18 Months

I have let the ball go a bit! This month I have been so tied up with work that I have been unable to keep on the ball.
Not an issue; let’s pick up where I left off.
Quick summary; we created the educational app, rolled it out. Albeit with a number of improvements needed. But It’s time to work on the next application
Okay it is 20 days into Nov and I have a slight idea; an api.
I want to set up an api which will allow people to hit my endpoints and retrieve data.

What data will this be?
Just off the top of my head; I’m thinking about a Grime api; a source of all things grime. Why, well this is a niche field and one where there is not a lot of organised info. With the resurgence of Grime; this could be a cool project to keep me interested and document the origins of this culture.

Why an api?
I think the language of the web/digital world is developing to be something more than what humans understand. With the wide adoption of AI; people will begin to create applications faster than ever before and these will mainly be built with the use of AI. Now AI does understand a body of text; that is not an issue. But to make the job easier; data needs to be put into a format that ai can churn through. For this; I am going on a whim and saying that api’s will be the language of choice for ai. It is clean; essentially you get what you want; you target a specific endpoint and are met with the data you asked for..

So that is what we are going to make for our Nov project.
Where will we store this data? How will people be able to get the data? What methods are we going to put in place to ensure that limits are met?

Smooth; I’m liking the sound of this…

Over the last few days I have been developing and deploying a new education app: Sandwich Class [https://www.sandwichclass.co.uk]. The concept is to address all of the things that my Daufghter's school required us to do at home:

• Reading monitoring via an online journal
• Phonics; via an online speaking app and exercies tool

There are a few add on's I'm working on including a mentoring tool, a profile page, settings and even an authentication piece handled by Supabase.
I am enjoying it and the process of launching was cool too. Setting up Google Analytics, MS Clarity and Cookie integration.
But now we are live, what now? Do I just picot onto something else or do I spend more time getting it off the ground?
If I was to think of it as a child, the best thing would be to get it to a point where we were starting to generate traffic and continue to build on top of it.
But to be honest I don't want to spend too much time on one thing; I would like to launch then move onto the next. Well there is no harm in doing both, as long as there is enough documentation and the code is in a good palce; I can always come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes further down the road.
The key is to SHIP fast and frequent. Do stuff that excites me; get into the flow of delivering good platforms across a variety of areas.
Also went for a walk this evening and guess what I saw randomly... Not random but; it was good to see.
And a figure we can work towards.

Over the last week my mind has been all over the place, I've started numerous posts only to let the days run away from me.

I have thought about new ideas which hedge led me to abandon my initial plan. It is clear to see that this is going to be a personal battle. I'm going to have to fight myself in order to make sure I stay focused on one line of thought.

At the end of the day one project per month is a good enough shipping run. But that goes down the drain if nothing gets shipped.
Shipping; that takes me back to Seth Godin. His ethos is ship often and ship quality.

I need to get into a daily routine that allows me to add value each and every day.

Early mornings, late nights, documentation, capture the journey, etc...

Welcome to project 18; this is a personal challenge to myself; a means of seeing what I am really made of.

• How resilient am I?
• How do I cope with self imposed pressure?
• How far can I go?

I have given myself a window of 18 months to push the envelope and see what I can achieve within this window.

Welcome to my journal…

One of the goals I have is to be able to purchase this house by the end of the project:

In fact that is probably a good way to explain how we got here. We have been renting for the last 4 years and two years into our first tenancy; we were served notice. That whole experience was stressful and to top it off I somehow managed to lose my job during that time too. I resorted to cleaning a hospital overnight to make ends meet. Not that I am complaining but it was quite a fall from my previous role of a head of IT department for a healthcare company.

Following that chapter I managed to secure a new role and ended up moving; great a time for some peace… But this was disrupted after another year when my contract came to an end. This time I was out of work for a bit longer but was able to burn through the savings I had accumulated. Not to worry; we go again. When I did manage to secure a new role; I was given 6 months before my new landlord came and said he was serving us notice [are you starting to see a pattern here too?].

This time I pushed back and let them know; it wasn't feasible for a us to be given 2 months notice with a move out date just before xmas; my son's first xmas might I add. All this moving is not helpful for myself let alone my partner or my kids… Come on…

Now they have come back and said they would like to extend the contract for 18 months.

Hence project 18 months.

If what I know about myself is true then I need a carrot; a motivator, something to keep me going. Without that, I feel I am just floating through this race. That is not feasible; not now…

Will we complete this project? Will we be able to buy/ get my home?

Well as I sit here at my computer desk at 23:44 Fri 10th Oct 2025; I honestly do not know but what I do know is that a change is needed and I need to find a way to keep myself accountable to my future self.