Regina woman creates mood tracking app inspired by bullet journaling

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“I was a lot more artistic when I was a kid. So it’s been really nice to kind of combine these two passions of mine into one thing,” said Sawatzky, who also works for SaskTel.

Through using the app herself and tracking her activities, Sawatzky has discovered new ways to lift her spirits if she’s feeling down.

“I’m kind of your stereotypical software engineer. I like to be indoors, I’m not super social. But through tracking my activities, I found that a lot of times on my greatest days I went outside, so it was kind of like this big light bulb moment where I was like, ‘You need to go outside more because it makes you really happy,’” said Sawatzky.

Beautiful Mood has already earned Sawatzky attention in the local technology scene. She took part in program for technology startups at a business incubator in the city called Cultivator. The program culminated in a pitch competition, where Sawatzky was chosen as a finalist out of 13 companies.

The experience was both intimidating and validating for Sawatzky, who was working alongside other companies with multiple employees. Sawatzky has built the app entirely herself.

Sawatzky’s next step is thinking about ways to monetize Beautiful Mood. She said it could potentially involve partnering with mental health apps or charging a subscription fee.

When it comes to the data of her app’s users, Sawatzky can only see what country they are from. All the information they put into their journal is only stored on their device.

So far Beautiful Mood has been downloaded approximately 800 times, which Sawatzky feels good about since she has yet to do any marketing for the app.

Sawatzky hopes Beautiful Mood can help users better understand themselves, and maybe get them through a tough time.

“It’s just kind of cool to have this log of what your life was like and to see sometimes when you have bad days, but this has happened before and you can get through it and you’ll be fine when it’s all over,” said Sawatzky.

Beautiful Mood is available to download on the Apple App store and Google Play store.

mmelnychuk@postmedia.com