Big Day Prep
An exam, a presentation, an interview or a stage: a short preparation every day until the big day, rehearsal days, and one minute of breathing on the day itself.
5 min read
Big Day Prep is a program for when you have a particular day coming up: it keeps track of a short breathing preparation every day until then. The program runs from today until that day and ends on it.
Setup
- What are you preparing for? The type of event. The types come under four headings: Exams and assessments, Work and school, Conversations and talks, Performance. If none of them fits, pick None of these (general) at the end of the list.
- Date and time: the day and time of the event. How many days the program will last is shown underneath. You can pick a date from a few days to two months ahead.
- Notification: how long before the event you're reminded on the day. The app suggests a time based on the type of event, and you can change it.
The suggested session length is four minutes.
The key technique
You don't pick the technique yourself: the program chooses the one that suits the kind of day you have ahead, and you see it during setup. For a written exam, for example, it's Box Breathing. For a day when you speak or perform, such as an oral exam, a presentation or a stage, it's Coherent Breathing with a longer exhale. For interviews and most other types it's the Physiological Sigh, and for sports it's slow Coherent Breathing.
If that technique isn't unlocked for you yet, a suitable one you already have takes its place. If you marked a heart condition or pregnancy in your health note, Box Breathing with its holds isn't used as the key technique, and a technique without holds is used instead.
Preparation and rehearsal days
Most days are preparation days: you do a short session with your key technique. As the event gets closer, rehearsal days come in between, more often in the last week. The day before the event is always a rehearsal day.
On a rehearsal day a short page opens before the session and, depending on the type you chose, asks you to picture the day. What you picture isn't the result but the moment you'll live through: how you are just before it starts, the first step, and a hard moment where you use your breath and carry on. If imagining doesn't feel right that day, tap Start without imagining to go straight to the session.
For most exam, presentation and stage types, one more short sentence follows the imagining text: if you feel excited, it reminds you that this can be part of getting ready.
On the last evening you can also do a short, calm session before bed if you like. A button for it appears on the Programs screen.
On the day
There's a short session in the morning. A notification comes the amount of time you chose before the event, and tapping it opens one minute of breathing with your key technique. When the minute is over you see a short closing line, then tap OK and get on with your day. For most exam, presentation and stage types the same reminder appears in the closing too.
For sports, do this minute before you warm up. Right before the start, one or two long exhales are enough.
Once the day has passed, the program ends and is saved to your history as completed. You aren't asked anything after the event.
If the date changes
If the event moves, tap Change the date on the program card. The program is planned again around the new date, and the days already behind you stay as they were.
Who it suits
Anyone with a particular day ahead: an exam, a presentation, a job interview, a stage, a match. This program isn't suggested on its own; you choose it on the Programs screen and set it up. To set it up, the Physiological Sigh or Box Breathing needs to be unlocked.
How to set the program up and what happens when you miss a day are in Setting up a program and keeping it.
What it is based on
In a study published in Cognition and Emotion in 2017, Khng looked at short deep breathing done by children right before a test, measuring their anxiety before the test and their test results. A pilot study Riedl and colleagues published in Anxiety, Stress, & Coping in 2026 compared one minute of cyclic sighing with one minute of box breathing. The one minute of breathing on the day comes from there.
The program is a relaxation and focus exercise. It doesn't promise anything about how the event will go.
- Khng (2017), Cognition and Emotion 31(7):1502–1510 — "A better state-of-mind: deep breathing reduces state anxiety and enhances test performance through regulating test cognitions in children". Full text
- Riedl et al. (2026), Anxiety, Stress, & Coping 39(5), pilot study.