the worry jar

a small, quiet jar for what's heavy

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May 13, 2026 launched the worry jar — a small iOS app for setting things down

After a few months of evenings, I shipped the worry jar to the App Store last week.

It's a one-screen iOS app for setting down something heavy. You tap a glass jar, drop in a worry as a soft glowing firefly, and when you're ready, you let it go — it floats up and becomes a star in your night sky. The text disappears. The star stays.

The whole thing is privacy-first by design. No account, no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no cloud. Apple's App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected." If you delete the app, all your data is gone with it.

It explicitly resists wellness-app patterns I've grown tired of: no streaks, no gamification, no notification storms, no sharing, no social loops. One screen, one ritual, finished.

Tech: SwiftUI + SwiftData + WidgetKit. iOS 17+. No third-party dependencies. Custom path-based moon that actually computes the real lunar synodic phase. Custom jar shape, fireflies that wander on a Lissajous, a sky full of slowly twinkling stars. The brand soul was "calm over engagement" — every design decision got measured against that.

I'm at the very early days — 4 installs so far, mostly people I know. I'd love thoughts from anyone who's shipped something quiet in a category that wants you to shout.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-worry-jar/id6767879136

Site: https://dmaulikr.github.io/worryjar-site/

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Wellness apps kept making me more anxious than whatever I downloaded them to help with. I wanted the opposite — a small, private jar for what's heavy. One screen, no account, nothing leaves the device.