Start the thing you keep putting off.
Startr is a procrastination app. It gives you a two-minute first step and starts the timer before you can talk yourself out of it.
What has putting it off cost you so far?
Answer two questions and the receipt adds it up from your own numbers.
- Putting it off for
- months
- Lost per day
- 2 h
- Lost per year
- 730 h
Counted at 40 hours to a work week. These are hours spent avoiding the work, on top of the work itself.
How a day with Startr goes
- DreamPick one thing
You choose the single thing you've been putting off longest. Startr doesn't keep a to-do list, so there's nothing else to hide behind.
- CommitSign your name to it
You write your name under it and sign with your finger. It feels a bit silly, but a signed promise is harder to wriggle out of.
- Plan · 60 sGet a 2-minute step
Startr writes a first step you can finish in two minutes, and it's allowed to be rough. You pick a time and a place. Planning is capped at 60 seconds so it can't become another way of stalling.
- DoCount down and start
After a 3-2-1 countdown, a 5-minute timer runs and can't be paused. When it ends you can add ten minutes or stop there for the day.
- Review · 30 sCheck in at night
Before bed you answer whether you started and what got in the way, and you get tomorrow's step. If you missed the day it's logged as a gap, and your count doesn't reset.
There's a button for when you're avoiding it
Press it, say where you're stuck, and you get something to try that takes about a minute. Then you start. You can try it here:
Read back what you wrote about where you want to be in 30 days. If it's still true, keep it. If not, re-word it or pick a different thing.
then STARTWhat it costs
Startr is a subscription, and you can try the yearly plan free for 3 days. It renews until you cancel, which you can do at any time in Settings → Manage subscription. Prices are in US dollars; the web app shows your local price, which is lower in many countries.
- Weekly
- $2.99
- Yearly on the web
- $12.99
- Yearly on iPhone and Android
- $19.99
Get Startr on your phone
The phone apps remind you at the time you planned, put today's step on your home screen and run the timer on your watch.
iPhone and Apple Watch
A reminder at your time, today's step in a home-screen widget, and the timer on your wrist.
Android and Wear OS
The same reminder and widget, and the timer on a Wear OS watch.
Web app
Works in any browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install.
Guides to getting started
- Free tool: get a 2-minute first step
Type the thing you keep putting off and get it split into parts, with a first step you can do now. No sign-up.
- Free tool: Pomodoro timer
25-minute focus rounds with breaks, in your browser, with a 2-minute warm-up for when you can't start.
- How Startr works
The five daily stages, what each one asks of you and the research behind it.
- What is procrastination?
The definition, the common types, and how it differs from laziness and rest.
- How to stop procrastinating
Eight methods that research supports, and a plan you can use in the next ten minutes.
- The two-minute rule
Where the rule comes from, why it works and twelve examples of two-minute first steps.
- How to get motivated
Why motivation often shows up after you start, and how to make starting small enough to do today.
- ADHD and procrastination
Why ADHD makes starting so hard and what helps.
All guides · Also in español, português, français, Deutsch, italiano, polski and 日本語.
Questions people ask
What is Startr?
Startr is an app for the one thing you keep putting off. It turns that thing into a 2-minute first step, gives you a time and a place, counts you down 3, 2, 1 and runs a 5-minute timer. Each day follows the same five stages: dream, commit, plan, do, review.
How does Startr help me stop procrastinating?
Most procrastination is waiting for a moment that feels right. Startr shortens that wait. It gives you one small step that's allowed to be rough, a planned time and place, a countdown to begin and a 30-second check at night. It also tracks your start delay, which is the number of minutes between when you planned to start and when you did, so you can see it getting shorter.
What is start delay?
Start delay is the number of minutes between when you planned to start and when you actually started. If you planned 9:00 and began at 9:40, your start delay was 40 minutes. Startr records it every day so you can watch it get shorter, which is a clearer sign of progress than whether you finished.
Is Startr free?
Startr is a subscription: $2.99 a week, or $12.99 a year on the web and $19.99 a year in the iPhone and Android apps. The yearly plan can start with a 3-day free trial. On the web you see the price in your own currency, and it's lower in many countries. It renews until you cancel, and you can cancel any time in Settings, then Manage subscription.
Do I need an account or an email address?
No. Startr signs you in anonymously the first time you open it, with no email and no password. To keep your progress on a new device, link Google (web) or Apple (iPhone), or link two devices with the 8-character code in Settings.
Does Startr work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. The iPhone app is on the App Store, the Android app is on Google Play, and the web app at app.startr.si works on any phone, tablet or computer.
What does the AI do?
It writes your 2-minute step from the thing you typed and makes the step smaller if you ask. To do that it is sent the thing, your current step and what got in the way last time. It is never sent your name, email or account ID.
How do I delete my account?
In the app: Settings, then Delete account. Or at startr.online/delete-account with the code from Settings. Everything is deleted at once, and a web subscription is cancelled at the same time.
You could start in the next two minutes
Setting up takes about ninety seconds, and you can try it free for 3 days.
Get my first step