Now

Killing WhatsApp until noon

Just published a piece on it. Starting today: WhatsApp stays off from midnight to 12pm, every day. Mornings go to family, the gym, and proactive work on Bingo — not reactive firefighting. Here's the why.

Day 1 is today. Publishing it partly to hold myself to it.

Building — slowing down to ship

March and April were ship months. Nine sites moved or are about to:

• Machintosh — fresh online home for Kent's three CelcomDigi phone shops in KK, with a product catalog that always pulls the latest. → preview
• ZEAL — full rebuild for a Sabah cleaning and pest control company on a new domain (the old one got squatted while no one was watching). → zealserviceindustry.com
• HelloSabah — Sabah's local guides and directory site, cleared all 10 amendments from Sabah Tourism Board. → hellosabah.com
• Jesselton Point — full site refresh for KK's ferry terminal and island getaways operator. → preview
• Platinum Dental — new site for the multi-branch dental chain. Easier booking, cleaner branch info. → preview
• EasySolar — solar installer site with a built-in quote calculator and full project portfolio. → preview
• Procraft — print and signage shop's new portfolio site. → preview
• The Big G — KK event management company with full service breakdown and venue guides. → preview
• OGSE Sabah — Sabah's oil and gas industry conference. Speaker lineup and matchmaking updates for the June 2026 event. → ogsesabah.com

(Five of these flip from preview to real domains in the next day or two.)

Three more clients shipping major work that isn't a fresh launch:

• Cincupearl — pearl jewellery e-commerce. Custom B2B/B2C wholesale tier system shipped, plus a shipping credit system and a mega menu rebuild for 13 product categories. Also cleared a malware infection that had silently been breaking their Google Ads tracking for months. → cincupearl.com
• The Sabah government — internal reporting system. Fixed form-save failures and deployed 6 of 11 build steps on-site. Behind-firewall work, no public link.
• JH Bersatu — Google Ads management for a 4-branch tyre and workshop chain in KK. Rebuilt their ad account this quarter — clicks up 13%, impressions up 27%, while spending RM107 less than the previous month.

Now: finishing what's left, not starting anything new. The boring discipline.

Going AI-native, properly

Two months deeper into Claude as a real co-pilot. The output of one disciplined session is starting to match what used to take a week of meetings.

Built recently: a self-submission link building system for Bingo, a 3-year accounting database that's queryable in seconds, and a custom admin dashboard for Machintosh. Mother's Day campaign for Happy Florist — products, promo messages, paid ads — all set up in a single morning.

Every morning Claude now pulls up a custom briefing — overdue tasks, blockers, comments waiting on me — so I'm not hunting for what matters. That alone has saved hours every week.

The flip side: the team's leaner now, focused around what only people can do. Smaller team, faster output. The math finally works.

Looking for real problems

Quietly noticed something in April: I keep building things I find fun — this blog you're reading is one, pure creative outlet — instead of things that solve actual problems for actual people.

The bar I want to clock against now: how many people did this help, how many hours did it save? That's a different muscle than the one I've been using.

Looking for it.

Long-term plays: SabahGuide + Bagasi

Both moving. Bagasi has crossed 300 pages — state hubs, country guides, hotel pillars, ticket pages. SabahGuide is also past 300 pages: a 9-page Kaamatan hub shipped in time for the festival, and the Pink Bus article (covering KK's iconic bright pink buses) has been a hit.

Slow builds. That's the whole point.

Trying to fix

Finishing what's started. I still bounce between projects. The lesson I keep relearning: focus on one thing until it ships, then ride the next one to the line. The WhatsApp rule is partly aimed at this — protect morning hours, the deep work actually happens.

April's harder lesson: "done" isn't "done" until verified. Got burned twice reporting work as shipped when it actually wasn't. New rule: check, then declare.

Family

The part I'm most proud of. The kids walk to the padang on their own now — no parents hovering. They've made local Malay friends and are forcing themselves to speak Bahasa Malaysia for real, not just classroom-style. And spending time with them lately has stopped feeling like a duty. I actually enjoy it.

March and April had a lot of good — family weddings, birthdays, a camping trip. More of these. Less WhatsApp.