Free interactive tool
1% Better Every Day Calculator
The famous 37.8× curve — and its quiet warning about daily decay.
Let 1% a day argue with a year
Slide the daily change and the days; the curve shows what repetition quietly builds or erodes.
The 1%-better curve is a metaphor with honest math inside: improvement compounds only when practice repeats, and decay compounds exactly as faithfully.
- Compare +1% and −1% over a full year.
- How many days before the curve visibly leaves the flat line?
The “1% better every day” curve is a metaphor with honest math inside: (1.01)³⁶⁵ ≈ 37.8. Improvement compounds only when practice repeats — and decay compounds exactly as faithfully in the other direction.
Slide the daily rate and time window to see how slowly the curve leaves the flat line at first, and how violently it diverges by the end. That early flat stretch is where most habits are abandoned.
Is skill growth really exponential?
Not literally — plateaus are real. The curve models the compounding value of not skipping days.
What does −1% a day look like?
Skipped practice, small shortcuts: (0.99)³⁶⁵ ≈ 0.03 — decay is compounding's twin.