What it does: pick a technique, a visualizer animates the inhale and exhale, you breathe along. Box breathing, 4-7-8, physiological sigh, the techniques that actually have research behind them.
This update is the first one I'm genuinely happy with. The home screen now has a "Today's Pick" thing - tap how you feel (calm, focus, energy, sleep, or anxious) and the app lines up the right technique, pace, and atmosphere. Saves you staring at the library wondering which one to do. The home backdrops also shift subtly through the day, and I cleaned up the Library and Progress tabs with favorites pinned at the top.
Free version covers all the core techniques and tracks your sessions. Premium is optional - unlocks voice guidance, immersive environments, multi-day programs, and heart rate sync via Apple Health. Starting from [$3.99/mo], lifetime option is available too.
App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flow-breath-breathing-timer/id6756208822