When Did I Last...? The App That Answers Life's Most Forgotten Question

When did you last go to the dentist? Change the air filter? Call your parents? Get a haircut?

If you had to think about any of those, you are not alone. These are not things we forget because they are unimportant. We forget because they happen infrequently enough that they slip through the cracks of daily life.

This is the "when did I last" problem — and it affects almost everyone.

The Problem: Life's Invisible Backlog

Daily habits are easy to remember. You brush your teeth, make coffee, commute to work. These have natural triggers built into your routine.

But periodic tasks — things that happen every few weeks, months, or even once a year — have no natural trigger. They are invisible until they become urgent:

• Your car breaks down because you forgot to service it
• Your dentist tells you it has been 18 months, not 6
• A friendship fades because neither of you called
• Your plants die because watering slipped off your radar

The "when did I last" question is one your brain is fundamentally bad at answering. We dramatically underestimate elapsed time for infrequent events. What feels like "a few weeks ago" is often months.

The Solution: A "When Did I Last" Tracker

A "when did I last" tracker (also known as a days since tracker or time since app) gives you one place to see how long it has been since you did the things that matter. Log an action with a single tap, and the app tracks the days since.

No daily check-ins. No streaks. No guilt. Just honest answers to "when did I last?"

Common "When Did I Last" Categories

Health & Medical

• When did I last visit the dentist?
• When did I last have an eye exam?
• When did I last get blood work done?
• When did I last do a breast self-exam / skin check?

Relationships

• When did I last call mum / dad?
• When did I last have a proper conversation with [friend]?
• When did I last plan a date night?
• When did I last check in on [elderly relative]?

Home & Car

• When did I last change the air filter?
• When did I last deep clean the kitchen?
• When did I last rotate the car tyres?
• When did I last descale the coffee machine?
• When did I last water [specific plant]?

Self-Care

• When did I last took a proper day off?
• When did I last read a book?
• When did I last did something creative?
• When did I last had a digital detox?

Why Reminders Do Not Solve This

The obvious solution is reminders. Set a recurring reminder for every 6 months: "Book dentist." The problem is:

1. Reminders fire at fixed intervals, regardless of when you actually last did the thing. If you went to the dentist a week early, the reminder still fires on the original schedule.
2. Reminders are easy to dismiss. How many recurring reminders have you snoozed into oblivion?
3. Reminders do not show you the full picture. You see one notification at a time, not the state of everything simultaneously.

A "when did I last" tracker shows you ambient state — the current elapsed time for everything, all at once. You check it when you have time and attention, not when a notification interrupts you.

Making Time Visible

The most effective "when did I last" trackers do not just show you a number. They make elapsed time feel like something.

Lapsed does this by turning each tracked item into a visual element on a canvas. Items drift away from today the longer it has been. A threshold line marks your comfort zone. Anything past the line needs your attention.

The visual approach means you do not have to read numbers and mentally calculate whether 47 days is too long for a particular task. You just look at the canvas. Anything past the line? Act on it. Everything close to today? You are fine.

How to Start Tracking "When Did I Last"

1. Identify 3-5 periodic tasks you regularly forget. Check the categories above for inspiration.
2. Set realistic thresholds. How many days between occurrences is reasonable? Be honest — if you realistically call your parents every 2 weeks, do not set a 7-day threshold.
3. Log the last time you did each thing. Best guess is fine for the first entry.
4. Check your tracker weekly. One glance at your canvas tells you what is drifting. Act on what matters.

The beauty of a "when did I last" tracker is that it requires almost zero daily effort. You are not checking boxes every day. You are just logging periodic events as they happen and glancing at the big picture occasionally.

For more ideas on what to track, read our guide to 10 things you should be tracking, or learn about why simple tracking works better than complex habit systems.