Sep
23

Just get it done, dammit – To-Do Apps

We’re busy, you’re busy, everyone has shit to do. But the real question is – how DO you get all that stuff done? Magic? Mary Poppins finger snapping? I wish.

marypoppinssnap

For me, I am old-school. I love nothing more than making a list at the start of each day and checking things off on a pad of paper. Each little checkmark sends a tiny bit of dopamine coursing into my brain. (Sometimes I’m guilty of even half x’ing a box when I’m in progress on a task and want to congratulate myself on being “mostly” done). This works for me. It helps me sort and prioritize my day and gives me a historical list of things done and not done.

Others may want a more high-tech approach. Enter “To Do” apps. Everyone and everyone’s cousin has an idea for a good to do app. “It will revolutionize your world!”.

No. No it will not. It is just an app.


Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 12.12.27 PM

But, there are a lot of them out there – you almost need to make a list in order to find one.

  1. Make list of what would be helpful
  2. Research top to-do lists
  3. Download 15 to-do apps
  4. Spend hours procrastinating by testing out apps in order to find “the ONE”
  5. Enter half your information in several apps
  6. Cry as your phone explodes with endless notifications
  7. Spend all your time dismissing notifications and not getting anything done.


As you can see – its a lot to think about. However, what will be most effective is an app that MOTIVATES you. Me? I’m motivated by getting to check boxes. But….
some may like it to be a competitive game (HabitRPG)
some may need threats (Carrot)
some may need a pretty app to look at their list in (Clear)
some may just want an app that consents to their procrastination (Procrastination)
some just want to use what everyone else is using (Wunderlist)

Ironically, Wiley has “writing a post about to do apps” on his to do list – I’m not sure all these fancy apps are helping him DO it though.

(Further disclosure Wiley has used the following in his search for “THE ONE” : Wunderlist, Things, Omnifocus, To-Doist, Checkmark, Clear, Carrot, Free-time, Lift, DOOO, 30/30, Nobze, EasyTask Manager – THIS IS ONLY ON IPHONE)

How does LunarLincoln, as a company, handle to-do lists? Drum-roll please: JIRA. JIRA is the grandfather of development to-do lists. It provides bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management functions and is where we spend ALL DAY LONG. It also keeps us on track, our clients on track, and sorts through the hundreds of storyboards we are constantly creating.  JIRA is the un-pc shortening of Godzilla – and is made by Atlassian.

We’ll cover more about JIRA and it’s sister program Confluence next week. For now I’ll leave you with Travis in a godzilla costume, showing how much he loves JIRA:

Sep
30

The Ah-Ha Moment….and what comes after

Two Wednesdays ago – Apple held their keynote.

The public got to hear about what developers had been privately talking about ever since WWDC. New iOS7, drastically new design, new phone colors, new cases, new everything. After all the news stories, podcasts, dinner conversations, and tweets – I will be glad if I never have to hear about iOS7 again. (side note: I do not worship at the foot of the giant golden apple like some members of LunarLincoln).

Something that I had been very vocal about, since seeing the beta iOS on Wiley’s phone weeks ago, was the lack of forethought put into the new OS.  The day-glo colors, the hyper thin fonts, the icon redesigns – some of it seemed…first draft/rookie. There were a lot of changes, and I’m not sure every single aspect had been vetted to a Job-sian standard. Now, the general public may not be as finely attuned as I am to these things and will never bat an eye at the changes, but one thing everyone DID notice was this:

Screen Shot 2013-09-30 at 10.33.27 AMSeriously? There are at least 5 quick fixes to this issue. – No circles, Fill in those circles, Move the circles, Move the regs, Don’t get into the case industry.

But, whats done is done. Aaaaand, why not benefit from other’s missteps?

Here comes the ah-ha moment….can’t someone just cover up the “hon”? What if the circles were frames…what if…we built an app to fix this.

IN A WEEK.

Obviously, we didn’t do it in a week. WE DID IT IN TWO. BAMMMMMMM.

I do not suggest ever building an app in two weeks if you value your free-time, sanity, household cleanliness, or personal relationships with business partners. That said, our app is currently in review and I feel pretty damn excited about it.

Things I learned when building an app in a condensed timeline:
– You don’t get to “sit” on your design. Don’t let it ruminate. Don’t edit it with the clear eyes of the next morning. Nope – slap that crap together at 11pm
– You have to edit on the fly a lot. How many times have I rebuilt the photoslider? Or resized/recolored icons – do not ask.
– To quote the Real World, you will “stop being polite and start being real” (And NO we do not need 10 tutorial screens (but I will make you one, if you just shut up uuuughhh))
– You will have to compromise on concept. Our platonic ideal is about 2 more updates down the road, but 1.0 isn’t half bad.
– There is a lot more design to an app than just UI. We need an icon, a facebook cover image, a twitter background, a website, a landing page, some mockups, a press kit. Oh hey, what about a video?
– You will lie to yourself again and again about what “almost done” really means.

We’re almost done you guys! Hopefully, the powers that be will look at our app, approve its excellence – even if it is poking at their failure – and everything can go public. Now we just have to wait and see.

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