I have reflected a bit recently on what is a good project. How do you define it? Is there such thing as too small?

I felt that maybe some I have tackled don't deserve to be "advertised" or shown in any way because they aren't "worth" it. They are too specific, too small.

Then, I had an epiphany. I got enlightened.

Those small project are actually the most valuable, the most important ones.

They are those I use everyday, the automation that I don't think about but make life more enjoyable.

Software tools don't have to be big. Don't have to be complicated. They need to do the job that you set them to. That's what make them good projects, that what makes them valuable.

Let me share about 4 of them :

HK Commute

It is a tool that I made for my partner to simplify knowing when are the next buses / metro to go to the office, or come back from there. Nothing fancy, a single page.

But every morning, that page gets checked and instantly gives an overview of when buses will be around.

The alternative, using the transportation app and taping through multiple screens every time, to not only get the next bus, more interestingly the one in 20 or 30 minutes. The one that you intend to take.

Plus with a single page, it can get refreshed instantly to get the latest updates.

CSL Consumption

Maybe the simplest of all. I use a CSL prepaid card as my mobile phone / data provider. The annoying part is to check the balance. What is left on it. There is a website (that I don't remember the link for and require access via username/password (that I don't know without looking it up).

So, to help me quickly check when I need to, I build a simple script to scrap the page of that website when I need and present me with the information. No link, no username, no password, a simple bookmark on my phone and I have the direct answer.

Whatshoes.run

https://whatshoes.run

Getting notified to update my shoes after a run.

I overbuilt it into a full web application. But at its core, it didn't need to be. Only a couple of components are really required :

• Observe my Strava account for new activities
• Send a notification with a link to a page to update the activity

Everything I added on top of that wasn't really required for a personal use.

Podyt

https://podyt.wow-podcast.com

I overbuilt it into a full web application. But at its core, it didn't need to be. Only a couple of components are really required :

• Observing the youtube playlist for new additions
• Downloading the videos and converting to mp3 files
• Updating an RSS feed accordingly

And I use it everyday to "watch" YouTube videos that don't have a strong visual component.

Email filtering

This one runs completely in the background. No user interface, if I didn't set it up, I wouldn't know it exists.

It is a simple script that observes some of my mailboxes and perform actions I defined. Mostly, getting rid of emails that I don't consider interesting.

Those are:

• Spam, that I can set to be deleted "on arrival".
• Newsletters and other transaction emails that I set up to be removed after a couple of days. It leaves me time to read them if I want, but delete them if I don't care about them. I would have read them before the "deadline" if I thought they could be interesting.

I could be prouder of bigger endeavors I have had, but those small ones, those small pieces are the ones that really make a difference to me everyday. And they deserve some attention.

Simple tools, simple value proposition, outstanding benefits.