Welcome to the first development blog entry for 96 Squares — a mindfulness-based time tracking app that breaks the day into 96 fifteen-minute blocks. This post offers a quick overview of where things currently stand in development, what’s working, and what’s still in progress.
What’s Working
The core functionality is live and humming along:
- 🟩 Users can select a time category (work, sleep, recreation, etc.) and assign it to a block (or “square”) of their day.
- 💾 Data is saved locally and synced to iCloud, so it’s accessible across devices.
- 📊 There are basic summary graphs to help users visualize how their time is spent.
- 🧘♂️ A settings sheet lets users tweak interface preferences and schedule a few simple mindfulness reminders.
- 📱 The overall UI now exposes all of the core features in a way that’s minimal but usable.
⠀In short: it’s functional … basically. But there’s still plenty of work ahead. Everything above pretty much works but none of it works great.
What’s Next
Right now, I’m in the thick of refinement. I’m sticking (more or less) to the MVP philosophy — Minimal Viable Product — but that always raises the age-old question: what exactly counts as viable?
Do I need that slick animated transition between views? Probably not. But will that bit of polish be the difference between an app that feels delightful and one that just feels … clunky? Maybe. That’s the balance I’m trying to strike.
There’s also the question of how deep to go with each feature. Is it enough for the summary graphs to exist, or should they be interactive and beautiful? Should the onboarding be bare-bones or carefully crafted to make people want to stick with the app?
Coming Up
I’ll be sharing the feature roadmap in a future post, which should provide a clearer view of what’s still ahead — both in terms of major additions and small usability touches.
For now, though, the groundwork is in place. It’s a functional app that tracks time and supports mindfulness — and that’s no small thing.