Apps, Games and Books at Once: Juggling Different Product Types

This morning: fix the ad reward in the game. After lunch: write chapter 7 of the dog-training book. Before dinner: the store listing for the tip app. Tonight: a bug in the browser extension.

Each one makes sense on its own. Together, your head is holding four different kinds of work, each with its own steps, tools and vocabulary.

Part 5 of Busy, Not Shipping — why mixed products feel twice as busy, and how to calm them down.

The short answer#

• Different product types — apps, games, books, extensions — move through different steps, so one generic to-do list fits none of them.
• Give each product type its own fixed list of phases and reuse it for every product of that type.
• Group products by type so you see like with like: all books together, all apps together.
• Plan the day by type: batch similar steps (all store listings, all covers) instead of switching types every hour.

Different products, different roads#

An app goes idea → spec → build → test → store listing → release. A book goes niche → outline → draft → edit → cover → publish. A game has prototypes and core loops; an extension has manifests and review queues.

A single to-do list flattens all of that. "Chapter 7", "ads SDK" and "privacy policy" sit side by side with no sense of where each product is on its own road. So every time you look at the list, you rebuild the roads in your head. That's where the tiredness comes from — the same cost as context switching between projects, multiplied by the number of product types.

One phase list per product type#

Write the road down, once per type, and reuse it:

APP     1 Idea · 2 Spec · 3 Build · 4 Test · 5 Listing · 6 Release
BOOK    1 Niche · 2 Outline · 3 Draft · 4 Edit · 5 Cover · … · 9 Publish
GAME    1 Concept · 2 Prototype · 3 Core loop · … · 14 Launch

Now "Phase 5/6" on an app and "Phase 5/9" on a book each mean something specific, and you never rebuild the road again. The full argument is in phases, not to-do lists.

Group by type, see like with like#

Keep products of the same type together — one board per type, or one repo per type holding many products, as in one repo, many products. When all your books are on one board, you can compare them at a glance: which is closest to publishing, which is stuck on a cover.

Batch similar steps#

The biggest daily win: batch by step, not by product. If three products need store listings, do all three in one block. If two books need cover briefs, write both together. Your head stays in one mode, your prompts repeat, and the agent reuses the same context.

Switching product types is fine — just do it between blocks, not every hour.

Keep reading#

• Context Switching Between Too Many AI Projects Kills Your Day
• Phases, Not To-Do Lists: Project Management for Solo Devs
• One Repo, Many Products: Versioning Without Copying Folders