Days Since

Introduction & Research Relevance

Days Since is a mobile app designed to help individuals track and reflect on everyday events, inspired by research on habit formation, self-regulation, and metacognition. It is a lightweight tool for temporal awareness and habit reflection. By surfacing temporal salience – how long it has been since a given activity – the app fosters self-awareness and supports intentional behavior change. The design aligns with themes of augmenting cognition and adaptive feedback, positioning Days Since as a practical example into how lightweight digital tools can scaffold reflection and self-regulation.

Impact

Originally conceived during the Covid-19 pandemic to counter temporal disorientation by tracking the days since testing positive for Covid and starting quarantine, Days Since has since grown organically to a community of ~30,000 users worldwide. Its adoption underscores the universal need for accessible tools that support memory, reflection, and routine formation.

Core Features

• Event Tracking & Categorization: Users log personal events (e.g., last haircut, workout, or social call) across customizable categories.
• Zero-Friction Capture: Designed to minimize cognitive load, adding or updating events takes only seconds.
• Reminders & Notifications: Gentle cues promote adherence to recurring habits without being intrusive.
• Reflective Widgets: Home and lock screen visualizations surface temporal patterns in real time, reinforcing awareness through passive reflection.
• Customization: Flexible design enables users to tailor categories and reminders to their personal goals.

Scientific Relevance

By encouraging users to externalize temporal memory, Days Since functions as a metacognitive aid, supporting:

• Metacognition & Reflection: making implicit routines explicit.
• Habit Adherence: reinforcing consistency via salient temporal cues.
• Self-Regulation: supporting autonomy through lightweight reminders.
• Behavioral Insight: enabling users to recognize patterns in their daily life.

Research Alignment & Broader Vision

• Fluid Interfaces: The app embodies reflection-centered design, externalizing memory and enhancing metacognition through intuitive interfaces.
• Multisensory Intelligence: Widgets and reminders provide salient, ambient cues, hinting at broader opportunities for multisensory feedback in self-regulation tools.
• Personal Robots: The app explores how technologies can scaffold behavior change and habit adherence, echoing research on human-supportive systems for self-regulation.

Days Since demonstrates my broader research interest in building adaptive technologies that bridge personal data, reflection, and behavior change. I aim to extend this work toward richer, multisensory, and interactive systems. Interfaces that not only track but actively support self-awareness and growth, aligning closely with the vision of human-centered, adaptive intelligence.