i have no trust in my memory, so i built an app

It all started with a throwaway comment.

“You don’t have to take the placebo. Surely you’re smart enough to remember a week off.” – GP, 2025

That line lodged in my brain like a popcorn kernel in a molar. Because when I was told I’d have to start on the contraceptive pill (for health reasons, not vibes), I was already spiralling — side effects, hormone swings, vague catastrophes. And then my doctor dropped that.

Excuse me? Surely who is smart enough? Not me. I can barely remember where I parked at Woolies. I once boiled an egg, left for a Zoom call, heard a bang and thought I was being assassinated. Nope. Just the egg detonating across my kitchen walls. Seven days off the pill without training wheels? Absolutely not.

So yes, I did what any stubborn, spirally, overly-enthusiastic app stan would do: I built an app. Because if there’s a simple need, there should be a simple solution.

1. The Brain Is a Goldfish

Let’s start with the science: humans are bad at remembering time gaps.

We’re decent at remembering things happening right now, but once you stretch the timeline, memory turns into Swiss cheese. Psychologists call this prospective memory—remembering to do something in the future. Studies show it fails up to half the time in everyday life.

Add to that the working memory cap (that three-to-four item limit from Tarnow’s experiments), and you get the perfect storm. If you’re already juggling groceries, emails, deadlines, and trying to remember whether you fed the cat, there’s simply no slot left for “Day 29 or Day 1: resume taking the pill.”

This is why placebo pills even exist.

They’re not medically necessary.

They’re training wheels for the brain.

They keep your daily rhythm consistent so you don’t forget to restart. But training wheels are clunky. And in 2025, surely we can do better than relying on sugar pills as memory aids.

2. Placebo Isn’t the Solution

Here’s the thing: the placebo week was invented decades ago, partly to mimic a “natural” cycle so patients would feel reassured, and partly as a memory hack. Take seven dummies, don’t break the habit, restart. Easy.

But the problem? It’s outdated. Most people don’t actually need a fake bleed. And not everyone wants to swallow extra pills just to keep track. More importantly, it creates dependency. You’re relying on the pack design instead of your own tools or systems.

When my doctor suggested skipping the placebo, I could see the logic. Why take something unnecessary? But the casual “…you can remember” part? That’s where reality hits. No, actually, most of us can’t. Adherence research shows medication compliance drops dramatically the more complicated the regimen. Even one missed pill can derail effectiveness. That’s not a personal flaw—it’s how human brains work.

So why are we still depending on placebo pills to do the job of memory when we have phones, notifications, and design tools? It’s like relying on dial-up internet when Wi-Fi exists.

3. Simple Tools > Overload

Of course, there are already apps for birth control. The problem? Most of them are overdesigned. Flashy pink dashboards, fertility predictions I didn’t ask for, pop-ups begging me to upgrade to premium. Instead of making things easier, they overload me with more data than I can possibly use.

That’s where the “minimally” philosophy comes in. My approach: strip it back to what actually matters. No ads. No side quests. Just one clean, reliable way to track the seven days and keep your cycle consistent.

Because here’s the irony: limits are freeing. If you build the simplest tool possible, people actually use it. And use = remember. Whether it’s three notes, seven pill-free days, or anything else, the principle is the same: clarity beats clutter every time.

Conclusion: Why I Built It

So yes, minimally pill was born out of a doctor’s throwaway comment and my own chaotic disbelief in my ability to remember anything. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised it wasn’t just about me.

Forgetting isn’t just an inconvenience—sometimes it has real consequences.

That’s why I wanted to build something not just for myself, but for anyone who needs a simple, clutter-free way to keep track without swallowing unnecessary sugar pills.

Sometimes a build doesn’t start with a grand vision. Sometimes it starts with panic, a spiral, and the stubborn conviction that if the problem exists, there should be an app for it.

So let’s all thank my doctor for saying, “Surely you’re smart enough to remember.” Because the answer is no.

But I am stubborn enough to build an app. And that works just as well.