The method was popularized by advice attributed to comedian Jerry Seinfeld: to write every day, he kept a big wall calendar and put a red X over each day he wrote. After a few days the Xs formed a chain, and his only job was to not break the chain.
Its power is in its simplicity: instead of a distant goal, you focus on one repeatable daily action, and the growing chain becomes a reward in itself. But in its rigid form it has a weakness — a single missed day resets everything, which pushes most people to quit entirely at the first disruption.
The Daychain app takes its name and core idea from this method, but repairs that fragility: skip credits cover planned gaps, repair credits cover unexpected misses, flexible modes support habits that aren't meant to be daily, and link states never shame you. That keeps the visual power of the method while making sure one bad day can't erase months of progress.