Energy tracking for better daily decisions

Context

I build my own products alongside client work. Daygrain started from a simple observation: mood and energy swings were hard to explain in hindsight, and generic wellness apps either over-scored everything or buried the signal in charts. The goal was a calm daily log that connects how you feel with sleep, activity, and patterns over weeks, without turning life into a gamified streak.

Challenge

Solo product work forces trade-offs every week. The interface had to feel trustworthy on a dark, minimal canvas while staying fast to log, one tap for mood, optional notes, and a year-at-a-glance view that actually helps reflection. Apple Health integration needed to add context without making the app feel like a dashboard clone.

My role

I own product direction, UX, visual design, and the public build narrative. Decisions are made the same way I advise founders: ship the smallest honest version, learn from real usage, document what failed, and resist feature sprawl until the core loop is solid.

What I built

• Daily energy and mood logging with a year overview, patterns visible without opening analytics rabbit holes.
• Apple Health hooks for sleep and activity context, surfaced only when they clarify the day, not as default noise.
• Dark, forest-green visual system aligned with the brand on site, PixelBlast background is the same language as the product band on petermarc.com.
• Building in public on X: real product calls, scope cuts, and TestFlight → App Store milestones documented as they happen.

Where it stands

Live on the App Store, iterated in public. Daygrain is not positioned as a case study for hire, it is evidence that I sit on the founders' side of the table: shipping under constraint, making product calls without a large team, and staying honest when something does not land.