Monthly Review September 2017

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

What went well this month

Exist 2017 annual user survey

Every year we survey our users on the new features we've added, our plans for the future, and how they use the app. Check out this year's results here.

Last month at RescueTime

It was a heads-down month with a lot to get done before I left, but I managed to get through everything I'd planned before finishing up. Starting this Monday I'll be adjusting to life as a full-time employee of Hello Code!

Live interview about Exist on Triple R radio

I was anxious for days leading up to this (I'm sure practising interviews more often would alleviate that pressure to some degree). It went okay, though, once I got over my nerves! You can have a listen here (requires Flash).

I tried a parkour class

I wish I'd known how much fitness is required for a "first timers" parkour class before I'd gone, because I definitely don't have enough. I essentially spent two hours hurling myself at gates and playground equipment, and throwing myself onto concrete floors and walls. I was sore for many, many days afterwards.

This month's goals

I did a big review of my goals in September and broke down my goals for the year into monthly-sized goals. So these don't quite match what I planned out in my last review, but they're the goals I set for myself internally.

✔️ 4 blog posts

✖️ 1 new release of Exist for iOS

Apple suddenly rejected a point release (including a critical bug fix, no less) of Exist for iOS because the reviewer interpreted the review guidelines differently to every reviewer we've had for the past couple of years. They've suddenly decided our business model is not allowed. After two review rejections despite our business model and the guidelines not being any different to last time I submitted an update (or the many times before that), I submitted an appeal to Apple. There's nothing we can do but wait now, and it's been a week so far. I can't release any updates to our users until Apple returns their verdict and the whole mess is resolved.

If we didn't have 70% of Exist users on iOS, I'd love to pull the app and not try to run a business based on the walled garden of Apple, but unfortunately we don't have that option if we want to keep paying our bills.

✔️ Stay under budget

My budget has been lowered drastically and become much more strict since I quit working for RescueTime. I've been working on sticking to this new budget for the past couple of months in preparation for the heavy pay cut I'm taking to work full-time on Hello Code, and I'm happy to say I managed it this month.

Focus habit for this month

Workouts

workout data from exist.io

As you can see in the graph above, I struggled with workouts early in the month, but I wasn't really focusing on them at first. I published last month's review on the 10th of September, and the graph above starts on September 2nd. For the first ten days of September I only did one workout, but once I wrote in my review that I wanted to focus on workouts this month, I became a lot more regular.

From the 12th of September, I worked out every two or three days, taking an extra rest day in-between when I needed extra recovery. I'm really happy with my progress on this habit, and hope to keep it up for the rest of the year.

This month's books and media

Books

TV

Goals for next month

  • 4 blog posts
  • 1 new Exist for iOS release (assuming that becomes possible at some point)
  • Stay under budget
  • Finish one more feature in Larder for iOS

Focus habit for next month

Drawing.

I've built 2/4 habits that I planned to work on this year. Drawing is one of the two left on the list. I've been thinking recently about ways to make this a regular habit, and I'm going to try to do it more often in September—hopefully every day!


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