I want to set it up now and start it next week
The moment you think of something is rarely the moment to begin it. A reminder can be set up now and stay silent until the day you actually meant.
The short answer
Set the reminder now and give it a Start on date. Nothing arrives until that day, so you can capture the intention on Tuesday and have it begin on Saturday. The part worth knowing is what happens afterwards: once you log it, the next reminder counts from when you actually did it, not from the calendar. Do it on Sunday instead of Saturday and the next one comes the following Sunday, so the app never nags you about something you have just done.
A small setup
- 1
Add the counter when you think of it
Do not wait for the right day. The point is to capture it while the intention exists.
- 2
Add a repeating reminder
Choose the cadence you actually want, such as every one week, rather than the one that sounds impressive.
- 3
Set Start on to the first real day
That is the day the first reminder arrives. Nothing happens before it, so the setup costs you no interruptions.
- 4
Log it when you do it, even if that is the wrong day
The next reminder counts from your log rather than the calendar, so doing it a day late quietly moves the schedule instead of putting you behind.
The situation
The moment an intention arrives is almost never the moment to act on it. Without a way to defer the start, you either set it up and get an immediate reminder you will dismiss, or you tell yourself you will do it later and forget.
What gets difficult
A reminder that fires at the wrong time gets dismissed, and a dismissed reminder trains you to dismiss the next one. The habit never gets a clean first day.
How TimeSince helps
A reminder's Start on date is the day the first one arrives. You capture the intention while you have it, and the app stays quiet until the day you chose.
The request on the feedback board has a specific example in it, which is what makes it worth a page:
I'd like to start a habit to "wash the leash" every Saturday, but today is Tuesday. It would be helpful if I could set it up now while I'm thinking of it, choose Saturday as the "Start On" date, and have the reminder begin then.
That is the real shape of the problem. The moment an intention shows up is almost never the moment to act on it, and the gap between the two is where intentions die.
What Start on does
It sets the day the first reminder arrives. On a Tuesday you can choose a weekly cadence, set Start on to Saturday, and the app stays completely quiet until then. On Saturday the reminder arrives, and after that it repeats weekly.
So the setup costs you nothing in the meantime. No reminder to dismiss on the day you were only planning.
The part that is easy to miss
Here is the behaviour worth knowing, in the developer's own words:
once you log it, the next reminder counts from when you actually did it, not from the calendar. If you wash the leash on Sunday instead, the next reminder comes the following Sunday rather than Saturday. That way the app never nags you about something you've just done.
This is the whole philosophy applied to reminders. A calendar-based reminder would fire every Saturday whether or not you did it on Sunday, which means being a day late puts you permanently behind a schedule you did not choose. Counting from your last log instead means the schedule bends to match you.
It is the same reason there are no streaks: the measurement follows what you did, rather than what you were supposed to do.
What it does not do
Start on moves the reminder, not the counter. The counter measures time since your first log, so it begins when you actually do the thing — which is correct, because a counter that started on a day you did nothing would be counting the wrong interval from the first moment.
And a reminder is still only a nudge. It arrives saying the thing is there whenever you have a free moment. If you want it to be harder to ignore than that, logging from a widget or a tag does more than a louder notification would.
What TimeSince helps with
- Captures an intention without acting on it immediately
- Keeps the app silent until the day you actually meant
- Shifts future reminders to when you really did it, not the calendar
What TimeSince will not fix
- The counter itself still starts from your first log, not the date
- It will not stop you dismissing a reminder once it does arrive
- A reminder is a nudge, not a lock or a commitment device
Explore the feature: Reminders & alarms
Frequently asked questions
What exactly does Start on control?+
The day the first reminder arrives. Set a weekly reminder on a Tuesday with Start on set to Saturday and nothing happens until Saturday, after which it repeats weekly.
If I do it a day late, does the schedule slip permanently?+
It moves to match you. Once you log, the next reminder counts from when you actually did it rather than the original calendar day, so doing it on Sunday means the next reminder is the following Sunday.
Does the counter start on that date too?+
No. The counter measures time since your first log, so it starts when you actually do the thing. Start on affects the reminder, not the count.
What this is based on
- Start On date and time, request and reply — TimeSince feedback board
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