For a few weeks now, I have been kicking around the idea for a straightforward app that will let me send "link reminders" to myself. Knowing that I had about 2 weeks off of work approaching, I decided to pull the trigger and start planning.
Enter Boomerang.link
The goal of the app is relatively simple: as I find articles, videos, and tweets that I enjoy/find useful, I want to save them for later. But the regular bookmarks feature built into browsers is not enough for me. They are practically a black hole to links. Never to be seen again. And that's the problem.
Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.
-- Zig Ziglar
Problem #1
Once you bookmark a link, it just sits there. Most people just build up a "collection" of bookmarks and do nothing with them. Never revisit them again. It is hard to learn information if you only ever see it/read it once.
I am especially bad about this. As I browse the internet, I often find loads of great articles (or even tweets) full of great words. Things I want to learn. Things that I want to embody. Things I want to remember. Most of the time I am not in the right mindset for that particular nugget of information. Sometimes I know it will be more applicable to me later down the road (like when growing/scaling a SaaS).
Solution #1
I should be able to save a link for later, but make the link remind me about itself later. Resurfacing the ideas or content I read once before. Brining them back into the forefront of my brain. Like a boomerang. I can throw it out into the universe, and eventually it will come back to me.
"Solve your own problems." That's what they say. So why not?
The time crunch
As my 2 weeks of vacation were approaching, I knew this would be a bit of a challenge for me. I have started and stopped many projects. I wanted this to be different. Knowing my own brain, I needed some extra help. I needed more accountability.
So I decided to create a call to action. I posted on Indie Hackers starting this project as a 2 week SaaS challenge. Inviting others to join me. Helping to keep me accountable and maybe even give them the motivation they needed to make progress on their project.
Strong turnout? Nope. Crickets. I did not get a single person who wanted to join me. Or at least enough people to see the post and want to join me. But that's alright.
I want to build in public more. Here is another chance. Sharing as I go.
Time to get to work.