Introducing School Morning Routine

I was running late and as I walked into the office a little after 9AM, I thought: "I am so tired, I bet I would be less tired if I'd just run a marathon."

It had been particularly chaotic morning getting all three kids ready for school. And the more I thought about it, the more it just didn’t make sense that mornings are so hard. Kids want to do the right thing (well, most of the time). So why are mornings so difficult?

So I decided to see if I could do some product hacking to make a solution. Inspired by Lean Startup, I tried running some product experiments. I made to-do lists using pen and paper. I made timers using the iPad timer function. I bought clip boards and little white boards and magnets.

It was actually a lot of fun.

Over about 10 product iterations, I started to figure out what was going wrong and how to fix it.

So I made this app. It's pretty simple, but it might just be the best thing I've ever made.

It's a to-do list, it's a timer and the kids love it so much they actually complain on the weekend when they don't get to use it.

Now our school mornings are relaxed and peaceful. We all start the day fresh and happy.

In a small, but very real way, this app has changed our lives. I'm releasing it on the App Store because I hope it will help other families as well.

We're also giving it away for free in February. So if you have an iPad, go to the app store, download it and give it a go. I think you're going to love it.

As always, if you have any thoughts about the app or parenting in general, reach out and let us know. We'd love to hear from you.