Welcome to WhenDid.io and the WhenDid.io blog! I’m Ricky Spears, the creator of this little time-tracking engine for your life. I thought I’d introduce myself and the project with a quick behind-the-scenes Q&A. So grab your favorite beverage—or whatever’s allowed where you are—and let’s get into it.

What is WhenDid.io?

WhenDid.io is your personal “button-based” memory bank. You create buttons for the things you want to track—when you fed the dog, took your meds, rebooted the router, or started feeling under the weather—and then just press the button when that thing happens. It logs the date and time.

That’s it. No spreadsheets. No bloated productivity suites. No guilt.

Why did you build this?

Because I kept asking myself “When did I…?” and coming up blank.

Calendar apps are great for planning the future, but terrible for tracking the past. Sticky notes get lost. Journals are too slow. And to be honest, I didn’t want to describe what happened. I just wanted to remember when it did.

So I built a dead-simple tool to help me capture that information in one click. I made it for me. Now it’s for you, too.

How did it start?

The earliest version was barebones. A handful of buttons. A simple timestamp. No cloud, no history, no frills.

Then I wanted organization, so I added groups. Then I wanted history, so I added logs. Then I wanted to drag buttons around. Then I wanted to know how many times something happened and what the average interval was… and, well, now we’re here.

What kind of things are people tracking?

All kinds of stuff. Here are a few I’ve heard already:

  • Medication and health symptoms
  • Pet care and feeding routines
  • Appliance maintenance
  • Emotional check-ins
  • Weird computer bugs
  • Relationship milestones (yes, even that first taco date)
  • The last time you changed your password
  • …and maybe, when you last built something cool

There’s no “right” way to use WhenDid.io. You make your buttons. You decide what matters.

Is this just a hobby project?

It started that way, but it’s growing into something more. I’m already working on more powerful tools for users who want more insight, automation, and control.

I’ll be introducing two paid tiers in the near future:

  • Premium: Adds things like custom day boundaries (for night owls and shift workers), visual feedback after button clicks (checkmarks, fading effects), simple numeric tracking (totals, averages), browser notifications, extra pages, photo backgrounds, and enhanced views of your history.

  • Professional: Geared toward power users, families, and teams. This tier will support API integrations, webhooks, text message notifications, complex automation workflows (like showing a checkmark for 3 hours after you click a button), advanced analytics, and more sophisticated numeric tracking like charts and trends. It’s a whole other level.

Of course, the free version will remain clean, capable, and helpful on its own.

What’s next?

My focus is on building a system that adapts to you instead of the other way around.

I’m working on features like fuzzy dates ("early March" or "yesterday morning"), custom time boundaries for when your “day” begins, and smarter button actions that can do things like:

  1. Change appearance after being clicked
  2. Wait a custom amount of time—hours, days, or even “6 hours after tomorrow begins”
  3. Then change appearance again, notify you, or trigger a webhook

This kind of automation will unlock some really creative uses, and I can’t wait to see what people do with it.

Can I try it now?

Absolutely. Head over to WhenDid.io/app, and start clicking. You can track things right in your browser without signing in. If you want to sync across devices, all it takes is your email.

No pressure. No commitment. Just clarity.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “When did I…?”, I made this for you.

– Ricky