Improvement Calculator

Many people will answer that they'd be about 3.5x better, because 1% every day adds up over 365 days to be 365% better (or about 3.5 times improvement), but most people don't understand how small improvements add up over time. Improvement is not additive. If you expect to be 3.5x better after a year, then you are assuming a linear rate of progress, but humans are really smart. As we get better at something, we actually compound the effects of our improvement.

This is a lot like compound interest with money.

Let's say it's Monday and you decide to become a painter. On Monday, you learn how to mix primary colors, such as red and blue, in order to form a secondary color like purple. On Tuesday, you learn brush strokes to draw shapes. By Wednesday, you've combined these skills and you're painting flowers. You're not just making new colors and shapes.

You've compounded your Tuesday learnings on top of your Monday learnings to create artwork.

In reality, with this compound effect in play, your improvement is actually exponential. If you get better 1% every day for a year, how much better will you be after 365 days?

You'll end up thirty-seven times (37x) better after a year!

Since progress or improvement is compounding, the formula to calculate your projected improvement over time is derived directly from how we calculate compound interest over time. When you practice daily, you are accumulating compound interest in a skillset.