• I’ll learn design when I am able to purchase Photoshop
• I’ll start eating properly when the new diet book arrives
• I’ll start exercising when I get an elliptical
• I would practice guitar more often if I had a better instrument
• I’ll learn to program when I get a new computer

All of these are just excuses to procrastinate. We think the perfect tool is necessary to complete a task or learn a new skill, but really this is just an easy way to justify our procrastination and desire to spend money. Sure the new guitar would make it more fun to play, but if you aren’t going to spend an hour every day practicing than the new guitar is just a waste of money. You could probably get just as good (initially) with a $50 guitar from Wal-Mart.

Some friends did something similar with their son who wanted to play the drums. Instead of purchasing him a full drum set, they bought him a single, inexpensive drum. If he practiced with that every day for six months, they would purchase the full set for him.

He practiced every day, eventually got the drum set, and is now quite talented. First find the dedication, then put in the time, and finally purchase the great equipment you have been wanting.

When you think you are dependent on the tool most often you will find out that was just an excuse because you don’t have the dedication in the first place. The tool won’t make a difference. You will play with it for a few days, maybe even weeks, but then lose interest and move onto the next thing you need. First prove to yourself that you have the dedication.

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In October 2011 I quit my job to spend more time with my family and working on things I care about. It is the first major step in my quest to live different. Now I don’t mean to be different just to feel unique, but instead to live different in a way that makes my life better. Remember that these are the things I have chosen personally. You should create your own different life.

Be debt free.

Debt is crippling. It limits your options, forces you to keep working at a job you don’t like,  preventing travel, and adding considerable stress. It is also often a symptom of caring too much about possessions. Seriously, if you don’t have the money, don’t buy things.

Jobs are optional.

It’s time we started thinking about jobs and careers differently. At times they can be great: meet new people, work on great projects, and learn a lot. But if your job is holding you back from the life you want to live get rid of it. If your finances are in order and you have money in the bank quitting that job isn’t quite so scary. Especially if you can work on a side project that makes some recurring income on the side.

Chris Guillebeau, an author and blogger, started traveling and writing extensively a few years ago. Now he finishing up a quest to go to every country in the world (all 193). He travels almost continuously and does it on less than $60k per year. All of which he earns from writing for his blog and related guides.

If you really try you’ll find there are so many more ways to make money than going to an office every day.

Focus on family.

Over the years I always heard people say “kids grow up so fast”, but I never internalized it until recently. Watching Oliver grow and change in the last four months has shown me just how true this phrase is. No one wishes they spent less time with their kids.

Travel frequently to unique places.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
– Henry Miller

The most remote place I’ve ever been is the mountain village of Ketane in Lesotho (inside South Africa). Someday I’ll write more about the experience, but for now I’ll just say that travel can change your outlook on life.

Spend some time seeing things close to home as well. If you live in a city anywhere near as great as Boise there are many things you have yet to discover.

Learn continuously.

If I had to choose one thing to shape my outlook on life it would be a continual desire to learn both physical and mental skills. Even though I dropped out of college, I value learning very highly. Just choose the setting that is right for you. I hope to teach Oliver to share the same desire.

Create.

Take what you have learned and used it to create great things. Whether writing, woodworking, software design, knitting, or painting; start creating.

Value experiences over possessions.

On a trip to Hawaii with my some of my family a couple years ago we spent nearly $1,000 on a helicopter tour of the island. Since it was mostly my money I thought hard before spending the money. Ultimately reminding myself that a great experience is better than whatever objects I would purchase with that money. It was an unforgettable time and I will show photos from the flight for years to come.

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That’s all I have for now. Go write your own story.

So what is Commit?

Commit is a simple application to help you change your behavior. Whether it is learning a new skill or forming a positive habit Commit uses Jerry Seinfield’s Don’t Break the Chain philosophy to keep you motivated and make consistent progress each day. Sold for $0.99 it is an inexpensive way to improve your life.

I use it to maintain consistent exercise habits. Just reaching 10 days in a row of exercise, which is a first for me!

Download Commit from the App Store

Alright, let’s get into the numbers.

The Numbers

Commit was released on December 22nd, to mediocre sales numbers. I didn’t expect it to get approved before iTunes Connect closed (on the same day), so I didn’t even have the marketing page up yet. So the first day was spent scrambling to write a design a page that throughly explained Commit.

After a couple days I started submitting Commit to the main iOS App Review Sites. The first site to include it was MacLife. They mentioned Commit in an article on the 27th of December.

The same day a popular social media author, Mari Smith, mentioned it on her Facebook page (she discovered it through Dennis Smith, a local friend) and I posted a link to Hacker News (didn’t go anywhere). Because all three happened on the same day I can’t tell exactly where the sales came from. But the three combined only resulted in 74 sales for that day and 130 the next day. Not quite as much as I hoped for.

A couple days later I posted to a couple Subreddits with good results. It was well received with a few up-votes and plenty of positive comments.

The big change happened when App Advice posted a review on the 29th. They really liked Commit and it was well timed for New Years resolutions. The review went live about 9:00 PM mountain time, so the main sales happened the next day. Reaching 598 sales in one day. This also pushed it to #18 in the top paid productivity apps. Unfortunately I can’t tell how many sales came from being in that list versus the App Advice review. But since the sales fell in the next couple days I think the App Advice link was worth far more.

For the next few days sales were up and down, but slowly declining. Then when I released a new version Apple featured Commit in the New and Noteworthy section in the App Store. Awesome, right?

Yes, but not as good as I first thought. There is a different app store for each supported country and Commit was featured in 82 countries. But unfortunately none were major English speaking markets. The U.S., Canada, and the UK were missing from the list. I hope everyone in Uzbekistan enjoys Commit, but so far the feature hasn’t resulted in that many sales. The feature in Russia has resulted in about 8 sales per day.

I (naively) thought that being featured would make a huge difference. As it turns out the app needs to be featured in a major market to see a large increase in sales.

Unfortunately Commit has received a handful of 1 star reviews related to notification times. Being a beginner objective-c developer I must have made a mistake in that code (I am still trying to figure it out). Though I do have many people who love the app and have written rave reviews.

Now commit gets around 30-40 sales per day. As of today it has sold $1,673. Not a huge number, but it is a lot more than I expected. I’m pursuing other options to increase that number. Here is the graph with event marked on it.

So, what did I learn?

Many App Stores
Before I hadn’t paid much attention to the App Stores for each country. Now I know to pay more attention to localization and other issues. Also being featured in smaller markets doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Review Sites are Very Important
Getting positive reviews on major app review sites made a huge difference. I am sure it accounted for at least half of the copies sold. App Advice was by far the biggest driver of sales. Far more than I expected. What they have done with that site is impressive. Though I wish I had more review sites to compare to traffic numbers with.

A Huge Social Following May Not Convert at Expected Levels
Mari Smith posted a very positive review to her Facebook page (with 70,000+ subscribers), but it yielded less than 100 sales. That surprised me. I knew a social following wouldn’t convert very well, but I expected better than that. Either way I really appreciate the link from Mari.

App Annie is Awesome.
Without the iTunes analytics site App Annie I would have never known about the features in all those countries. In addition to providing a better sales interface it has detailed rankings and review information from all across the App Store. Plus it is free.

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That’s it. Make sure to download Commit from the App Store. Also if you would like to write a review or do an interview just let me know.

Update: Commit was just featured on TUAW, so tomorrow should reveal some great new sales numbers.

More Objective-C: Refining Existing iOS Applications

Last year I released three iPhone applications and I plan to continue the momentum. But instead of releasing a ton of new applications my goal is to refine and improve the apps I already have. I’m sure I’ll come up with new ideas for apps, but none are planned right now.

• OneVoice
  The first thing on the agenda is to allow multiple languages in OneVoice. I receive an email almost every week from someone requesting another language (Brazilian Portuguese is the most requested), so early this year I plan to meet that need.After language support is added the focus will move to marketing and sales. It is a fantastic product that needs a wider audience. I would like to produce a really good introduction video to explain the concepts that make OneVoice so great.

• Fluent
  Currently Fluent is a simple flash cards and memorization system. I use it often, but it needs a few more features before it is truly a great experience. Hopefully Fluent will help me (and many other people) improve my language skills. The features I plan to add will make it a must-have memorization system. Just wait.

• Commit
  I’ll continue working on bug fixes, but don’t have plans for any major new features. Though plenty of ideas have been suggested, I prefer to keep it simple and not add too many features.

Continue Writing

Writing each week on this blog has been a huge success. I plan to continue the weekly posts throughout this year. At first it was a challenge to meet just one post per week. Now I am overflowing with ideas and don’t have a shortage of posts to write.

So in addition to this blog I am working on finding some more avenues to showcase and improve my writing. This could be a book, online guides, or just guest posts. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

Stabilize & Increase My Income

This time last year I didn’t have any passive income (money not directly connected to my time). Now I receive over $2000 every month from app sales. Though this is really good and a huge improvement, sales have still been up and down more than I would like. Especially since I now depend on this for the majority of my income.

September had fantastic sales ($5,000) while December was much lower (under $2,000). With more marketing and a larger collection of apps my hope is this will both increase and become more consistent.

Travel

Since last year didn’t have as much travel as I would have liked, I hope to make up for it this year. Though it all depends on how Oliver does on his first trip to Hawaii in a couple weeks. If that goes well then trips to Europe and other great destinations will soon follow. I just hope Oliver does well with flights.

Focus

I just tried to check Facebook out of habit, but couldn’t since I am writing this post on a flight to Las Vegas and don’t have Wi-Fi. My short attention span and lack of focus is probably my biggest obstacle to overcome. I haven’t yet decided how I will tackle this problem, but I must if I am going to achieve the levels of productivity required to meet this year’s goals.

What Went Well

Oliver

My son Oliver Patrick Barry was born September 20th, 2011 at 1:30 PM. He weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20.5″ long. Photos are here. I was able to take a couple weeks off work to spend with him and Hilary. He has changed my outlook on life and how I spend my time. I can’t imagine going back to life without him.

Learning Objective-C

My biggest goal for 2011 was to learn iPhone/iPad development. I am really happy with my progress. I know feel confident enough to program a small application myself. But still need help on the occasional problem. I am in debt to Chris Brandsma for his extensive help and programming explanations.

In addition to developing my own apps I have designed and/or coded 3-4 apps for friends and family. My iOS portfolio is growing quickly and I hope to work on even more apps in the new year.

3 App Releases

January 8th I released OneVoice, followed by Fluent in October, and Commit in December. With each release I learned more about sales, marketing, and development.

• OneVoice produced the most revenue and made the largest impact on people’s lives. Check the archives of this blog for a whole series of posts about OneVoice. But with $20,000+ in profit for the year I am pretty happy.
• Fluent was written as a hobby to practice programming. I was able to write it myself (with extensive help from the internet). Sales have been less than stellar (Under $50 total), but I think I know what went wrong. While it is a great app that I love to use every day, few people understand at a glance how it is different from every other flash cards app. I may improve it in 2012, or just let it sit. I haven’t decided yet.
• Commit was also written to practice programming, but the sales results look like they will be significantly better than Fluent. It has received great reviews and several sites and has made it into a few top charts. It has been out for just over a week and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Blogging and This Website

Back in July I committed to publish a blog post every Tuesday. This post will mark 25 posts in a row. Before that with my sporadic blogging I was getting about 100 unique visitors a month. Now I average over 200 visitors per day. Here are a couple of the most popular posts:

• How I made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
• How to Never Miss a Blog Post
• One Year With iOS
• The Story Behind OneVoice
• I Quit My Job

Consistent blogging has really made the difference. Many of my posts never get more than 1000 people reading them, but then I have a couple home runs like the top two above.

Quitting My Job

This was the second biggest change of the year (after Oliver). On October 14th I left Unity. I’d been there, leading the software design team, for almost three years. I worked with fantastic people, learned a huge amount, and had a good time. But it was time to move on. I wrote more about it here.

What Did Not Go Well

Travel

Travel is really important to me, so the lack of travel this last year was difficult. Having a full time job and Hilary being pregnant made arranging long trips difficult. Previous years we’ve been to France, Monaco, Hawaii, South Africa, and the Caribbean (not all in the same year). We usually do a large trip (Europe, Africa, etc) and a small trip (Hawaii, Caribbean) each year. We did make it down to Mexico on a cruise with some friends from college and we went to Northern California twice to visit family. Just missing the large trip. I guess we’ll need to make up for it in 2012.

Now with the job out of the way we are much more free to travel. Especially without the requirement of keeping our plans within an allowed 2 week window.

Travelling with Oliver will be more difficult, but we are committed to trying it. Starting with a trip to Hawaii in a couple of weeks.

Job 

Work this last year caused for more stress than necessary. I invested myself pretty heavily in the success of Unity and the company went through a roller coaster this last year. Between lost contracts, pay cuts, and extensive layoffs I was pretty burnt out by the time I left. I survived three rounds of layoffs before I decided it was time to leave. Now the company appears to be stabilizing and I wish the remaining team the best of luck.

Exercise

December 2010 I ran the Honolulu Marathon. Then I followed it up by not running for 3 months. My exercise habits throughout the year were sporadic at best. I spent a long time getting in shape for the marathon and then failed to maintain my strength and habits.

I really don’t have an excuse, but my exercise habits will change in 2012.

Focus

My inability to focus on one thing for any stretch of time is starting to become a real problem. Just writing this post I have had to surpress my desire to check emails and Twitter far too many times. I want to spend the majority of my time creating rather than consuming. I am still figuring out my plan to do that.

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I’m pretty sure that covers my thoughts on last year. Next week I’ll talk about what I plan to change going forward.

How was your 2011?

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Cover Photo by Rebecca Anne Photography.

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There’s a different way. A better way to handle new habits. Make consistent progress every day. I built Commit to help you with this.

Commit is an iPhone app that helps you form habits to learn or practice something every day. It is based on the idea that if you build up a chain of days in a row you do something, not wanting to break that chain will become a motivation to keep going. If you have exercised 25 days in a row, how hard can it be to do it one more day?

I’ve published a blog post every Tuesday for 20 weeks in a row. Not wanting to break this chain is a motivation to keep writing.

You could:

• Draw
• Run
• Study French
• Do Yoga
• Read
• Write
• Exercise
• Walk
• Learn to program
• Eat protein for breakfast
• Stretch
• Practice piano

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What will you Commit to in 2012? 

Imagine if each day you spent 10 minutes exercising, 10 minutes learning French, 10 minutes practicing drawing, and finally 10 minutes writing. You won’t progress quickly, but a little bit of consistent progress each day will take you really far. Plus it is much better than always talking about your dreams and ideas, but never acting on them.

In September 2002 Jonathan Hardesty decided he was going to draw and paint everyday. He started as a beginner and years later is a professional artist. His journey is documented in this 70 page thread on ConceptArt.org. He spent a lot more than 10 minutes a day, but his story shows what you can accomplish with consistent progress.

Here is an interview with Jonathan in 2010.

These are a few of his creations. First with where he started a few years ago.

I’ve been programming almost every day for a little more than a year. In that time I’ve gone from beginner to having 3 iPhone applications written. All with slow steady progress each day.

If you have a new business you want to start, a language you want to learn, or a new skill to acquire, you should start by doing a little bit each day. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. What will you learn by this time next year?

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I am releasing a new iPhone application that will help you set and maintain commitments. Signup below to hear when it launches.

I see it all the time with designers who know how to use Photoshop and Illustrator, but fail to understand what makes a design great. Video editors who can create any complex transition you want, but don’t know how to make a video feel timeless.

If you watch the newer Star Wars movies pay attention to the transitions near the end. When they are switching between each of the battle scenes they use Powerpoint style transitions. Dissolve, blinds, swipe. It’s an amateur effect in a movie that is otherwise very technically difficult and visually impressive. The skill is there, but taste is lacking.

The contrast between local and national television commercials is a perfect example. The local commercials are loud, poorly written, and are more in-your-face. Painful at times in their lack of quality. Blaring messages about sales, quickly spoken copy, and flashing graphics are not going to make anyone look fondly on your brand.

Most of having good taste is knowing what to leave out. Slow down. Remove content. Rewrite your script. Never use phrases like “4 easy steps.”  Focus on the details. Keep it simple.

Don’t just learn the technical aspects of your craft. Focus on creating well-formed art.

HN is my favorite website and I visit it at least once a day. The quality of the community on HN is so high that often the comments are just as valuable as the article being linked. While I have had an article I wrote make it on the front page, I’ve never before reached #1. So what does the #1 spot get you? Here are some stats for those interested:

• 487 Votes
• 200+ Comments
• 3 job offers / requests to interview for a position.
• 25 emails
• 51,052 unique visitors
• 300+ retweets and mentions on Twitter

You can read the post here: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code and the HN Comment Thread.

It was expected.

I wrote that post specifically to do well on HN. After being around the community for a year I learned that stories revealing financial data behind startups are well received and often reach the home page. But to reach #1 it would need a little bit of a twist.

The first titles I wrote for the post were:

• “Revealing OneVoice Sales Data”
• “Pulling back the curtain: A detailed look at my App Store sales”
• “OneVoice Numbers”

Boring. None of those would have had the desired results. If you aren’t already familiar with OneVoice why would you click the link? So I decided to add the sales numbers to the title:

• “How I Made $19,000 on the App Store”

That’s pretty good. I would click that link. But $19,000 isn’t that much. There are plenty of stories of developers making $200k+ on the App Store. So the title needed a twist at the end. “… While Learning to Code” is the final touch needed to make it a really catchy title.

• “How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code”

It would be interesting to test the difference the engaging title made.

Any Downsides?

When revealing detailed financials there could always be some downsides. The main one being that I may have generated some more competition in an already crowded field. For anyone looking to make some quick money, this isn’t the way to do it. To me this is success, but I could have made considerably more by doing contract work.

The most important thing you gain from travel is perspective.

Perspective on other cultures, languages, and ways of living. Staying within your home country or culture you can only learn so much. Spend a few weeks (or longer) in a place like South Africa and you will marvel over how many people speak 4, 5 or 6 languages fluently. Visiting mountain villages in Lesotho will change your perspective on how many people can fit inside a mini-van for a 4 hour drive (24 in case you were wondering).

Time is the most valuable thing you have.

Spend your time with the same care you use when spending money. That doesn’t mean you should only spend time working or on practical things. Spend it on whatever you want, just spend purposefully.

Ideas aren’t worth as much as you think.

It is the execution of the idea that truly matters. Follow-through is everything.
Finish what you start.

Traveling will make you appreciate your home even more.

A friend who has always wanted to travel to Europe asked me an interesting question after my last trip to France: “If you enjoyed the trip so much wouldn’t you just want to stay?” She feared that she would love these places so much it would make her want to give up her obligations at home and live abroad. Which is the opposite of my experience. The more I travel, even to places I love, the more I value and appreciate my home town.

Exfoliate.

Women figured out to use a mesh sponge (or something similar) a long time ago. I’m not sure why men still don’t get it. Your skin just feels so much better.

When you get someone to help you with a problem, always get them to explain the solution.

I am learning to program and every time I have a question I try to fully understand the code required to create the solution. Otherwise you make progress on your project, but don’t really learn.

The same thing goes for kids (though you sometimes have to force it on them). Rather than fixing a problem for someone, you can guide them to solve it themselves. A book I read recently told a story of a child trying to get his bicycle out of the back of a truck. It was tangled with another bike and he couldn’t just pull it out. His mother had two options. Her natural instinct was to untangle the bike and lift it out of the truck. Or she could help her son to do it himself. She talked him through diagnosing the problem and got him to walk through the steps of untangling the bike on his own.

Teach a man to fish. Or teach a child to untangle a bike. Same concept.

Stop talking and start doing.

Don’t be known as the person who is all talk and lacks follow-through. If you talk about that exciting vacation for years, but never take the steps to do it you will start to lose credibility. Think about what you talk and dream about. It is time to finally start taking steps to meet those goals.

Becoming a parent changes everything.

Time slows down. Priorities change. Everything I thought was important can wait while I make silly noises and faces to entertain my son. I now am starting to see everything in the context of how I want to teach it to him.

Stop saying “honestly and “to tell the truth”.

It implies you are lying the rest of the time.

Never stop learning.

Adopting this attitude will change your life.