Like many developers, I’ve had days where I felt overwhelmed by information and struggled with staying focused on learning or deep work. Instead of just complaining about it, I decided to build small tools to solve my own problems — and it’s been one of the most rewarding parts of my journey so far.
📰 DevStream: Daily Tech News Aggregator
I found myself jumping across multiple sites every day just to catch up on what’s happening in tech. So I built DevStream, a news aggregator powered by Next.js + Supabase, that pulls articles from:
👉 Dev.to | Hacker News | Medium | Reddit | HackerNoon
✨ Features so far:
Search articles by topic
Share to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Viewed links turn purple, so I don’t reread the same thing twice
It’s still a work in progress, but already saves me time and helps me stay updated without distraction.
⏱️ Study Timer & Tracker
The second challenge I faced was managing my focus sessions. I wanted a tool that would keep me accountable while also letting me reflect on how I spend my time. So I built a Focus Timer & Study Tracker using Laravel + TailwindCSS + MySQL.
✨ Features so far:
- Start, Pause, Stop, and Break controls
- Add session name, subject, and notes
- Track duration, breaks, and dates
- Edit or delete past sessions
It’s simple, but it keeps me consistent.
🌱 Why I’m Sharing This
These projects are still being developed, but I’m sharing them because I’ve learned something important:
👉 Sometimes the best developer projects come from scratching your own itch.
I didn’t set out to build the “next big thing.” I just wanted to make my daily life easier. And in the process, I picked up new skills, refined my workflow, and built tools that I actually use every single day.
🙌 Your Turn
I’d love to hear from you:
- How do you stay productive as a developer?
- What tools have you built (or wished existed) to make your workflow smoother?
If there’s one takeaway I can share, it’s this: Don’t wait for the perfect project idea. Start by solving your own challenges — chances are, other developers have the same struggles too.
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