Independent product / built solo
Pengu Focus.
A daily focus plan, a timer, and a Pengu to grow with.
- My role
- Sole engineer
- Working with
- Solo
- When
- 2026
The problem
A focus timer is trivial to build and almost impossible to make anyone keep using. The hard part is not counting down twenty-five minutes; it is giving someone a reason to open the app again tomorrow, and something to feel when they do. Most focus apps solve the timer and stop there.
What I built
My part
in the product.
Built and released alone.
- 01
An adaptive daily focus plan, so the app opens with something to do rather than an empty timer.
- 02
Single-focus and Pomodoro-style sessions.
- 03
Social focus rooms, so you can sit in a session alongside other people when you want the accountability.
- 04
A streak and reward loop: showing up earns fish, fish are spent in a shop on cosmetics for your Pengu.
- 05
Insights over your history — longest session, weekly activity, and the patterns in when you actually focus.
- 06
In-app purchases with restore, reminders, and progress synced to an account.
01 / a closer look
Start with
a daily plan.
The app opens with an adaptive daily focus plan, alongside single-focus and Pomodoro sessions. Sessions feed into streaks, cosmetic rewards and a history the user can look back on.
02 / a closer look
Focus
alongside people.
Optional social rooms provide company without chat or a leaderboard. The shared activity is focusing; the interface avoids introducing another conversation to follow.
03 / a closer look
Make Pengu
your own.
Focus sessions earn fish to spend on hats, body colours, eyes and auras. The shop previews cosmetics on the character before purchase; these rewards change its appearance, not the focus tools.
An original part of Pengu Focus
A little
personality.
The same Pengu character from the app, with its short greeting animation.
Decisions worth explaining
Why it works
this way.
The reward is cosmetic, not functional. Fish buy things that change how your Pengu looks and nothing that changes how the app works, so the loop cannot quietly turn into a paywall on focusing.
Social rooms are optional and passive. Focusing next to people is the accountability; there is no chat and no leaderboard, because both turn a focus app into another thing competing for your attention.
Tools used on this project
Expo / React Native / TypeScript / Convex / Clerk / RevenueCat / Reanimated / Skia
Next project
Shredder ↗︎
The original rider-matching app. Built and shipped solo.
← Back to this project in selected workSummer 2027 co-op · flexible term length