DEV Community

Cover image for How I Ship My Apps while having a full time job
Cathy Lai
Cathy Lai

Posted on

How I Ship My Apps while having a full time job

⏰I work before work.
Just one focused hour in the morning — that’s when I think of new ideas.
Then I ask ChatGPT how to make them happen. It saves me hours and keeps me moving.

☕ Weekend release rhythm.
Around lunchtime on weekends, I head to a coffee shop, finish testing, and do a release — just in time to show friends the new build that evening.

🧰 My toolkit.
I keep it light: coding on a MacBook Air, building with Expo + EAS, and testing through Xcode.
I use Cursor and ChatGPT daily — to brainstorm, debug, and even plan features.

Right now I’m experimenting with backend services like Supabase to learn how to sync data and scale simply.

🎥 Learning and staying inspired.
I watch YouTube dev channels every week — to see how others work and what tools they use.
It’s just as valuable as using AI, because sometimes I find a better way than I’d have thought of myself.

💡 The most crucial thing:
Keep something working all the time, even if it’s simple or “dumb” to start with.

Remove features if you have to — momentum matters more than perfection.

When you’re shipping and seeing progress, you feel like you’re winning — and that feeling keeps you going.

The worst thing is overbuilding, getting stuck, and losing interest.

Top comments (0)