Under the Radar

00:00:00 ◼   ► Welcome to Under the Radar, a show about independent iOS app development.

00:00:03 ◼   ► I'm Marco Arment.

00:00:05 ◼   ► And I'm David Smith.

00:00:06 ◼   ► Under the Radar is never longer than 30 minutes, so let's get started.

00:00:09 ◼   ► So today, as we were sort of right now at the beginning of November,

00:00:13 ◼   ► it seemed a good time to talk a little bit about seasonality

00:00:17 ◼   ► and the way seasonality can apply both to our work in terms of the things

00:00:22 ◼   ► we're doing, what we're promoting, and the timing of when we launch

00:00:25 ◼   ► new products or updates, as well as a little bit just the seasonality

00:00:28 ◼   ► of the work itself and the way that kind of works for us.

00:00:30 ◼   ► But especially, it's something that comes to mind because in the early days

00:00:35 ◼   ► of the App Store, perhaps in the first maybe three or four years,

00:00:39 ◼   ► there was a very strong seasonality to downloads and sales,

00:00:45 ◼   ► and especially in the sense that the day--

00:00:46 ◼   ► Christmas Day, the day after Christmas were massively huge sales days for me

00:00:53 ◼   ► back in those days.

00:00:54 ◼   ► And it was a reliable, predictable thing that I would need as best I could

00:01:00 ◼   ► to gear my entire business towards being available then,

00:01:02 ◼   ► because those few days would make up a non-insignificant percentage

00:01:07 ◼   ► of my revenue for the year.

00:01:08 ◼   ► It wasn't like 50% of my revenue.

00:01:09 ◼   ► It was maybe like 10% of my revenue.

00:01:10 ◼   ► But still, getting 10% of your revenue in one week of the year

00:01:14 ◼   ► meant that it was very important to line everything up.

00:01:17 ◼   ► And I remember doing lots of work where, especially back when App Review

00:01:20 ◼   ► could take a very long time.

00:01:24 ◼   ► You'd be looking at at least 10 days-ish for a review.

00:01:27 ◼   ► And so you'd have all these things that I needed to line up

00:01:30 ◼   ► to get submitted at the very latest by the beginning of December

00:01:34 ◼   ► so that I could make sure if I had a rejection cycle,

00:01:37 ◼   ► I could get it approved in time.

00:01:38 ◼   ► And you'd kind of be in this mindset towards that.

00:01:42 ◼   ► And then I would say, increasingly, that is less the way I think,

00:01:47 ◼   ► I think both because the impact of that has perhaps diminished slightly.

00:01:53 ◼   ► But also, I just think about seasonality a bit more generally now.

00:01:56 ◼   ► And I think it's probably helpful to not just view it

00:02:00 ◼   ► as everything is on that one day.

00:02:03 ◼   ► But I think there is something to be said for thinking about your product

00:02:06 ◼   ► and thinking about, are there events or things

00:02:10 ◼   ► that you can latch onto that would make sense to time with your launch?

00:02:14 ◼   ► And two, also in terms of promotion with Apple,

00:02:17 ◼   ► because this is something that I started to think about a lot more recently,

00:02:20 ◼   ► is how it's like the Apple App Store editorial team's job

00:02:26 ◼   ► is to find things that they can promote and to promote

00:02:30 ◼   ► in a relevant way for them.

00:02:32 ◼   ► And they're always looking, they're putting together constantly

00:02:34 ◼   ► these different sort of lists and bundles of applications to try and promote.

00:02:38 ◼   ► And thinking of ways to time things so that I can be part of that

00:02:42 ◼   ► has become something that it seems like increasingly makes sense.

00:02:44 ◼   ► But it is still something that I think about as we're coming into the end

00:02:49 ◼   ► of the year.

00:02:50 ◼   ► And I still have in the back of my mind,

00:02:53 ◼   ► is everything going to be lined up?

00:02:54 ◼   ► Is everything going to be ready?

00:02:56 ◼   ► And I think in general, there's a strange aspect to that of,

00:03:00 ◼   ► I probably should always be worried about making sure that everything

00:03:02 ◼   ► is buttoned down and ready.

00:03:04 ◼   ► But at least maybe these little seasonality things

00:03:06 ◼   ► are good reminders to me that I'm starting to think,

00:03:08 ◼   ► like, what are the App Store ratings looking like in all my apps?

00:03:11 ◼   ► Are there things that I should do to make sure that's the case?

00:03:14 ◼   ► If I've had an update with a bad set of reviews for whatever reason,

00:03:17 ◼   ► like, do I need to get an update out, reset my reviews,

00:03:20 ◼   ► and then try and market around improving that rating?

00:03:23 ◼   ► Like, all these little things that are probably good to do all year round,

00:03:26 ◼   ► but especially probably good to do around big events

00:03:29 ◼   ► when sales or downloads are going to be higher.

00:03:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, but I mean, as you mentioned,

00:03:33 ◼   ► it is really hard to tell when those times are going to be now.

00:03:36 ◼   ► I mean, the few obvious, predictable ones are things like the holiday season

00:03:41 ◼   ► and new iPhone or new iPad releases.

00:03:45 ◼   ► I would say those are the big ones.

00:03:46 ◼   ► But even those, I think the reason why that we've seen over time

00:03:51 ◼   ► things like Christmas Day and Christmas Week being lower than in previous years,

00:03:55 ◼   ► I think the main reason why is that we're seeing fewer people

00:03:59 ◼   ► who are getting their very first iOS device on these big holidays.

00:04:02 ◼   ► I think there's much more people who are just getting replacement or upgrade devices,

00:04:08 ◼   ► or new customers might be just being more spread out

00:04:12 ◼   ► throughout the rest of the year now who are new to the platform,

00:04:15 ◼   ► like people who are converting from Android if they want to and stuff like that.

00:04:18 ◼   ► So when you get your very first device, you go on an app spree

00:04:23 ◼   ► and you go get a bunch of apps that you might like

00:04:25 ◼   ► and might want to fill it up or whatever.

00:04:26 ◼   ► And when you're just getting a new phone for the year

00:04:29 ◼   ► or your second or third iPad, then there's less,

00:04:34 ◼   ► there's a lot less of that new app spree that you go on.

00:04:38 ◼   ► And so I think that plays a big part of why

00:04:41 ◼   ► major gift giving holidays are no longer a big thing for most app developers.

00:04:46 ◼   ► But a new iOS device release obviously can be,

00:04:50 ◼   ► especially if you're, like you often do,

00:04:53 ◼   ► if you're taking advantage of a new API or a new type of app

00:04:57 ◼   ► that just became available with new hardware,

00:04:59 ◼   ► then obviously you're starting basically from zero.

00:05:03 ◼   ► So those days you'll have really big,

00:05:04 ◼   ► those long days you'll have really big potential there.

00:05:08 ◼   ► But I think it's also harder to tell now

00:05:11 ◼   ► because we're seeing our income be spread out more

00:05:15 ◼   ► as we switch more to ad-based

00:05:18 ◼   ► and in-app purchase-based revenue models.

00:05:20 ◼   ► If you had what we used to have, pretty much all of it,

00:05:24 ◼   ► which was paid up front apps.

00:05:26 ◼   ► Paid up front apps did really great on Christmas day

00:05:28 ◼   ► because you paid to get the app right then,

00:05:30 ◼   ► you wanted to use it.

00:05:31 ◼   ► These days if you get,

00:05:33 ◼   ► you might get increased downloads that day,

00:05:35 ◼   ► but your revenue might not show that for a while.

00:05:38 ◼   ► So it's all kind of blending together now.

00:05:40 ◼   ► But I think ultimately what it comes down to is

00:05:42 ◼   ► the saturation of the app store,

00:05:46 ◼   ► so you know, which makes everything harder,

00:05:48 ◼   ► makes all the competition tighter and everything,

00:05:50 ◼   ► and makes each individual app have kind of lower peaks,

00:05:53 ◼   ► I think.

00:05:54 ◼   ► And also just the fact that so many people

00:05:57 ◼   ► already have iOS devices,

00:05:59 ◼   ► and the new sales are more to people

00:06:01 ◼   ► who were existing customers than new customers.

00:06:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, there is still something that I see

00:06:08 ◼   ► that in my own sort of even experience of the app store,

00:06:12 ◼   ► that I do think there is still an element of,

00:06:14 ◼   ► and maybe it's less seasonality

00:06:16 ◼   ► and more event-driven downloads.

00:06:19 ◼   ► I see myself like,

00:06:20 ◼   ► the one that always comes to mind for me

00:06:24 ◼   ► is whenever there's a hurricane threatening the United States,

00:06:29 ◼   ► the top, like all of a sudden the top charts are full

00:06:33 ◼   ► of radar apps, right?

00:06:35 ◼   ► Which is something that is not a predictable, reliable season,

00:06:39 ◼   ► but there's these periods of increased interest

00:06:42 ◼   ► in an application category

00:06:44 ◼   ► that definitely still have huge impacts on downloads.

00:06:48 ◼   ► And I mean, I do a lot of health and fitness stuff.

00:06:50 ◼   ► And so the beginning of January,

00:06:53 ◼   ► just in the same way that a lot of people go

00:06:55 ◼   ► and get gym memberships,

00:06:56 ◼   ► and then never use them again,

00:06:58 ◼   ► but a lot of people will go and download

00:06:59 ◼   ► health and fitness apps at the beginning of January

00:07:02 ◼   ► when they're saying like,

00:07:03 ◼   ► "Hey, I'm gonna start a new thing, I'm gonna whatever."

00:07:05 ◼   ► Like for my case, it's like,

00:07:06 ◼   ► "I'm gonna start counting my steps or being more active."

00:07:08 ◼   ► Or whatever that may be.

00:07:10 ◼   ► Like there's this, certainly this uptick in it,

00:07:12 ◼   ► or there's just those event-based things.

00:07:16 ◼   ► But I think in both cases,

00:07:18 ◼   ► there is certainly still this element

00:07:19 ◼   ► where it's possible to have these big spikes

00:07:23 ◼   ► in your downloads.

00:07:24 ◼   ► And so like for me, I know I need to think about it as,

00:07:26 ◼   ► if I have anything that's sort of

00:07:28 ◼   ► real health and fitness-related,

00:07:30 ◼   ► it should be as tight and buttoned down

00:07:31 ◼   ► as it can possibly be by the middle to the end of December.

00:07:35 ◼   ► Because January 1st is a big time for me.

00:07:38 ◼   ► And I imagine similarly,

00:07:39 ◼   ► maybe if you're working on a weather or radar app,

00:07:41 ◼   ► it's like making sure that you're nice and put into place

00:07:45 ◼   ► before hurricane and the hurricane season starts,

00:07:48 ◼   ► or before big winter storms might be coming.

00:07:50 ◼   ► Sort of like whenever there's this external thing,

00:07:52 ◼   ► it's just probably good to be aware of.

00:07:54 ◼   ► 'Cause I know for a lot of my planning,

00:07:56 ◼   ► when I'm just kind of doing things,

00:07:58 ◼   ► it's so easy to just kind of,

00:07:59 ◼   ► I'm just kind of working on it until it's ready.

00:08:02 ◼   ► And one of the benefits of being self-employed

00:08:05 ◼   ► is that I can just work on it until it's ready

00:08:07 ◼   ► and then ship it out and lose sight of the fact that

00:08:10 ◼   ► there are these opportunities that are coming.

00:08:13 ◼   ► And even another thing that comes to mind even is,

00:08:16 ◼   ► if one day I'd ever hope to win an Apple Design Award,

00:08:20 ◼   ► for example,

00:08:21 ◼   ► there's a certain timing that I should probably be having

00:08:24 ◼   ► in the back of my mind as I'm building my products,

00:08:26 ◼   ► if that's something that I wanted to work towards.

00:08:28 ◼   ► Because I imagine they're looking for apps

00:08:30 ◼   ► that are probably majorly updated or released,

00:08:33 ◼   ► probably between the latest iOS launch and the spring.

00:08:39 ◼   ► Like that's when they're gonna be most looking for those things

00:08:42 ◼   ► that are gonna fill the slots that they wanna promote

00:08:44 ◼   ► and hold up as examples of things.

00:08:47 ◼   ► But even if it's not necessarily something

00:08:48 ◼   ► that I'm trying to do,

00:08:49 ◼   ► there's some value to have I taken the step back

00:08:52 ◼   ► from what you're making and saying,

00:08:53 ◼   ► is there a timing element to this

00:08:57 ◼   ► that I should be aware of?

00:08:59 ◼   ► And not necessarily I could kill myself to make happen,

00:09:01 ◼   ► like, oh no, I absolutely have to get this shipped

00:09:03 ◼   ► in the next two weeks or it's all gonna fall apart.

00:09:05 ◼   ► Like if that's your business plan,

00:09:07 ◼   ► that's probably flawed.

00:09:09 ◼   ► But at the very least, it's looking at it and being like,

00:09:12 ◼   ► is there something that I should be aware of

00:09:13 ◼   ► that I'm gonna kick myself for not being aware of

00:09:16 ◼   ► if I don't take it into account now?

00:09:18 ◼   ► - All right, our sponsor this week is Pingdom.

00:09:21 ◼   ► Go to pingdom.com/radar.

00:09:24 ◼   ► You get a 14-day free trial and you use the offer code RADAR

00:09:27 ◼   ► at checkout for 20% off your first invoice.

00:09:29 ◼   ► Pingdom is a wonderful monitoring service.

00:09:33 ◼   ► They are focused on making the web faster

00:09:34 ◼   ► and more reliable for everybody who has a site

00:09:37 ◼   ► or a web service.

00:09:38 ◼   ► And they do this by offering powerful

00:09:39 ◼   ► and easy to use monitoring tools and services.

00:09:42 ◼   ► For example, if you're a Pingdom user,

00:09:43 ◼   ► you can monitor the availability and performance

00:09:45 ◼   ► of your server, database, or website with a,

00:09:47 ◼   ► it's just a breeze to do this, it's so easy.

00:09:50 ◼   ► Pingdom takes care of this by using more than 70

00:09:52 ◼   ► global test servers that emulate visits to your site,

00:09:55 ◼   ► checking its availability as often as every minute.

00:09:57 ◼   ► Websites these days are becoming more

00:09:59 ◼   ► and more sophisticated.

00:10:00 ◼   ► These often include several dependencies

00:10:02 ◼   ► and interconnected pieces, such as contact forms,

00:10:04 ◼   ► e-commerce checkouts, logins, search functionality,

00:10:07 ◼   ► and loads more.

00:10:08 ◼   ► So Pingdom makes it possible to monitor the availability

00:10:10 ◼   ► of all these key interactions people will have

00:10:12 ◼   ► with your site or service.

00:10:14 ◼   ► It is not just about whether the site is up or down anymore.

00:10:16 ◼   ► It could be like your login form is down

00:10:18 ◼   ► or your search is down.

00:10:19 ◼   ► So, and let's be real here,

00:10:21 ◼   ► stuff breaks on the internet all the time.

00:10:24 ◼   ► Pingdom knows this 'cause they're the ones monitoring it.

00:10:26 ◼   ► They detect around 13 million outages a month.

00:10:29 ◼   ► That's more than 400,000 a day.

00:10:31 ◼   ► So whether you have a small website

00:10:33 ◼   ► or you're managing a complete infrastructure,

00:10:34 ◼   ► it is very important to monitor its availability

00:10:37 ◼   ► and performance, and Pingdom is, in my opinion,

00:10:39 ◼   ► the best tool to do that.

00:10:40 ◼   ► I've been a Pingdom customer for, oh, geez,

00:10:43 ◼   ► a very long time, I think it was like eight years

00:10:45 ◼   ► or something like that.

00:10:45 ◼   ► It's been a very long time since way before

00:10:48 ◼   ► they were sponsored, since before I was a podcaster.

00:10:51 ◼   ► I've been using Pingdom and I have no complaints.

00:10:54 ◼   ► It's wonderful.

00:10:55 ◼   ► So all you gotta do, you go to Pingdom.com/radar,

00:10:58 ◼   ► you sign up, use code radar,

00:10:59 ◼   ► take 20% off your first invoice at checkout,

00:11:02 ◼   ► and then when they detect an outage,

00:11:04 ◼   ► you become immediately alerted

00:11:06 ◼   ► via whatever means you want, SMS, push notification, email,

00:11:10 ◼   ► any combination of these things.

00:11:12 ◼   ► You are immediately alerted so you can fix the error

00:11:14 ◼   ► before the downtime affects you and your customers.

00:11:17 ◼   ► You do not want to be told that your site is down

00:11:19 ◼   ► by people on Twitter.

00:11:20 ◼   ► You want to be the first to know

00:11:22 ◼   ► so you can fix it before everyone else sees it.

00:11:24 ◼   ► Check it out today and you will be the first to know

00:11:26 ◼   ► when your site is down.

00:11:26 ◼   ► Go to Pingdom.com/radar for a 14-day free trial.

00:11:29 ◼   ► Use code radar to get 20% off at checkout.

00:11:31 ◼   ► Thank you very much to Pingdom for sponsoring.

00:11:33 ◼   ► - All right, and the other aspect of seasonality

00:11:36 ◼   ► that seemed like might be worth unpacking a little bit

00:11:39 ◼   ► is the way that, I think even my own work,

00:11:43 ◼   ► I imagine your work too, Marco, can be very seasonal,

00:11:48 ◼   ► especially when you're not employed

00:11:51 ◼   ► in a typical profession, where obviously,

00:11:53 ◼   ► like my work was not really seasonal

00:11:54 ◼   ► when I had a nine to five job.

00:11:56 ◼   ► I went in and I worked ostensibly anyway

00:11:58 ◼   ► from nine to five every day.

00:12:00 ◼   ► - I was gonna say, I'm pretty sure mine was seasonal.

00:12:02 ◼   ► Just my bosses didn't necessarily know that

00:12:05 ◼   ► or they were doing their best to pretend

00:12:07 ◼   ► like they didn't notice that.

00:12:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, but there is an element when you're self-employed

00:12:11 ◼   ► that that illusion doesn't work quite as well,

00:12:14 ◼   ► where you really, like at least I know for myself,

00:12:18 ◼   ► like my productivity and my motivation,

00:12:21 ◼   ► the way in which I seem to be able

00:12:23 ◼   ► to actually get things done,

00:12:24 ◼   ► can tend to have a certain seasonality to it,

00:12:26 ◼   ► where there are periods of time during the year

00:12:29 ◼   ► where I'm just like really killing it

00:12:31 ◼   ► and writing interesting, writing great updates,

00:12:35 ◼   ► new code, all these things, like everything's working well

00:12:37 ◼   ► and there'll be periods of time

00:12:39 ◼   ► when it just doesn't happen.

00:12:40 ◼   ► And the difficulty I think is both

00:12:44 ◼   ► in being aware of that as a thing

00:12:47 ◼   ► and then so that you're not surprised by it

00:12:50 ◼   ► or sort of beating yourself up when like,

00:12:53 ◼   ► man, I'm just really not getting a lot of work done

00:12:55 ◼   ► and being like, okay, this is fine,

00:12:57 ◼   ► this is something that happens.

00:12:58 ◼   ► But then also probably good to have the element

00:13:01 ◼   ► of planning around that and thinking about

00:13:04 ◼   ► like if you have control over your schedule,

00:13:06 ◼   ► what would an ideal schedule be?

00:13:08 ◼   ► Adapting it to yourself.

00:13:10 ◼   ► 'Cause I feel like it's so easy to fall into the pattern of,

00:13:14 ◼   ► and this is something I still struggle with,

00:13:16 ◼   ► of the feeling that like 40 hours of work

00:13:20 ◼   ► is the thing that I'm trying to always get out of me

00:13:24 ◼   ► every week, irrespective of whether that makes sense,

00:13:27 ◼   ► both in terms of how I feel, physically, health-wise, et cetera,

00:13:31 ◼   ► what's going on in my life personally,

00:13:32 ◼   ► what's going on in the world.

00:13:33 ◼   ► There's lots of things that I think can either encourage

00:13:38 ◼   ► or motivate good and effective work

00:13:41 ◼   ► or demotivate and kind of take that out of you.

00:13:44 ◼   ► And kind of planning around that is something that's probably

00:13:46 ◼   ► a wise and useful thing to do,

00:13:49 ◼   ► because it's a strange thing to think of in some ways.

00:13:53 ◼   ► If I boil down, the most important work

00:13:58 ◼   ► I've probably done in my business has likely been done,

00:14:02 ◼   ► it's probably in maybe about six weeks or so

00:14:06 ◼   ► over the last eight years.

00:14:10 ◼   ► In the sense that the first versions of most of my most successful apps,

00:14:15 ◼   ► so the first app that I ever had that was successful

00:14:17 ◼   ► was an app called Audiobooks, which is an audiobook player.

00:14:20 ◼   ► And I wrote it in a week between,

00:14:24 ◼   ► I was doing consulting at the time,

00:14:25 ◼   ► and I had a period, and consulting is inevitably the case,

00:14:29 ◼   ► where I had a contract end,

00:14:30 ◼   ► I had about a week before my next contract started,

00:14:33 ◼   ► and I was like, "You know, I'm just going to work on this app idea

00:14:35 ◼   ► that I have for that week."

00:14:36 ◼   ► And I was like, "In that one week, I built the basic version of the app,

00:14:39 ◼   ► and I put it in the App Store, and that app turned out to be

00:14:42 ◼   ► probably the most downloaded app I've ever had,

00:14:46 ◼   ► and if it isn't, it's definitely the second most."

00:14:49 ◼   ► And it was the app that turned app development from a sideline

00:14:55 ◼   ► or a small part of my business into my primary business.

00:14:57 ◼   ► That was in one week's work.

00:14:59 ◼   ► And similarly with Perimeter,

00:15:00 ◼   ► like I wrote that app in about a little over a week,

00:15:03 ◼   ► or about a week, because it was announced at the keynote

00:15:07 ◼   ► when they announced the 5S,

00:15:08 ◼   ► and then I had a week until the 5S launched,

00:15:11 ◼   ► and that was all I had to build the app.

00:15:12 ◼   ► And there's a few other periods like that,

00:15:15 ◼   ► where you can have these really focused, intensive periods

00:15:18 ◼   ► that, at least for me, have been really impactful and important.

00:15:21 ◼   ► And that's a strange thought, when I try and unpack it,

00:15:25 ◼   ► and be like, "Wow, my career, what have I been doing for the other

00:15:28 ◼   ► whatever, eight years, minus six weeks of my life?"

00:15:31 ◼   ► I don't want to think about it too much,

00:15:33 ◼   ► but I think there is something that's good about thinking about it

00:15:35 ◼   ► and being aware that your work is not necessarily this...

00:15:40 ◼   ► The nature of being a software developer

00:15:44 ◼   ► is not like we're building a wall or something,

00:15:47 ◼   ► where all we need to do is we go over here,

00:15:49 ◼   ► we pick up a brick, we walk over to the wall,

00:15:51 ◼   ► we put a little plaster down, we put the next brick,

00:15:53 ◼   ► and we walk back and forth.

00:15:54 ◼   ► And we can keep doing that, really, no matter what.

00:15:56 ◼   ► We can just keep adding bricks,

00:15:58 ◼   ► and the rate at which we add bricks is how much progress we made.

00:16:00 ◼   ► When was the last time you saw a construction project?

00:16:02 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:16:05 ◼   ► It'd be wonderful if they just kept going until they were complete

00:16:07 ◼   ► with no random interruptions and long breaks of seemingly nothing happening.

00:16:11 ◼   ► No, because that's not software development at all.

00:16:15 ◼   ► That's not the way that our work goes,

00:16:17 ◼   ► where it's this very creative, esoteric...

00:16:21 ◼   ► Sometimes you just kind of get the idea,

00:16:23 ◼   ► and you get in a flow, and you can really do some cool work.

00:16:25 ◼   ► And then at other times, you just really can't.

00:16:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:16:29 ◼   ► My issue with this...

00:16:32 ◼   ► Some of it is seasonal, for sure.

00:16:34 ◼   ► There are certain times where I have a lot more family obligations,

00:16:39 ◼   ► or family events to do, things like around summer vacation,

00:16:43 ◼   ► or around winter holidays.

00:16:44 ◼   ► Any kind of travel, obviously, is a huge deal,

00:16:48 ◼   ► in terms of what it does to my productivity,

00:16:50 ◼   ► which is generally bring it to zero.

00:16:51 ◼   ► So that's a big deal.

00:16:55 ◼   ► But my problem more is not necessarily all the family stuff.

00:16:58 ◼   ► It's all the just unexpected stuff,

00:17:02 ◼   ► or everyday distractions, or everyday errands,

00:17:05 ◼   ► or things like that,

00:17:06 ◼   ► where I find that my schedule is basically perforated

00:17:11 ◼   ► with lots of scattered holes.

00:17:13 ◼   ► And sometimes I can really buckle down

00:17:17 ◼   ► and just get it done anyway,

00:17:18 ◼   ► get everything done that I need to do anyway.

00:17:19 ◼   ► But just the reality of everyday family life,

00:17:24 ◼   ► especially when you work at home,

00:17:25 ◼   ► and when you want to be heavily involved in your childcare,

00:17:30 ◼   ► then there's a lot of holes in the schedule, basically.

00:17:33 ◼   ► It's very hard to get long blocks

00:17:36 ◼   ► and to really make that work.

00:17:38 ◼   ► And a lot of it is also just self-imposed.

00:17:41 ◼   ► I mean, a lot of it is just that I'm not a very focused person.

00:17:44 ◼   ► I'm very easily distracted.

00:17:46 ◼   ► I don't have an incredibly strong work ethic.

00:17:48 ◼   ► So the idea of just sitting down with a strong routine

00:17:52 ◼   ► during the time I do have,

00:17:53 ◼   ► even that doesn't always work out for me.

00:17:55 ◼   ► And then you have other problems.

00:17:58 ◼   ► You have things like, I mean, not to make this political

00:18:01 ◼   ► with the current political events,

00:18:03 ◼   ► but you have things like national events that happen

00:18:06 ◼   ► that can really change either your ability to work

00:18:12 ◼   ► or your motivation or your mood.

00:18:14 ◼   ► Or it can be like, for instance,

00:18:18 ◼   ► if you were marketing an app

00:18:21 ◼   ► and if you wanted to launch an app

00:18:22 ◼   ► right after this US presidential election

00:18:26 ◼   ► that just happened,

00:18:27 ◼   ► the day after it happened,

00:18:29 ◼   ► if your app tends to appeal to liberal people,

00:18:34 ◼   ► would be a terrible day to launch that.

00:18:36 ◼   ► Because it's kind of a day of mourning

00:18:39 ◼   ► for the side that loses a presidential election.

00:18:41 ◼   ► Or if there's a big national tragedy of some kind,

00:18:45 ◼   ► if there's a shooting or something like that.

00:18:47 ◼   ► You try to avoid some kind of natural disaster.

00:18:51 ◼   ► Trying to launch an app or do anything like that day

00:18:54 ◼   ► is probably a bad idea.

00:18:56 ◼   ► So there's all sorts of other factors

00:18:58 ◼   ► that will come into your life and your schedule

00:19:01 ◼   ► and will disrupt your plans.

00:19:03 ◼   ► And you have to have enough padding

00:19:05 ◼   ► and you have to have enough slack in the plans

00:19:08 ◼   ► that you can accommodate for these things when they come.

00:19:10 ◼   ► And you won't always.

00:19:11 ◼   ► Sometimes these things just come at the worst possible times

00:19:14 ◼   ► or they're completely unexpected or whatever else.

00:19:16 ◼   ► But you have to have slack in your plans

00:19:19 ◼   ► for unhurtted events like that.

00:19:21 ◼   ► And because regardless of whether you want them to happen,

00:19:25 ◼   ► they will happen and you should be ready for that.

00:19:27 ◼   ► But ultimately when it comes down to everyday motivation,

00:19:32 ◼   ► I'm just really inconsistent.

00:19:34 ◼   ► I will have some days or weeks that I'm just on fire.

00:19:38 ◼   ► And I just get tons done.

00:19:41 ◼   ► And I will do an entire major version of Overcast.

00:19:45 ◼   ► Like 3.0, I can do a good chunk of the work for 3.0

00:19:52 ◼   ► in two weeks.

00:19:53 ◼   ► But it'll take me six months to ship it.

00:19:55 ◼   ► Because I have so much other stuff that I'm juggling

00:19:58 ◼   ► and balancing and doing in fits and spurts and attempting

00:20:01 ◼   ► and then that didn't work so I gotta roll it back,

00:20:04 ◼   ► try a different approach or whatever else.

00:20:05 ◼   ► Or I'll just have a month where I have so much family stuff

00:20:11 ◼   ► and slacking going on that I just don't get anything done.

00:20:14 ◼   ► It's all, I'm all over the map on that.

00:20:17 ◼   ► And it's part of the reason why I typically look back

00:20:21 ◼   ► on the time that I have spent.

00:20:23 ◼   ► I'll look back on a year and be like,

00:20:25 ◼   ► what did I do this entire year?

00:20:26 ◼   ► And I'm usually not happy with the amount that I got done

00:20:31 ◼   ► in software development.

00:20:33 ◼   ► I'm very proud of things like podcasts

00:20:35 ◼   ► 'cause I'm kinda forced to do those on a schedule.

00:20:36 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:20:37 ◼   ► 'Cause I do them with other people.

00:20:38 ◼   ► And there's sponsors and everything.

00:20:39 ◼   ► So there's an enforced schedule on that.

00:20:41 ◼   ► But the stuff that's more flexible,

00:20:43 ◼   ► I'm usually less proud of because I just,

00:20:47 ◼   ► I don't have a strong work ethic that makes me sit down

00:20:51 ◼   ► and have these large blocks of uninterrupted work time

00:20:54 ◼   ► consistently.

00:20:55 ◼   ► Like I'll have those sometimes.

00:20:56 ◼   ► But I don't have them consistently.

00:20:57 ◼   ► But I think that's mostly my personality.

00:21:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I think there is something to be said, though,

00:21:03 ◼   ► too, for, and I don't think we touched on this last week

00:21:05 ◼   ► when we were talking about learning.

00:21:07 ◼   ► But there is something that I noticed for myself, too,

00:21:09 ◼   ► of my, it's easy to get stuck where you can do

00:21:14 ◼   ► the interesting part of a problem or the part

00:21:16 ◼   ► that's exciting to you.

00:21:18 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:21:18 ◼   ► - And then you hit a point where you,

00:21:20 ◼   ► or having to do something that you don't really wanna do,

00:21:24 ◼   ► and you suddenly, your motivation somehow magically

00:21:28 ◼   ► disappears.

00:21:28 ◼   ► And you're just like, oh, I'm suddenly very,

00:21:30 ◼   ► like this little distractible puppy that's just like,

00:21:33 ◼   ► oh, there's a butterfly.

00:21:33 ◼   ► Let me run around after it.

00:21:35 ◼   ► - This is every time I've ever touched WatchKit.

00:21:38 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:21:39 ◼   ► It's just this barrier.

00:21:40 ◼   ► - Suddenly there's butterflies all around your office.

00:21:41 ◼   ► - What else can I possibly do besides WatchKit?

00:21:44 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:21:45 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:21:46 ◼   ► But I think it's important to understand that about ourselves

00:21:49 ◼   ► where I've done that enough times that,

00:21:52 ◼   ► or the first couple times that that would happen,

00:21:55 ◼   ► I don't think I had any self-awareness that

00:21:57 ◼   ► what I'm doing is avoiding work

00:21:59 ◼   ► because I don't actually wanna work.

00:22:01 ◼   ► And the times that I'm very productive,

00:22:03 ◼   ► it's usually because I'm really excited or interested,

00:22:06 ◼   ► and you kind of get into these modes where all I think about

00:22:09 ◼   ► is the problem I'm trying to solve.

00:22:10 ◼   ► And it's the, it can almost be annoying where

00:22:12 ◼   ► I'm trying to do something else,

00:22:14 ◼   ► and the thought keeps popping into my head.

00:22:16 ◼   ► Like, oh, what if I did this over here?

00:22:18 ◼   ► What if I did that over there?

00:22:19 ◼   ► And then I'm in the shower,

00:22:20 ◼   ► and I'm writing notes on the glass in the shower door,

00:22:24 ◼   ► being like, these are things that I'm thinking about.

00:22:26 ◼   ► If you're excited and motivated about what you're working on,

00:22:30 ◼   ► you're gonna be so much more productive and effective at it.

00:22:33 ◼   ► And that's something that I think for myself,

00:22:34 ◼   ► I've started to be very,

00:22:38 ◼   ► just try and be more conscious about this.

00:22:41 ◼   ► And it's only somewhat helpful

00:22:42 ◼   ► because there's still necessarily going to be times

00:22:43 ◼   ► that you have to do things that you don't want to do.

00:22:45 ◼   ► But at the very least, if I can tell myself,

00:22:49 ◼   ► like have the sort of the metacognition to say,

00:22:51 ◼   ► like, the reason I'm taking longer to do this

00:22:55 ◼   ► is because I'm not motivated to do it.

00:22:58 ◼   ► And at the very least, then it gives me an opportunity

00:23:00 ◼   ► to look at it and say,

00:23:02 ◼   ► is this really something I want to do?

00:23:03 ◼   ► Is this something that I should be doing?

00:23:08 ◼   ► And I can make a decision and a choice,

00:23:10 ◼   ► and I can actually make the choice about it

00:23:11 ◼   ► rather than just kind of pretending that it's not there

00:23:15 ◼   ► and pretending that the actual reason I'm not working

00:23:17 ◼   ► or the actual reason I'm not making progress

00:23:19 ◼   ► is because of something else,

00:23:22 ◼   ► something out of my control or something in my family

00:23:24 ◼   ► or whatever it is that like,

00:23:25 ◼   ► sometimes those things are just gonna impose themselves upon you.

00:23:29 ◼   ► And sometimes I feel like for myself,

00:23:31 ◼   ► I can go seeking out those distractions

00:23:33 ◼   ► or those things to pull me away

00:23:35 ◼   ► because I don't actually care.

00:23:37 ◼   ► And I think having some degree of intentionality

00:23:41 ◼   ► is helpful.

00:23:42 ◼   ► Like, I know for myself, it's not like it's this cure-all

00:23:44 ◼   ► because even if the answer is like,

00:23:47 ◼   ► I don't want to do this because I don't want to do this,

00:23:49 ◼   ► but I still have to do this,

00:23:50 ◼   ► then, well, I'm kind of stuck

00:23:52 ◼   ► and I just have to kind of transition into more like,

00:23:55 ◼   ► I don't know, like crisis management of like,

00:23:57 ◼   ► how can I trick myself into thinking this is exciting

00:24:01 ◼   ► and get it done?

00:24:03 ◼   ► But at the very least, I can be aware of it

00:24:05 ◼   ► and try and make some conscious choices about it,

00:24:07 ◼   ► that when I get into these kind of these funks

00:24:09 ◼   ► and these seasons where I'm just not getting anything done,

00:24:12 ◼   ► maybe it's helpful to just think about it,

00:24:15 ◼   ► at least from that perspective.

00:24:16 ◼   ► - And I think, kind of wrapping it up

00:24:18 ◼   ► back to the beginning part of the show,

00:24:21 ◼   ► I think one of the things that helps a lot

00:24:22 ◼   ► is a pretty strong externally imposed deadline.

00:24:24 ◼   ► That's one of the very strong motivators I have,

00:24:27 ◼   ► is like, if I'm trying to get an app or an update out

00:24:32 ◼   ► and it has to make it,

00:24:35 ◼   ► or I really should for business reasons make it

00:24:37 ◼   ► in time for the next iOS update or the next iPhone

00:24:40 ◼   ► or the next holiday season or whatever the case may be,

00:24:42 ◼   ► as we mentioned earlier,

00:24:43 ◼   ► that is often one of the only ways

00:24:45 ◼   ► I can really be motivated to do something like,

00:24:48 ◼   ► this is something that I'm just not,

00:24:50 ◼   ► that I'm not motivated to do,

00:24:51 ◼   ► like some feature I don't want to do

00:24:53 ◼   ► or some like nitty gritty detail

00:24:55 ◼   ► that I just don't find interesting to work on

00:24:57 ◼   ► or that I know is going to be tedious to work on.

00:24:59 ◼   ► Having an externally imposed deadline

00:25:03 ◼   ► or some other external pressure to do it

00:25:06 ◼   ► is often necessary.

00:25:08 ◼   ► It's certainly helpful.

00:25:09 ◼   ► As indies, we often don't have that,

00:25:12 ◼   ► especially if things are going generally okay,

00:25:15 ◼   ► if we're making enough money to survive

00:25:17 ◼   ► and to stay in business,

00:25:19 ◼   ► it's hard to be motivated by many other external factors

00:25:23 ◼   ► for things like feature updates,

00:25:24 ◼   ► 'cause what do you really,

00:25:26 ◼   ► right now there's nobody pressuring me

00:25:30 ◼   ► to get Overcast 3.0 out the door, nobody.

00:25:32 ◼   ► I have no reason to do it except that

00:25:35 ◼   ► I assume at some point I will have competition so strong

00:25:39 ◼   ► that I need to answer to it with my own updates

00:25:43 ◼   ► or whatever else,

00:25:44 ◼   ► but besides that, the main motivation

00:25:46 ◼   ► for getting Overcast 3.0 out the door is myself.

00:25:48 ◼   ► I am doing, I think, better things in it

00:25:52 ◼   ► and I want everyone to see these things

00:25:55 ◼   ► and to use these things and to,

00:25:56 ◼   ► I want the app to be better

00:25:58 ◼   ► and that's a great motivation

00:25:59 ◼   ► and if you don't have that motivation,

00:26:01 ◼   ► I think you're in trouble for lots of other reasons,

00:26:03 ◼   ► but that is not a rush.

00:26:05 ◼   ► That doesn't impose any kind of timeline on you

00:26:07 ◼   ► and it's very easy to fall into the trap of like,

00:26:10 ◼   ► well, I can just make it a little bit better,

00:26:13 ◼   ► just a little bit better,

00:26:13 ◼   ► and oh, if I don't release it in December,

00:26:15 ◼   ► well, how about February?

00:26:17 ◼   ► How about April?

00:26:18 ◼   ► And you just keep going back and back and back

00:26:20 ◼   ► and before you know it,

00:26:21 ◼   ► it's been like three years before you released anything

00:26:23 ◼   ► and that's not good for your app or your customers

00:26:28 ◼   ► or your budgeting or anything like that

00:26:30 ◼   ► and so a lot of times it really needs

00:26:33 ◼   ► some kind of external pressure

00:26:35 ◼   ► to get these things out the door.

00:26:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, and even one little trick

00:26:38 ◼   ► that I definitely use myself is the making,

00:26:43 ◼   ► it's bad to make external public commitments

00:26:46 ◼   ► about things and features and timelines.

00:26:47 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, don't do that.

00:26:48 ◼   ► - Don't do that, but I do find that

00:26:51 ◼   ► if I can find non-committing ways

00:26:56 ◼   ► of sharing what I'm working on

00:26:58 ◼   ► and kind of creating a sense of interest

00:27:01 ◼   ► or anticipation from other people,

00:27:03 ◼   ► whether that's friends and family,

00:27:05 ◼   ► whether that's customers

00:27:07 ◼   ► or people who follow you on the internet,

00:27:09 ◼   ► whatever that looks like for you,

00:27:10 ◼   ► but I know for myself,

00:27:11 ◼   ► even on the show,

00:27:12 ◼   ► talking about my next app is written in Swift

00:27:15 ◼   ► and making that commitment out in public.

00:27:18 ◼   ► It's like now when I hit the problems with this app

00:27:21 ◼   ► that has been taking me much longer

00:27:22 ◼   ► than I wish it would have

00:27:23 ◼   ► and some of those are because I'm still learning Swift,

00:27:25 ◼   ► it's like I can't just say like,

00:27:27 ◼   ► okay, I'm not just gonna do this

00:27:28 ◼   ► or I'm gonna back out.

00:27:29 ◼   ► It's been instructive to have this external thing

00:27:31 ◼   ► that it's like, no, no, no.

00:27:32 ◼   ► I was like, I don't wanna do the episode

00:27:34 ◼   ► of like why I abandoned that commitment

00:27:37 ◼   ► and so I'm able to work towards it.

00:27:39 ◼   ► And similarly, I've worked on other apps in the past

00:27:41 ◼   ► where it's like I start talking about them

00:27:42 ◼   ► at a high level or trying to,

00:27:45 ◼   ► which is good, maybe good marketing too

00:27:47 ◼   ► and kind of building a little bit of anticipation,

00:27:48 ◼   ► but even from a timing perspective to say

00:27:50 ◼   ► that like here's something that I'm hoping to get out by

00:27:52 ◼   ► and such and such.

00:27:53 ◼   ► And then as soon as it's outside of yourself,

00:27:56 ◼   ► there's even this vague sense of someone else

00:27:58 ◼   ► who might be expecting that.

00:27:59 ◼   ► I can find they can be a little bit motivating

00:28:01 ◼   ► and a little bit of making a timeline for you

00:28:04 ◼   ► to kind of move forward with things.

00:28:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, that sounds good.

00:28:08 ◼   ► All right, I think we're out of time this week.

00:28:10 ◼   ► Thanks a lot to our sponsor, Pingdom,

00:28:12 ◼   ► and thanks listeners for listening

00:28:13 ◼   ► and we will talk to you next week.

00:28:15 ◼   ► - Bye.

00:28:16 ◼   ► Bye.

00:28:17 ◼   ► [