Momentum · free forever
The writing streak that finishes theses.
Thirty minutes a day beats one heroic weekend a month. Log the session, keep the streak, watch the word count compound — with streaks that understand a planned rest day and a pipeline board that fills with finished work.
No ghostwriting, ever · Human-led, PhD-signed
No account. No card. No paywalled features. Everything you log stays in your own browser, on your own device.
The quiet math
30 minutes a day
About 180 hours of real writing a year. That is a dissertation.
300 words a day
About 100,000 words a year. That is a book.
One heroic weekend a month
About 48 hours a year — plus the guilt hangover.
Across 148 studies of 138,446 early-career researchers, close to one in three report elevated depressive or anxiety symptoms — roughly two to five times the rate in age-matched general-population samples. 1 That is not a personal failing. It is a design flaw — and a habit you can keep is one of the few parts of it you control.
1. Dreisoerner, A. et al., Nature Human Behaviour (2026) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02505-5
The tracker
Protect the time
One focused session. That is the whole bar.
When it finishes, the log form below fills itself in. You only have to add the words.
Where you are
- Current streak
- 0days
- Longest run
- 0days
- Total words
- 0
- Hours written
- 0h
This week: 0 of 5 days.
Next milestone: Momentum started at 3 days.
Then First thousand at 1,000 words.
The last twelve weeks
Rest days are marked, not missed. They never break a streak.
- H — goal met
- P — logged, under goal
- R — planned rest day
- · — nothing logged
One tab stop. Arrow keys move between days, Home and End jump to the ends.
Log the session
Minutes, words, the project you moved, and what got in the way. The logging is the accountability.
Your data
All of it is on this device, in your browser’s storage. No account, no server, and nothing about your writing leaves here. Export it, move it to another machine, or erase it — none of those needs us.
Importing merges rather than replaces: a day that exists on both sides is combined, so restoring a backup onto a device you have kept writing on will not delete the newer work.
Settings
Turning the letters off changes what is drawn, not what is announced — every cell still states its status in words to a screen reader.
Three steps
How it works
Protect the time, log what happened, and let the streak do the arithmetic.
Protect
Start the timer. One focused session counts as a day — not inspiration, not a free afternoon, just thirty minutes you refused to give away.
Log
Minutes, words, the project you moved and the friction that got in the way. The act of logging is the accountability: a small daily signature on a contract with yourself.
Compound
Streaks that respect rest days, weekly word velocity, and a pipeline that quietly fills with finished work. Motivation follows progress, never the other way round.
If the habit is not the problem
When you need more than a streak.
Momentum is free and stays free. These are what people come back for when showing up was never the blocker.
A diagnostic on one manuscript
€459
When the draft is done and you want to know what a reviewer will say before they say it.
A rejection, reversed
€549
When it has already come back. A ranked, fixable objection list and a response you sign yourself.
The thesis, finished
from €499/month
When the problem is eighteen months rather than one decision. Monthly, with a minimum term and a published pause.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Is Momentum really free? What's the catch?
Really free. No card, no trial period, no paywalled features, no premium streaks. We built it because the habit matters more than the tool — and because scholars who finish their drafts sometimes come back for a Manuscript MRI. That is the entire business model. If you never buy anything, the streak was still worth it.
What happens if I miss a day?
It depends on whether you planned it. Days you have marked as rest are skipped by the streak engine — they never break anything, because rest is part of the design rather than a failure of it. An unplanned miss does end the current run, but your total words, total hours, milestones and longest-streak record are permanent. Self-compassion is a productivity tool, not a luxury.
Where does my data go?
Into your browser's local storage, on your own device. No account, no server, no analytics on your writing. Export it as JSON or wipe it completely from Settings. Data sovereignty is not our policy here — it is the architecture.
What counts as a session?
Any focused time on academic writing: drafting, revising, outlining, restructuring an argument, responding to reviewers. Editing days count — log the minutes and record zero words if nothing new hit the page. The streak measures showing up, not producing.
Can I backfill sessions I forgot to log?
Yes, up to 60 days back in the log form. But log honestly. A streak you fudge is a promise you break to yourself, and you are the only one who will know. That is also why it works.
Does it work for grants, books and articles — not just theses?
Yes. The pipeline board tracks four stages for any scholarly output: in preparation, drafting, under review, accepted. A grant application, a monograph chapter and a revise-and-resubmit all live side by side, each with its own stall clock.
The Edge · fortnightly