Avoid this one mistake while developing your mobile app

I share my experience of trying to code while battling a fever (and the surprising lessons I learned along the way) Spoiler: It didn’t go as planned! From making silly coding mistakes to realizing that simply pushing through a fever just wasn’t worth it... this video is a reminder that sometimes rest is the most productive thing you can do. But despite the struggle my app portfolio had its best revenue day ever… proving that progress doesn’t always come from constant hustle Apps by Adam Lyttle is the personal journey of an indie app developer, sharing valuable lessons and experiences to help fellow developers succeed in the competitive app market My channel is based on one simple premise: "A rising tide lifts all boats" — I share my experience, teach what I've learned and highlight the mistakes I've made along the way. Follow my journey here: Website: https://adamlyttleapps.com Twitter: https://x.com/adamlyttleapps Github: https://github.com/adamlyttleapps Instagram: https://instagram.com/adamlyttleapps TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@adamlyttleapps Substack: https://adamlyttleapps.substack.com This past week, I found myself in a less-than-ideal situation—coding with a fever. As an indie app developer, I’m used to pushing through challenges, but this was different. Wrapped up in blankets, trying to focus on my laptop, I quickly discovered that trying to write code while sick is like trying to navigate through a thick fog. My intuition and problem-solving skills were nowhere to be found, and the mistakes piled up fast. Despite the fog, I pushed on, driven by my need to keep the momentum going. My goal for the week was to document my journey with two new videos and make significant progress on my video editing app. The task at hand was to add a feature that would allow users to overlay captions with transitions and effects onto their videos. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, not when your brain is operating at half speed. As I stumbled through the code, creating more problems than solutions, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should have taken the day off. After all, it’s advice I often give to others: when your body needs rest, listen to it. Yet, there I was, ignoring my own advice, convinced that if I stopped, I’d lose all momentum. Then something unexpected happened. I opened App Store Connect and saw that I had just experienced the single best day of revenue in my app portfolio’s history—despite producing nothing of value that day. It was a revelation. Even if I had taken the day off, the revenue would have been the same. The only difference? I wouldn’t have felt so miserable. Reflecting on this, I realized just how flawed my mindset had become. I had built up this mental framework that constant forward momentum was necessary to avoid failure. But the reality is that rest is just as crucial as hard work. Pushing through exhaustion doesn’t always lead to progress—in fact, it often results in setbacks. The code I wrote during my fever was ultimately useless. I had to scrap it all and start over once I recovered. This experience reminded me of a principle I learned back in my days at the gym: muscle growth requires both exertion and recovery. You lift weights to the point of exhaustion, then you stop and let your muscles repair. This cycle of work and rest is far more effective than continuous strain, which only leads to injury and burnout. The same applies to coding—or any creative work, for that matter. So, what’s the takeaway here? If your body is telling you to rest, listen. Even as an indie developer with the pressure of self-driven deadlines, it’s essential to recognize that rest is productive too. It’s a hard lesson to internalize, especially when you’re driven by the fear that everything will stop if you do. But as my experience this week shows, sometimes the best thing you can do for your work is to step back and let yourself recover. Will I take this advice to heart next time? Honestly, probably not. But at least now I have a reminder to myself that the hustle isn’t everything. Rest is just as important as progress, and sometimes, it’s okay to pause.