I need you to imagine something so bear with me.

Imagine you’re playing a character in your favorite RPG. You start off weak. A simple rat makes you run for the hills. You can barely hold a sword. Magic? You probably can’t read, forget about magic. You are far off from the hero that’s supposed to fight dragons and save the realm. Yet somehow through dedication, pure will and a refusal to give up you eventually grow your skills until you’re able to achieve the heroic feats that bards sing about.

Now what if that wasn’t a video game. What if the character is actually you?

Now that I’ve piqued your interest, let me introduce myself. My name is Radu and I am a full-stack developer. I haven’t always had this profession, as I come from a non-tech background, yet nevertheless my passion for building awesome stuff brought me here. Even though I’m specialized in building web apps, starting with this year I really wanted to get into mobile development so that I could bring my app ideas to life. At the time of writing this article (13th July 2026) ……. I have done almost nothing in order to learn mobile (iOS to be specific). Yep, over 6 months and I barely, just barely managed to watch some Swift tutorials. Oh well, at least I’m becoming a pretty good procrastinator.

Anyways, while wasting time on Reddit I found something that kindled a spark. It was an ad for Shipaton, a two month hackathon in which you have to actually ship a working mobile app to the AppStore. The gods have finally given me a sign, and they said: “Radu, you must build the greatest, most awesome app of all time and win this contest!”

I decided at that point (two days ago) that I will enter this competition and prove that I can build and ship an app.

There is a slight catch though. The contest rules state that the grand prize will actually go to the app that gains the most user traction and growth momentum during the event. Now, I’m basically invisible on the Internet, I have no following and almost zero presence. Besides building an app without actually knowing how to build mobile apps I need to somehow build an audience, promote and convince people that my app is worth their time. And I need to do all of that in two months time.

A little bit extra about me. I am also a father to a small human (1 and a half years old). Now the parents out there know how time consuming being a parent is, and I don’t want sacrifice the time dedicated to my son towards winning this contest. So, since I have a full time job and I’m also a parent, I will work mainly during the night and early mornings. Who needs that much sleep anyways?

Enough about me. Let’s get back to the app I’m building.

Let me ask you something. What do you think is the essential element in improving your skills? Let’s say you want to become a really, really good programmer. You want to be able to finally understand how to invert that damned binary tree. What is the one element that is more important than anything else?

As a self-appointed international expert in learning new skills and achieving objectives I can tell you the Secret!

Imagine some drum rolls here

It is Focus! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I will be building yet another focus app in an overcrowded market!

I can already see your reaction. Some of you are probably saying “Oh jeez, Radu, what a great way to waste the 30 seconds I’ve dedicated to skimming through this bullshit article you’ve written. Why the hell do I need another focus app?”

Well, first of all because you probably still can’t focus. I don’t blame you though, nowadays it seems like everything is fighting for your attention. Second, its because the other apps on the market (the pomodoro timers and the grow your own plants, cats and whatever timers out there) don’t make it personal and they don’t really ensure that you’re actually focusing.

You’re probably thinking: “Ok smartass, why is your app better then?”

The answer is quite simple. Other similar apps attempt to give you a small dopamine reward by showing you how some sort of plant, amoeba or yeti grows because you’ve focused 25 minutes on studying for your exam. It’s meaningless.

Your growth is the app’s hook. You getting better at the skills you want to improve at is the dopamine hit you’re looking for. That is why my app is better. My app makes you its focus. How exactly?

By leveraging the skill and XP system present in roleplaying video games.

I’m a big fan of RPG’s, especially The Elder Scrolls series. Morrowind is my favorite game of all time. In Morrowind, your character grows by improving their skills and skills are improved by using them.

I want to bring the same system to the most important character of all, you.

So, dear reader who managed to stay till the end (in spite of ever shorter attention spans) if you’re curious if I can actually fulfill my quest to create this app and win this contest, stay tuned for future journal entries. I will be sharing the whole journey with you. The wins, the loses and everything in between.

In the next entry I will showcase my incredibly well thought out, infallible plan and delve into the mechanics of designing a good XP system.