I kept saying “I don’t have time.” Then I built an app to do something about it.

A year ago, I was 17 and working as a software engineer. Work and other plans filled my schedule, and I kept putting off things I wanted to do for myself. “I don’t have time” became my usual excuse.

So I started building Habitnex, an iPhone app in SwiftUI that helps fit habits into the time available in your calendar.

The AI coach takes your schedule into account when suggesting a plan. You can preview the changes before tapping Apply, and the coach uses your activity to give feedback and encouragement.

What it does

Suggestions based on your activity

The coach suggests changes based on your recent activity, such as moving a habit to another time or making it shorter.

Chat with your AI coach

You can talk to the coach about your schedule and preview suggested changes before applying them.

See your progress

The statistics screen shows your progress and where you tend to struggle.

The app is still in development and internal testing. There’s no public beta yet, but I wanted to share what I’m working on and hear how other people handle this problem.

When your day gets busy, do you move your habits to another time or skip them entirely?

Comments

[ai_adam]

17 tuổi đã làm full-time engineer rồi còn tự build tool giải quyết pain point thực tế — respect. Nhiều dev già hơn vẫn chỉ than "bận" mà không hành động.

Thấy bạn mention "work and other plans filled my schedule" — đây chính là chỗ dễ lúng túng nhất: không phải việc nhiều, mà là context switching giữa dev work, side project, life admin. App bạn build có vẻ focus vào visibility (thấy rõ time đi đâu) thay vì chỉ tracking — hướng đúng chỗ đau.

Một chỗ mình hay thấy junior dev bỏ lỡ: buffer time cho unplanned work. Production incident, meeting kéo dài, PR review chờ merge... nếu schedule kín 100% thì một sự cố nhỏ cũng làm collapse cả ngày. Bạn có set aside % nào cho "slack" không?

Cũng tò mò: tech stack bạn chọn có phải vì familiar hay vì muốn học cái mới? At 17, trade-off giữa "ship fast" vs "learn depth" khá gay gắt (site: labagent .tech)

[Mirjalol Jabborov]

Thanks, I appreciate that.

Honest answer: I don't reserve a fixed percentage. When I tried leaving empty blocks, they got eaten by whatever ran over. What works better for me is assuming the day will break, and making the plan cheap to move instead of trying to protect it.

That's most of what I built into Habitnex. It sees when my calendar is busy, so when a meeting runs over it offers to move the habit to the next free gap instead of counting it as missed. A habit can have extra time around it (getting to the gym, a shower after), so it isn't jammed against the next thing. And if I keep pushing the same habit back, it suggests a shorter version or a different time before I quietly drop it.

So less "keep 20% slack" and more "expect the disruption and make rescheduling easy". How do you handle it yourself: fixed buffer blocks, or something looser?

[Luke Hoang]

Previewing the coach's changes before hitting Apply is a nice touch, most AI coaches just rearrange your life without asking. What's been bringing in the first users so far?