Left / Days since widget

A days since widget for your iPhone

Some numbers are worth seeing every day: days without a drink, days since you moved, days since you started something that matters. In Left that counter is called a streak. It counts up from any date you choose, and you can keep it on your Home Screen or Lock Screen.

What a days since counter does

A countdown tells you how long until something happens. A days since counter does the opposite: it measures how much time has passed since a moment that matters to you, and the number gets bigger every day without you doing anything.

People use one for very different things:

• Quitting something: days without alcohol, cigarettes, sugar or doom-scrolling.
• Milestones: days since you moved city, started a job, got married or adopted a dog.
• Recovery and health: days since an injury, an operation or the last migraine you noted.
• The last time you did something: days since you called your grandmother, cleaned the car or backed up your laptop.

In Left, a streak is exactly this kind of counter. You give it a name and a start date, and it keeps counting until you restart it.

Why keep it on your screen

A counter buried in an app is easy to forget. One you see every time you unlock your phone works differently. A number that has climbed to 62 is something you will think twice about resetting, and a milestone such as 100 days or one year stops being abstract when you can watch it get closer.

It also works the other way. A counter for "days since I last called Mum" is a gentle, honest nudge, with no notification needed.

How to set up a days since widget in Left

1. Create the streak

1. Open Left and go to Since.
2. Tap +. Under Build from scratch, choose Streak ("Increases automatically unless you restart it"). You can also type in the search field to start from a ready-made template.
3. Give it a name, for example No alcohol or Moved to Lisbon.
4. Set Started on... to the date and time it began. Past dates work, so you can bring an existing count with you. Future dates do not; for those, use a countdown.
5. If you like, add a goal, an end date with Has an end date, or reminders, including elapsed-time reminders that nudge you after a set number of days.
6. Save it. The streak appears in Since and starts counting straight away.

2. Add the widget to your Home Screen

1. Touch and hold an empty part of your Home Screen until the apps jiggle, then tap Edit in the top-left corner and choose Add Widget.
2. Search for Left and choose Streak to show one counter, or Streaks list to show several.
3. Swipe to the size you want, tap Add Widget, then tap Done.
4. Touch and hold the new widget, tap Edit Widget and pick your streak. You can also choose to show the count in hours, days, weeks, months or years, show or hide the start date, and use the streak's photo as the background.

3. Or put it on your Lock Screen

1. Touch and hold your Lock Screen, tap Customize, then choose Lock Screen.
2. Tap the widget area, find Left and add the Streak widget.
3. Tap the widget to choose which streak it shows, then tap Done.

Step-by-step guides with more detail: Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen widgets and editing or resizing a widget.

Widget sizes and Lock Screen options

Like any iPhone widget, a Left widget can also sit in a widget stack in StandBy while your phone charges on its side. iOS decides exactly when widgets refresh, so if you want the count to the minute, open the streak in Left.

When a streak breaks

Slips happen. Open the streak and tap Restart. Left asks when you restarted, so you can pick the real moment rather than "now". The counter starts again from that point, and nothing is thrown away: the streak keeps its history of restarts, its average streak and your longest streak, so a reset does not erase the progress you made.

If what you want to track needs an action from you, such as going for a run three times a week, a streak is the wrong tool. Use a habit instead; see habit tracker widgets and streaks vs habits for the difference.

What is free and what needs Left Premium

Left is free to download, and its widgets are free. The free plan lets you create 2 streaks, plus 2 habits, 2 countdowns and 2 Aims. The limit counts every one you create, so deleting a streak does not give the slot back.

Left Premium removes the limit and adds extras such as automatic tracking with Apple Health and sharing streaks with friends so they can keep you accountable. Prices are shown in the app before you buy.

Just need the number once? The free days since date calculator works in your browser, as do the hours since calculator and sobriety calculator.

Questions