Why I built UNSKIP

I used to be a professional athlete until I was 18. Then sport stopped, adult life started, work became more important, and training slowly became something I did when I had time.

I started going to the gym a couple of times a week with a friend. But if he cancelled, work got busy, the weather was bad, or we were just tired, we skipped it. Sometimes even getting to the gym twice a week was difficult.

On my 30th birthday, I broke my shoulder.

That became a turning point for me. I started my recovery a few days later, read David Goggins’ book, and decided to challenge myself to train every single day for 30 days.

When I finished the 30 days, I extended it to 100. When I finished 100, I realised I didn’t want to stop. So my current challenge is pretty simple: keep going for as long as I’m alive.

Running, lifting, swimming or cycling. Different activity, different intensity, but every day.

That was over three years ago.

Since then, I’ve only missed 16 days, all because I was sick. My longest uninterrupted streak is 500 days.

I started recommending the same approach to friends. A few of them tried it, and after 30–60 days they were telling me they were running more, going to the gym more consistently and generally feeling more energetic.

For years I tracked everything myself in Numbers and Excel.

I’m a software engineer, so eventually I thought: why am I still doing this in a spreadsheet?

That’s how UNSKIP started.

I originally built it to make this habit easier for myself and my friends. Now I already have friends using the app with streaks of 30+ days, exercising more regularly and building their own routines.

UNSKIP gives you one simple goal: complete your workout today.

It tracks your activity, builds your streak, and nudges you throughout the day until you’ve done it.

The idea isn’t that every workout needs to be hard.

The idea is that training stops being something you keep postponing until tomorrow.

I’d love to hear what you think, especially if consistency is something you’ve struggled with too.