How Startr works

By the Startr team · Published 25 October 2026

The idea behind Startr

Startr is built on the idea that most procrastination is waiting, for a moment that feels right or a mood that never quite arrives, and that the hardest part of an avoided task is starting it. Research backs this up. In Piers Steel's review of procrastination studies, the strongest and most consistent predictors included how unpleasant a task feels, how far away its reward is, low confidence and impulsiveness (Steel, 2007). Fuschia Sirois and Tim Pychyl describe procrastination as short-term mood repair: putting the task off makes its bad feeling go away for now (Sirois and Pychyl, 2013).

Startr tries to shorten that wait. It makes the first step small enough that it doesn't set off the urge to escape, fixes the moment you start in advance, and gives you a countdown so you don't have to decide when to begin. Everything else in the app is there to support that one moment.

The five daily stages

Each day in Startr follows the same five stages: dream, commit, plan, do and review. Setting up takes about ninety seconds, the timer runs for five minutes, and the night check takes thirty seconds.

Dream: pick one thing

You choose the single thing you've been putting off longest, such as a thesis chapter, a tax return or a job application. Startr doesn't keep a to-do list, because a list gives you twenty easier things to do first.

Commit: sign your name

You write your name under the thing and sign it with your finger. It feels a bit silly, and that's fine. It turns a vague wish into something you've put your name to. We haven't found strong research on signatures specifically, so we treat this as a design choice and say so.

Plan: a two-minute step, a time and a place

Startr's AI writes a first step you can finish in two minutes, in one plain sentence, and the step is allowed to be rough. If it still feels too big, a "Make it smaller" button shrinks it. Then you pick a time and a place, such as "9:00, at my desk". Planning is capped at 60 seconds so it can't become another way of stalling.

Both halves have research behind them. How unpleasant a task feels is one of the strongest predictors of putting it off (Steel, 2007), and a two-minute step feels far less unpleasant than the whole task. Plans that say when and where you'll act, called implementation intentions, had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals in a meta-analysis of 94 studies (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006). The two-minute rule guide explains the first idea in more detail.

Do: count down and start

At the time you picked, Startr counts down 3-2-1 and starts a 5-minute timer. The timer can't be paused, so there's no point halfway through where you can renegotiate. When it ends you can add ten minutes or stop for the day, and stopping still counts. Five minutes is short enough to agree to on a bad day, and once you've started, carrying on is often easier than starting was.

Review: a 30-second check at night

Before bed you answer whether you started and what got in the way, and you get tomorrow's step. A meta-analysis of 138 experiments found that getting people to monitor their progress helped them reach their goals, and the effect was larger when progress was physically recorded (Harkin et al., 2016). Startr records it for you, so the check takes thirty seconds.

The "I'm avoiding it" button

The "I'm avoiding it" button is for the moment you notice you're dodging the task. You say where you're stuck: you're not sure you want it any more, it's too big and you don't know where to begin, you know the step but can't make yourself start, or your last attempt went wrong. Startr then gives you something to try that takes about a minute, and you go back to the step.

Why Startr measures 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.

Start delay is a better daily measure than finishing for the kind of thing people procrastinate on. A thesis or a tax return takes many sessions, so most days end with it unfinished however well they went. Start delay changes every day, and it measures the part Startr is trying to change. Watching it shrink from forty minutes to five is a clearer sign of progress than a box that stays unticked for weeks.

What Startr deliberately doesn't do

• No to-do list. You work on one thing at a time. If you need a list for everything else, keep it in another app.
• No feed. There's nothing to scroll, so opening the app doesn't become its own way of putting things off.
• No app or website blocking. Startr helps you start. If your problem is being pulled away after you've started, a blocker is the better tool.
• No resets. A missed day is logged as a gap and your count dims, but it never goes back to zero, so one bad day doesn't wipe out the weeks before it.

Who Startr is for, and who it isn't for

Startr is for people who have one important thing that keeps not getting started, such as a thesis chapter, a tax return, a job application, a side project or a hard email. It also suits people who freeze in front of tasks, because the step is decided before the moment arrives.

It isn't the right tool if you need to organise lots of tasks, plan your whole day on a timeline or block distracting sites. The guide to procrastination apps compares to-do lists, planners, blockers and body-doubling services, and Structured vs Tiimo compares two popular day planners. Startr is also not a treatment for ADHD, depression or any other condition. If putting things off comes with low mood or has been hard since childhood, talk to a doctor.

Platforms, price and privacy

Startr runs on iPhone, with the timer on Apple Watch, on Android, with the timer on Wear OS, and as a web app at app.startr.si in any browser. The phone apps also remind you at the time you planned and put today's step in a home-screen widget. You can get it on the App Store and Google Play.

You don't need to sign up. Startr signs you in anonymously the first time you open it, and you can link a Google or Apple account later to keep your progress on another device.

Startr is a subscription. It costs $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, and the web app shows local prices, which are lower in many countries.

The app's screens are in English for now. You can type your task in any language, and the AI's first step comes back in that language. To write your step, the AI is sent the thing you typed, your current step and what got in the way. It is never sent your name, email address or account ID.

How to try Startr now

The quickest way to try Startr is the web app at app.startr.si, which needs no sign-up and no install. Type the thing you keep putting off, and setup takes about ninety seconds. If you'd rather try the method without the app, the free first-step tool splits a task into parts and gives you a two-minute first step, and the free Pomodoro timer has a 2-minute warm-up for when you can't start. The guide on how to stop procrastinating covers the wider set of methods.

Questions people ask

What is Startr?

Startr is a procrastination app for the one thing you keep putting off. It writes a two-minute first step, you pick a time and a place, and at that time it counts down and starts a 5-minute timer. It's made by RRDL LIMITED in London and runs on iPhone, Android and the web.

How is Startr different from a to-do list or a Pomodoro timer?

A to-do list keeps track of many tasks, and a Pomodoro timer times work once you've begun. Startr focuses on the moment before you begin, for one task: it makes the first step small, fixes when and where you'll do it, and counts you in.

Is Startr free?

Startr is a subscription, and the yearly plan can start with a 3-day free trial. The first-step tool and Pomodoro timer on this site are free.

What is the best app to stop procrastinating?

It depends on where you get stuck. If you don't start, a starting app such as Startr fits. If you get distracted after starting, a blocker fits better, and if you lose track of tasks, a to-do list or planner does. The guide to procrastination apps helps you match one to your stuck point.

Sources

1. Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
2. Sirois, F. & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2), 115–127. doi:10.1111/spc3.12011
3. Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
4. Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P. I., Prestwich, A., Conner, M., Kellar, I., Benn, Y. & Sheeran, P. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), 198–229. doi:10.1037/bul0000025