Why I Built DoneAgo

It started with a fridge

I used habit trackers for years. The good ones, the popular ones and the ones with streaks and badges and satisfying little checkmarks. They worked actually worked... for a while.

The problem was not the apps. The problem was that not everything in my life fits a schedule.

One day I was cleaning my refrigerator. Halfway through I stopped and asked myself a question I could not answer. When did I last clean this? Was it two weeks ago? Three? And then a second question came up. I sometimes turn off the fridge when I need to defrost it. How long has it been off? Is it safe to put food back in?

No reminder app could answer that and no habit tracker was built for that. They are all asking the wrong question. They ask "did you do this today?" when what I actually needed to know was something different entirely.

That was the moment DoneAgo started.

Do habit trackers actually work for everything?

I am not here to say habit trackers are bad. They are genuinely useful for a specific kind of goal. Building a new routine, staying consistent or earning a streak.

But look at those habit tracker lists and tell me how it makes you feel. There is a reason it gives some people anxiety. It is a list of things you are supposed to do. Do this. Do that. Enter the exact amount of water you drank. Log how many steps you made this day. Maintain your streak or start over.

That only works when you are in the early phase of using the app. When the app is new and exciting and you are motivated to open it every day. The thing is entering data becomes a habit itself, and it is one most people quietly drop after a few weeks.

And for things that genuinely do not have a schedule? Habit trackers have no answer. The plants get watered when you remember. The fridge gets cleaned when it needs it, not when an app tells you to. Sure, you can configure a habit for every Monday, Wednesday, Friday or once a month. But what happens when you did it early? Or skipped a day? The schedule is now wrong and the app has no idea. It just keeps firing anyway.

Reminder apps are built for the future and habit trackers are built for consistency. But some things only make sense when you know the present.

A personal dashboard for your real life.

DoneAgo is not a list of habits you have to maintain. It is a dashboard of what actually matters in your daily life, showing you the current state of things and exactly how long they have been that way.

You create an item. Say, your workout. You add a tracker called Push-ups. You give it states: Done, Skipped, Rest Day. Tap once and it switches to Done and starts the timer. The app always knows the current state and how long it has been that way.

There's no logging. No writing notes, and no filling in details. Just tap once and move on.

And if you set a time threshold on a state, DoneAgo will automatically advance to the next one when that time expires. Water the plant and set it to auto-switch to Needs Water after 3 days. You do not have to remember to update it as the app handles that part.

Your most used items can also live on your home screen as widgets. See the current state and how long it has been right from your home screen. Tap a button on the widget and the state updates instantly, without opening the app at all.

It works for anything that has a state that changes over time. Fridge: On, Off. Medication: Taken, Missed. Plants: Watered, Dry. Car: Checked, Due. You define the states. You decide what matters.

The whole thing grew far beyond what I originally imagined. I built it to track simple things around the house. Then I started adding last time I cleaned my PC, last app update pushed, last time I reviewed my code. Things that do not fit any reminder or habit tracker but still matter to know.

Anyone who just wants to know when they last did something.

If you have tried habit trackers before and found yourself quietly abandoning them after a few weeks, DoneAgo might be what you were actually looking for. Not because habit trackers are bad, but because they were solving a different problem than the one you had.

DoneAgo is for anyone who just wants to know when they last did something without digging through their memory. Caregivers tracking medications and feeding schedules. Plant parents who cannot remember if they watered yesterday. People with ADHD or time blindness who need something concrete instead of a reminder that fires and gives no context. Anyone who has ever stood in front of the fridge wondering when they last cleaned it.

DoneAgo is an alternative to habit trackers for people who do not want to be pressured into action. It does not tell you what to do, it does not guilt you into maintaining a streak. It just informs you. What was the last state, when it changed and how long ago. What you do with that information is entirely up to you.

No streak to protect. No schedule to maintain. No guilt if you skip a day. Just the truth of what actually happened.

DoneAgo is an alternative to habit trackers.

It does not care about streaks. It will not punish you for missing a day. It does not have a score or a progress bar or a "you are on a 3 day streak, do not break it now" notification.

It is also not a reminder app. It does not assume you need to be told what to do or when to do it. There are optional notifications, but they work differently. You set a time threshold on a state, and when enough time has passed, DoneAgo lets you know. No urgency, no pressure. Just a quiet nudge that says this has been in this state for this long. What you do next is up to you.

It is a status dashboard. A quiet one. It just sits there showing you the truth, and lets you decide what to do with it.

DoneAgo vs reminder apps vs habit trackers

Why DoneAgo?

I am genuinely bad at naming things. So I asked myself what the app actually does and just used that as the name.

Done. Ago. How long ago was it done.

That is it. And honestly, no one else was using the name anyway.

Plue Studio