There’s something special about building a tool that only you will use. No roadmap, no backlog, no user feedback loops. Just a problem, an idea, and the curiosity to code through it.

Lately, I’ve been feeling that spark again. I built two small utilities, nothing wild, but enough to reignite my excitement for writing code, testing ideas, and shaving off friction in my daily life.

The Projects

One is an app that collects and aggregates data from Apple Health. I’ve been manually tracking health metrics for years, but this project was about automating what I could and creating a clearer view of my trends by day, week, and month. I even layered in a weekly AI summary that gets emailed to me with simple suggestions to improve my metrics.

The other is a personal link collection app - a kind of Pocket clone. It lets me save articles to read later, but adds AI summaries so I don’t have to reread a whole piece just to remember why I saved it. I also built in a prompt versioning system that I now use across both projects. It’s been a great way to test different AI behaviors and compare results over time.

Why It Feels Different

The things I build for myself break sometimes and that’s ok. It’s not the same frustration as when a paid app flakes out. When it’s your own tool, fixing it can even be kind of fun, no one is waiting for you to fix it. You know the quirks, the shortcuts, the things you never got around to finishing. It’s like that old car you had to jiggle the wiper switch just right to get them to work, but it was your car. You knew how to make it work.

And that’s part of the joy.

These projects give me an escape from the daily grind. A space to sharpen old skills, learn new ones, and actually solve problems and annoyances in my daily life. There’s no pressure to scale, no need to pitch the idea to anyone. Just shipping, iterating, and using something that didn’t exist in my life before.

A Note to Builders

If you’re waiting for the perfect idea or the right time, don’t. Embrace the audience of one. Scope your work small and ship it. The speed and the iterations will build momentum. Eventually, you’ll wake up one day and realize you’ve built something real. Maybe even something you rely on.

And that’s where the joy lives, not in the launch, but in the using.