The Journal App Making Journal: Day 38

SwiftUI, the 30-Day Journaling Challenge, and Atomic Habits journaling

Continue to journal on 3 questions everyday in this Journal App Making Journal.

1. What have I learned about app design and development today?

Continue to acquire app design and programming skills through the iOS App Development course on Udemy by Angela Yu and the London App Brewery.

Learned about SwiftUI today.

> What is SwiftUI?

Screenshot by Author

• It is an “all new UI framework built with declarative Swift code”.
• Or in English, it is… in comparison to the current system of coding on Apple, almost like the difference between writing a dissertation on a typewriter in the late 1800s vs. writing one today on a personal computer with a full-fledged word processor, the internet, and your internet browser. … Ok, may not be as dramatic, but the idea is, power, speed, and luxury. Don’t know enough about cars to name an analogous model sorry.
• And it is a brand new piece of technology on the Apple platform announced in its 2019 WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference).

> Why is SwiftUI interesting?

There are mainly 2 reasons.

1. It improves the developer experience, by introducing new development features, such as drag-and-drop code creation, easy layouts with VHZ stack (i.e. the Vertical Horizontal and Z-axis stack), highly reusable UI (user interfaces), and live preview. These also make it easier for beginners.
2. It improves reusability of code across different platforms within Apple, i.e. on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Macbook computers. Almost like the SpaceX re-usable rocket, except for launching apps instead of spaceships. This improves the app user’s experience and the app developer’s economics.

There is simplication above of course, but the idea is about maximising reusability. And reusability is not ideal right now.

• For example, iOS mobile apps for iPhone and iPad are often created in Swift, while macOS desktop apps for Apple notebooks and desktop computers need to be created in Objective-C.

When code can’t be easily reused, it is additional cost to create apps on less popular / targeted platforms, and reduces distributability. This negatively impacts the end-user’s cross-platform experience, and the developer’s economics.

• For example, in 2018-2019, there are ~2 million mobile apps on the iOS App Store. This compares to only 28,325 desktops apps on the macOS App Store.
• By improving code reusability, and app distributability, SwiftUI improves multiple metrics of its apps, including both user and developer experience as well as developer economics.
• With this initiative, Apple may be able to combine its mobile apps and desktop apps into one merged store soon. And against the backdrop of the digital age, the ubiquity of smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, this would look like a brilliant strategy to increase Apple’s competitiveness against its archrival, the Android apps and the Google Play Store.

And here I am, an Apple focused cross-platform user, with an Apple watch, phone, pad, and macbook. What can I say. Can’t wait to play with a new toy to make new toys =) No complaint.

2. What have I learned about other journal users today?

Continue to look into journal users under the #journaling hashtag on Medium.

The featured journal user today is: Jackie Schwabe

> About Jackie

Had to look up “ICF PCC”, which means International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach. We share an interest in habits, empowerment, communication, leadership, and entrepreneurship! And all the love goes out to her child, her courage, and her energy for life.

> About Jackie’s journal

Discovered Jackie’s 30-Day Challenge to Start Journaling and Find Your Journaling Style in September 2019. It was published in the Medium publication of Practical Wisdom, where she shared a range of ideas on how to journal and their respective benefits. And she organised a 30-day event around this for Practical Mind Mastery Members in January 2020.

I would divide and summarise her ideas into the following 6 areas, and will go through each area in the next few days.

1. General benefits of journaling: Day 1, 13, 14, 29, and 30;
2. Specific ways of journaling > for productivity, planning, learning: Day 2, 3, and 18;
3. Specific ways of journaling > for imagination and creativity: Day 5, 24;
4. Specific ways of journaling > for regulating moods and emotions: Day 7, 12, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, and 25;
5. How to establish the journaling habit: Day 6, 15, 19, 20, 26, and 28;
6. Journaling tools and technologies: Day 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 27.

> Key ideas I learned from her today

• Jackie covered the general benefits of journaling on Day 1, 13, 14, 29, and 30. They include, productivity, clarity, focus, accountability, habit / progress tracking, achieving goals, mindfulness, mental health, a source of creativity, discovery, self-awareness, self-knowledge, personal growth, and wisdom.

Look forward to reading more from Jackie’s 30-day journaling challenge in the next few days.

3. What have I learned about journaling products / technologies today?

Continue to look into other journaling products / technologies today.

Featured journaling system today: Implementation systems for the popular book, Atomic Habit. This is a follow-up 21-day project after reviewing the Clear Habit Journal system on Day 35. It will end on Day 56.

> Featured ideas from the book > Chapter 2 on why habits are important

• “There are three levels of change: outcome change, process change, and identity change.” The best way to change habits is via the third kind. Because habits come from beliefs, and beliefs about ourselves come from our identities. Examples in the book go from the trivial of stopping nail biting, to the major of becoming a reader, a runner, and an artist.
• Changing habits is more about “continuously edit (our) beliefs, and to upgrade and expand (our) identity”. That makes changing habits both the most difficult and the most important.
• Yet our identity emerge from our habits. Our habits and actions are evidence to support our beliefs. So the feedback loop, or habit loop, is another key idea about how habits work, and what it takes to change them.
• These remind me of quotes with similar messages, “the unexamined life is not worth living”, and “to be, to do, to have”. How interesting we often need the same message said in the right way in the right time to get it.

“Behaviour that is incongruent with the self will not last.”

> Featured lessons from Habit Academy video course > Module 1 on how habits work / the process of habits

• The videos today covered topics about how habits worked, including the trigger-action-reward model, especially the Fogg model of habit change.

> Using the Clear Habit Journal for my own habit change

• As mentioned, this will not be shared immediately in order to avoid conflating the extraordinary power of sharing and accountability on any behavioural change.
• This project focuses on assessing the effectiveness of the Clear Habit Journal and the companion video course as implementation tools for the book Atomic Habits.
• Today, I did use the Clear Habit Journal to complete an exercise from the video lessons, although I could have used any other notebook for this.

With many of our habits and routines likely turned upside down during COVID, re-read Atomic Habits with me in the next few days, and see how you may implement the ideas for your own benefits.

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