Track the days since you started your side project

Most side projects don’t die from a lack of ideas. They fade quietly, one skipped week at a time, until you can’t remember when you last touched them. A count-up that shows the days since you started turns that slow fade into something you can see, and seeing it is half the battle.

TL;DR

Start a count-up on the day you began (or backdate it to your real start), put it on your home screen, and check it whenever momentum dips. The growing number reframes a stalled project as a living one, and small streak-style rituals keep you shipping.

Why a count-up fits side projects

Side projects live in the cracks of a normal week. There’s no boss, no deadline, no one asking for a status update. That freedom is the whole appeal, and also the reason projects stall. A count-up gives you the one thing the project is missing: a visible signal that time is passing and the work is yours to move.

Two numbers actually matter for a side project:

Days since you started. This is your commitment clock. A project you started 240 days ago has weight, and abandoning it feels different than dropping something you began last Tuesday.
Days since you last shipped something. This is your momentum clock, and it’s the one that tells the truth. You can track both as separate events.

The number does the nagging for you

When your project lives only in your head, “I’ll get to it” is frictionless and free. A count-up on your home screen makes the gap visible instead. Seeing “Day 96” reminds you that you’ve already invested three months, and you’re unlikely to throw that away over one slow weekend. We wrote more about why this works in the psychology of countdowns, and the short version is that visible progress turns out to be its own reward.

How to set it up

1. Pick your Day 1

Use the date you actually started: first commit, first sketch, the night you registered the domain. If you’re not sure, pick the earliest honest date. In Day Counter you can edit the date anytime, so an approximate start is fine to begin with.

2. Create a count-up event

Tap +, choose Count up from a date, and name it plainly: “Side project,” the project’s name, or “Building [thing].” Add an emoji or a photo of what you’re making so the event feels like the project, not an abstract number.

3. Add a second event for momentum (optional)

If you tend to disappear for weeks at a stretch, create a second event called “Days since I last shipped.” Reset it each time you push code, publish a post, or send something to a user. Day Counter supports unlimited events, so both clocks can sit side by side.

4. Put it on your home screen

The single-event widget is free, and this is where it earns its keep. On iOS, long-press the home screen, tap +, search “Day Counter,” and pick a size. On Android, long-press, choose Widgets, and drag it on. Now the day count greets you every time you unlock your phone, with no app to open.

5. Set one reminder

A single weekly nudge beats guilt-driven bursts. Set a per-event reminder for a time you might realistically work, a Sunday morning or a weeknight, with a message like “Day N, ship one small thing.” The goal isn’t a marathon session. It’s a touch.

Turn the number into a habit

A count-up alone won’t finish your project. What it does is lower the cost of showing up, and showing up is the whole game for side work. A few ways to use it:

Protect the momentum clock. If your only rule is that the “days since I shipped” number never crosses seven, you’ve built a gentle weekly cadence without a rigid schedule.
Batch tiny wins. A shipped thing can be a paragraph, a bug fix, or a single design tweak. Small counts still count.
Review at round numbers. At day 30, 90, and 180, look back at what the project actually became. Momentum is easier to sustain when you can see the distance traveled.

If you want a firmer structure than an open-ended count, a fixed sprint can help. Our guide to running a 100-day challenge works well for a focused push toward a specific feature or launch, and the habit streak approach is a good fit if you want a daily rather than weekly rhythm.

A quick example

Say you started a small app in March. You backdate a count-up to March 3 and it reads “Day 123.” You add a second event, “Days since last release,” and reset it whenever you ship. For a few weeks the release clock creeps up to 5, then 6, and that rising number is the thing that gets you to open the editor on a Sunday night and push a fix. The commitment clock keeps climbing the whole time, a quiet reminder that this isn’t a whim. It’s something you’ve been building for four months.

That’s the loop. One number for how far you’ve come, one for how recently you moved, both visible without opening an app.

FAQ

Should I count up from the start or down to a launch? Both, if it helps. A count-up captures the commitment you’ve built, and a countdown to a launch date adds urgency. Day Counter supports count up and countdown modes, so you can run one of each.

What if I take a long break from the project? The number keeps climbing, and that’s the point. When you come back, the count since your start reminds you the work is still yours. Just reset your “days since I shipped” clock and take one small step.

Can I track more than one side project? Yes. Day Counter allows unlimited events, so each project can have its own count-up, emoji, and reminder without crowding the others.