As a web developer based in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, I’ve built countless websites for clients — but building an iOS app was a whole new frontier. I recently completed my first-ever iPhone application, Shedooby, now available in the App Store. It took me a full year from concept to distribution through Apple. My vision was for a simple app — but as anyone who’s ever written software knows, “simple” ideas often have a way of revealing their complexity once you start coding.
Working in Xcode with Swift for the first time brought moments of frustration, humility, and ultimately, growth. What started as a minimal concept became a deeper lesson in self-discipline — not just in development, but in life.
The Motivation
The idea for Shedooby grew out of a period of personal reflection. Like many people after the Covid lockdowns, I realized how much of my time — my most finite and valuable resource — had been lost to digital noise. Social media’s dopamine loop of debates, reactions, and outrage offered the illusion of engagement but left me with nothing real to show for it.
That realization hit even harder after the loss of my two dogs, Züri and Zippy. Grief has a way of demanding action. I gave myself two options: wallow, or build. I chose to build — something useful, something focused. I wanted to redirect my energy into learning a new skill while creating a tool to help myself and others reclaim mental focus.
The Concept
Shedooby is designed to catch you in those moments of “mind chatter” — the repetitive internal talk that eats away at your focus. Each time you notice it, you tap the app (or tell Siri), and it logs a timestamp. Over time, you can see a chart of how often you’ve redirected your thoughts, a visualization of self-discipline in action.
I wanted the app to have personality, so I modeled it after the structure of Basic Combat Training — your own “Digital Drill Sergeant.” The app delivers motivational cues, or lashes, to snap you back to purpose and get you focused on productive, goal-driven work.
The Audience
While anyone can use Shedooby, I designed it primarily for men who want to take ownership of their time, their habits, and their results — men who value discipline and self-reliance. It’s for anyone who wants to test their willpower and resist the instant-gratification traps that modern life sets for us all.
Lessons From the Build
To develop the app, I joined Apple’s Developer Program and dove into Swift with no prior experience. Coming from a background in JavaScript and Java, I could recognize the structure, but Swift’s ecosystem — and Apple’s meticulous standards — required patience and persistence.
At first, I tried to build Shedooby using Apple’s Shortcuts. My initial Shortcut had thirty steps. It was clever but wildly inefficient — like assembling Ikea furniture blindfolded. My wife’s blunt feedback (“No one’s going to do that”) saved me from shipping a nightmare setup. The final version now installs cleanly with only a few steps, taking under a minute.
Along the way, I had to learn responsive UI design for multiple iPhone models, meet Apple’s privacy standards, and rethink my monetization approach. I even had to let go of some creative humor — an early design featuring an “anus button” (a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for America’s freedom of speech culture) didn’t quite meet Apple’s content guidelines. I replaced it with a brain icon instead — representing self-programming and the building of mental discipline. Funnier? Maybe not. Smarter? Definitely.
The Result
Shedooby is a small app with a big purpose: to help you reclaim control of your thoughts, time, and focus. Each “lash” is a reminder that discipline is a muscle — one that can be trained.
You can download Shedooby from the App Store here:
👉 Download Shedooby for iPhone
Final Thoughts
Creating Shedooby pushed me beyond web development and into full mobile software design. It reminded me that coding — whether a website or an app — is as much about mindset as it is about syntax. It’s about pushing through frustration, adapting, and refining until it works.
If you’re a business or individual in New Hampshire looking for a local web developer with experience in both front-end web technologies and native iOS development, I’d love to help bring your next idea to life. Whether it’s a website, an app, or something in between, the lesson of Shedooby applies: start simple, stay disciplined, and keep building.
