Hey HN, long time ago I came up with an idea that (by accident) helps with anxiety and procrastination.
I read somewhere that scientists managed to plant false memories into mices' minds.
I thought to myself as a joke "well, what if my whole life was actually planted inside my brain? I can only trust my today's self".
So I started referencing myself as Alexander #9,532/#9,533/etc (basically daysCountSinceBirth) when taking notes.
This is when magic happpened.
All of a sudden, I started treating other versions of me not as myself but rather as my best friends.
This meant two things:
1) I stopped being so hard on my past selves.
2) I dramatically reduced anxiety about today's actions. I only got 24h, I do what I can. It's up to future versions of me to figure things out.
So I made an app that treats every version of you as a separate person.
It's a mix of journaling/messenger app.
You can post on your page and you can send messages (text/voice/video/photo) to the past and to the future.
I actually made the first version in 2019 (with Rails on the backend) which I've been using ever since.
But I never released it publicly because I was uncomfortable with storing peoples deepest thoughts and secrets (even e2e encrypted).
So when I saw that in 2025 it's possible to store user's data in their iCloud account completely (SwiftData + CloudKit), I hastened to rewrite the app from scratch and release it.
The proof that Single Day works is this text - when I posted my other projects on HN before, it would take me many hours/days to write the text and hit send.
But today, as Alexander #13,668, I don't care much what happens next (it's up to #13,669 tomorrow hehe).
I urge you to try out Single Day even if you never practiced journalling. I recommend you do this first:
- Record a voice message to your 100-year-old self. Start with "Well, hello..." and see where it leads you.
- Send a text message to your 5-year-old self on Nov 4. So he/she is in the kindergarten and asking if Christmas is coming soon?
- Use the Randomize function to take you to a random date (I found myself the page of past me who was worried about kissing his first gf for the first time, it was funny).
I want this app to help as many people as possible, that's why I made it free if you send <=10 messages per month (which is more than enough for beginners). When you see it's working and you start sending 5 messages/day (as I do), you can always upgrade.
Also all data is yours, you can export it anytime. It's all stored in your iCloud account, there is no backend server for the app.
AlexanderZ•3mo ago
I read somewhere that scientists managed to plant false memories into mices' minds. I thought to myself as a joke "well, what if my whole life was actually planted inside my brain? I can only trust my today's self".
So I started referencing myself as Alexander #9,532/#9,533/etc (basically daysCountSinceBirth) when taking notes.
This is when magic happpened.
All of a sudden, I started treating other versions of me not as myself but rather as my best friends.
This meant two things:
1) I stopped being so hard on my past selves.
2) I dramatically reduced anxiety about today's actions. I only got 24h, I do what I can. It's up to future versions of me to figure things out.
So I made an app that treats every version of you as a separate person.
It's a mix of journaling/messenger app. You can post on your page and you can send messages (text/voice/video/photo) to the past and to the future.
I actually made the first version in 2019 (with Rails on the backend) which I've been using ever since. But I never released it publicly because I was uncomfortable with storing peoples deepest thoughts and secrets (even e2e encrypted).
So when I saw that in 2025 it's possible to store user's data in their iCloud account completely (SwiftData + CloudKit), I hastened to rewrite the app from scratch and release it.
The proof that Single Day works is this text - when I posted my other projects on HN before, it would take me many hours/days to write the text and hit send. But today, as Alexander #13,668, I don't care much what happens next (it's up to #13,669 tomorrow hehe).
I urge you to try out Single Day even if you never practiced journalling. I recommend you do this first:
- Record a voice message to your 100-year-old self. Start with "Well, hello..." and see where it leads you.
- Send a text message to your 5-year-old self on Nov 4. So he/she is in the kindergarten and asking if Christmas is coming soon?
- Use the Randomize function to take you to a random date (I found myself the page of past me who was worried about kissing his first gf for the first time, it was funny).
I want this app to help as many people as possible, that's why I made it free if you send <=10 messages per month (which is more than enough for beginners). When you see it's working and you start sending 5 messages/day (as I do), you can always upgrade.
Also all data is yours, you can export it anytime. It's all stored in your iCloud account, there is no backend server for the app.