Update as of Feb 21st, 2017: I've removed Productive Habits from sale.

Today I'm happy to announce Productive Habits, a four-week email course in working smarter, not harder, has launched!

I started learning iOS development a little over two years ago. During that time I've been wrapping my head around Objective-C, working on the iOS companion app for [Exist][1], and building some smaller apps on the side. I've gone from working through tutorials a couple of hours a week to spending 20+ hours per week working on real products.

![RescueTime software dev time tracked][image-1]

I'm still a beginner, but I've come a long way since I started out. My progress in iOS development is one the things I'm most proud of from the past year, ([see my 2015 review here][2]) so I wanted to share some of what I've learned along the way.

Any day that starts with downloading a new app to play with is a good day. A day that also starts with an offer for more freelance work, an accepted interview request, and my app getting through Apple review is a very good day.

Finally got an invite for Polymail. So far, liking it quite a bit. Gmail labels are treated more like folders than labels, which suits my workflow. Nylas N1 is still a contender, but I'm sticking with Polymail for the moment.

Someone asked me recently if I'd changed my organisation processes since writing this post in 2014. In fact, almost everything I mentioned in that post has changed!

Just recently I was fired for the first time ever. I was just settling down after the shock of switching from freelancing a couple days a week and spending the rest of the time on my own projects to working full-time for someone else when I was told to pack my bags and leave.

I'm still amazed when I think about how much I've learned about programming. I say I'm an iOS developer, but sometimes I still think to myself, "Wow. I'm actually doing this! I'm programming as if it's just a normal thing I do!"

I find it interesting to read about how other people use their Apple Watches, and whether they're still using them months after the novelty has worn off. I thought I'd join the fray by sharing my own experience so far.

I got an Apple Watch in September, as a very early birthday present. I'd originally planned to wait for v2 of the watch, hoping to get better battery life, faster connection between watch apps and my phone, and support for sleep tracking. But by around August/September I'd seen so many of the apps I use on my phone add watch versions that I decided I wanted a v1. I was also keen on having better integration with my phone, as the Pebble is quite limited when connecting to an iPhone, so I couldn't control my Podcast player, for instance, as only the bult-in music app connected to Pebble's player controls.

When I recently switched back to the craziness of working on Hello Code, working for freelance clients (/looking for new freelance clients), and building and marketing my own products, my needs for staying organised changed a lot. I suddenly had a lot of different contexts of working, different people to deal with, and all kinds of deadlines to keep track of.

I've already written about my must-have apps from 2015, but I didn't spend all my time playing with apps. When I read Josh's review of 2015, I really liked the format, and decided I would also like to write up what I got done throughout the year, my goals for 2016, and some of my favourite non-app products and art from 2015.

This is a lesson taken from Productive Habits, a four-week email course.

Today we're going to look at prioritisation. Or, I should say, ruthless prioritisation. This is my favourite kind. It's like clearing out your wardrobe after a few years—it feels simultaneously heart-breaking and liberating to throw things out mercilessly.

Since I wrote last year's must-have apps list, I've tried lots of new apps, and I've stuck with some old favourites. To avoid repeating myself, I'll only explain how I use any apps that didn't appear in my 2014 list.

I'm also skipping the iPad section this year, as I've been using mine less and less.

If you liked reading my monthly reviews, you might have noticed I stopped posting them recently. I wanted to post a quick update to explain why.

Before 2015, I wrote my monthly reviews in a journal and kept them private. This year I decided to share them on my blog, thinking they might be interesting or useful to other people. Many people have told me they've been inspired to do their own reviews based on reading mine, so I'm glad I shared them.

At the start of each month I do a review in my journal of my goals, habits, and experiments from the past month. In January 2015 I started publishing my monthly reviews on my blog instead of keeping them private. You can see them all in my monthly reviews category.

What goals did I attempt in October?

![cabin][image-1]

At the start of each month I do a review in my journal of my goals, habits, and experiments from the past month. In January 2015 I started publishing my monthly reviews on my blog instead of keeping them private. You can see them all in my [monthly reviews category.][1]

This month's review is a bit late because I was travelling in the first week of October, and recovering from travel in the second week. I'll include some photos from my trip in next month's review.

At the start of each month I do a review in my journal of my goals, habits, and experiments from the past month. In January 2015 I started publishing my monthly reviews on my blog instead of keeping them private. You can see them all in my monthly reviews category.

WHAT DID I COMPLETE THAT I AM PROUD OF IN AUGUST?

I spent some time on trial-and-error last week to fix a bug in my app. I thought the details of what I'd done wrong and what the fix was might be useful for others.

I've been working on a new branch of my iOS companion app for Exist, where I'm building out the Today dashboard view. (You can read about this in more depth on the Hello Code blog.)

At the start of each month I do a review in my journal of my goals, habits, and experiments from the past month. In January 2015 I started publishing my monthly reviews on my blog instead of keeping them private. You can see them all in my monthly reviews category.

WHAT DID I COMPLETE THAT I AM PROUD OF IN JULY?

At the start of each month I do a review in my journal of my goals, habits, and experiments from the past month. In January 2015 I started publishing my monthly reviews on my blog instead of keeping them private. You can see them all in my monthly reviews category.

This month I added a couple of new things:

When you're new to remote working, it's easy to miss some of the most important things that you need to sort out. For instance, organising your health insurance or setting up your tax payments correctly.

I've recently had some experience with what happens when you do miss—or set up incorrectly—these essential trivialities of remote working. In short, you quickly realise they're not so trivial after all.

At the start of each month I do a review in my journal of my goals, habits, and experiments from the past month. In January 2015 I started publishing my monthly reviews on my blog instead of keeping them private. You can see them all in my monthly reviews category.

WHAT DID I COMPLETE THAT I AM PROUD OF IN MAY?