The latest articles on DEV Community by Melonix (@melonix). https://dev.to/melonix https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3922954%2F2099d6f5-42f8-44e9-ad66-9ece30aaaf85.png https://dev.to/melonix en Melonix Sun, 10 May 2026 07:25:25 +0000 https://dev.to/melonix/my-standup-answers-used-to-be-terrible-so-i-built-a-tool-to-fix-that-55f6 https://dev.to/melonix/my-standup-answers-used-to-be-terrible-so-i-built-a-tool-to-fix-that-55f6 <p>Every Monday I'd sit down for our team sync and draw a blank.</p> <p>What did I actually work on last week? How many hours did I put in? Was I in flow or just firefighting?</p> <p>I had no good answer. Tasks were scattered, time was untracked, and my overtime was invisible — even to me.</p> <h2> The problem with existing tools </h2> <p>I tried a few things. Project boards were too heavy — built for teams, not solo devs. Timer apps were too simple — just a countdown with no context. Notes apps didn't connect to tasks at all.</p> <p>I didn't want another subscription stack. I wanted one place that understood how a developer actually thinks during a workday.</p> <p>So I built it myself.</p> <h2> What I ended up building </h2> <p><a href="https://melonix.app" rel="noopener noreferrer">Melonix</a> is a personal developer workspace with four core pieces:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Kanban boards</strong> — to track what I'm actually working on day to day, separate from whatever the company board says</li> <li> <strong>Time tracking with overtime visibility</strong> — so I know exactly where my hours go each week</li> <li> <strong>Built-in focus timer</strong> — Pomodoro style, no separate app needed</li> <li> <strong>Code snippets and notes</strong> — kept close to the work, not in a separate tool</li> </ul> <h2> The hard parts (that nobody talks about) </h2> <h3> Keeping it minimal under pressure </h3> <p>Every tool I'd used before eventually became clutter. Features accumulate. UI gets heavy. The goal with Melonix was one tab, no noise. But minimal is harder to build than full-featured — every addition has to earn its place.</p> <h3> Pomodoro state that survives browser refreshes </h3> <p>This sounds trivial but isn't. If you start a focus session and accidentally close the tab, your timer is gone. Getting state to persist accurately between sessions — without feeling laggy or out of sync — took more fine-tuning than I expected.</p> <h3> Syntax highlighting without bloating the bundle </h3> <p>Supporting multiple languages in the snippet editor required a lightweight but extensible approach. Full editor libraries were overkill. Finding the right balance between functionality and load time was a real constraint.</p> <h3> Overtime visibility that's actually useful </h3> <p>Tracking hours is easy. Showing <em>meaningful</em> overtime context — this week vs last week, where the extra time went — required thinking carefully about how data is structured and displayed without overwhelming the UI.</p> <h2> Six months later </h2> <p>I've been using Melonix as my daily driver ever since. My standup answers are better. My overtime is visible. My snippets are actually where I need them.</p> <p>It's not a startup pitch. It's a tool I built to survive my own workday — and it turned out to be genuinely useful.</p> <p>The free tier is fully functional for solo devs. If you've struggled with the same standup problem, give it a try and let me know what's missing.</p> <p>👉 <a href="https://melonix.app" rel="noopener noreferrer">melonix.app</a></p> <p><em>What does your personal dev workspace look like? Do you track tasks separately from your company board — or just wing it?</em></p> webdev productivity buildinpublic typescript