I've been working on a tool lately to help me in my planning. Writing a tool for your own use is always a joy, with every word you're furthering your reach in a personal way. Last night I hit a point of "I've created something now that didn't exist before, and it's useful". Which is great, and I've already used my app to plan my next few weeks. In my most recent foray into unmanaged personal projects I noticed a few things, first off that I was able to work incredibly quickly being both the designer and the technician. Most of the work was done between the hours of 2 and 3 in the morning after I finish up with my other work, and these great time restrictions have reduced the features to a minimum, which makes the important features stand out and the utility of the tool more apparent. h2. What's it do then? Of the cash you have on hand, it'll tell you how much you've got to spend and how much is "already spent" so you never have to work it out or worry about your finances. You'll always know what amount you really have to spend and that all your bills are covered. h2. Can it tell me "what if"? If you're on top of these things then you'll appreciate I didn't build this for calculation but for speculation. The tool lets you make decisions as you would normally but tells you what it means to buy that extra bottle of wine or go gliding this weekend, it might mean one day extra saving for that snowboard or not having cash to clear rent before your next contract comes in months down the track. I'd like to keep this project going and share it with everyone. I'll be offering the service for free and will hopefully use it to build and iPhone app. The feedback I've had so far has been very insightful and I'm using this is an exercise to try out some of the more intelligent strategies I've been studying for inductive UI. 2009-05-31T00:37:07+12:00 1 I've been working on a tool lately to help me in my planning. Writing a tool for your own use is always a joy, with every word you're furthering your reach in a personal way. Last night I hit a point of "I've created something now that didn't exist before, and it's useful". Which is great, and I've already used my app to plan my next few weeks. 3 2009-06-02T22:00:00+12:00 2009-05-31T00:37:07+12:00