🌱 Habits

✨ What It Does

Habits helps you build rhythm around the routines that matter—morning stretches, deep-work blocks, check-ins with teammates. Each card represents a promise to yourself, and logging it takes a tap so you can see progress mounting without juggling sticky notes or streak apps.

🚪 Access & Activation

Enable Habits from Settings → Features → Habits. See the Enabling Features guide for details on feature toggles and visibility options.

🧭 Core Workflow

• Click Create a habit (desktop toolbar menu or mobile (+) button) to open the form. Set the name and emoji, choose a time of day, pick the days of the week (all days are preselected), and pick a color.
• Advanced options let you add a description, duration, assign the habit to a shared list teammate, switch between personal/work types, tune privacy, and set custom or punishing points (defaults are +10 for done, 0 for skip, 0 for fail). Duration powers routine planning—when you chain habits inside a routine or drop them onto the planner calendar, Benji can show exactly how long that block will take.
• Personal vs. Work toggles the habit’s category so filters and analytics reflect the right context. Privacy controls who sees your habit page or posts (default Private), and custom/punishing points adjust how completions influence the leaderboard.
• Mark progress by clicking the habit tile (or using the card menu for the same options):
  • A normal click marks it Done.
  • Hold Alt/Option to record a Skip.
  • Hold Cmd/Ctrl to mark it Failed.
  • Click again (or use the menu) to undo the entry. Week view shows the same controls for every day of the selected range, and graph view lets you click any past day to log or adjust it.
• Use Skip when you intentionally choose not to do the habit (vacation, rest day) so it disappears from today’s list without counting against your grade. Use Fail when the day has passed and you want to record that the habit didn’t happen—handy for keeping history accurate even if you forgot to log earlier.
• Completing every habit in a time-of-day group unlocks a “Golden” notification with a one-click Share on timeline button.

⏱️ Scheduling & Planner

• Drag habits with a duration into routines to estimate total run time. Each habit’s duration rolls up into the routine length so you know how long the whole stack requires.
• You can also schedule habits directly in the planner; the duration becomes the block length on the calendar so your day view matches the time commitment.

🔍 Views & Filters

• Day view groups habits by time of day, list, or score. The toolbar filters let you hide completed items, show only your own habits, or focus on habits that aren’t part of a routine. When a rest period overlaps the selected date, the board displays the rest message and gently fades the list to remind you you’re on break.
• Week view switches to a grid where each column is a day; the completion percentage tooltip tells you how that habit is performing and how close it is to the next grade.
• Graph view loads a 6‑month heat map per habit so you can spot streaks. Clicking any cell logs that day with the usual Done/Skip/Fail logic.
• If you track work and personal habits, a segmented control appears so you can view “Both”, “Personal”, or “Work” only.

🗂️ Habit Lists & Sharing

• Organise habits into lists from the sidebar. Create folders, collapse or toggle them all at once, and invite collaborators via email. Lists double as sharing boundaries—everyone you invite gains access to those habits.
• Shared list members can be assigned to habits. Open the assignment popover on any card to hand the habit to a teammate without leaving the page.
• Accept or decline list invites from the toolbar (desktop) or filters popover (mobile) so collaborators can loop you in quickly.

😌 Habit Rests

• When you need downtime—vacations, recovery days, or travel—open Habit rests from the toolbar menu and log a rest period with start/end dates and a reason.
• Active rest periods show at the top of Day view and dim the habit list so you remember nothing is expected; habits remain intact and resume automatically when the rest ends.

🎯 Habit Score Philosophy

• Benji avoids fragile streaks. Instead, every habit earns a letter grade based on the last 30 days so a single miss doesn’t erase progress.
• Weekly view tooltips explain your current percentage, how close you are to the next grade, and why an A+ requires zero skips.
• The Habit Score widget (My Day) summarises that rolling grade across all active habits so you can see improvement even after a break.

📈 Stats & Activity

• The stats option in the toolbar opens a 30‑day completions chart so you can review streaks and volume.
• Graph view heat maps show up to six months of activity per habit, and all of them respect the same Done/Skip/Fail logging options.

📊 Widgets & Dashboards

• Habits widget: add it from My Day (or enable Show a home widget in settings) to see upcoming habits. Widget settings let you show habits from collaborators, include “Any time” habits, or filter by a specific time of day. This widget also appears in the Pomodoro break modal.
• Habit Score widget: displays the current grade, percentage, and habit count. It’s a quick dashboard tile for spotting trends without opening the full page.
• Summary page: turn on Show habits in the summary sidebar to display a completion ring and today’s progress alongside other metrics.

⚡ Alfred & Quick Actions

Learn more about Alfred in the Alfred & Spotlight guide.

• Create a new habit: opens the habit creation form
• Search for existing habits or lists to jump directly to them

🤖 Benji AI

• Activate Benji AI with Cmd/Ctrl + I, then ask for inspiration—e.g., “Design a five-day evening routine that mixes mobility, journaling, and light cleanup”—and turn the response into new habits without leaving the planner.
• From the desktop toolbar menu, choose Generate with AI to let Benji draft a set of suggested habits automatically; review the preview, keep what you like, and save to your board in one click.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

• Cmd/Ctrl + K: open Alfred to access Habits commands
• Alt/Option + click on a habit tile (or My Day widget) to log a Skip instantly
• Cmd/Ctrl + click on a habit tile to log a Fail without opening the menu

🔐 Global Settings & Privacy

• Feature visibility lives under Settings → Features → Habits, where you can toggle sidebar/mobile presence or enable the home widget.
• Habit privacy defaults to Private inside Settings → Privacy → Habits. Switch to Followers or Public if you want timeline posts to reach more people.
• Shared list invites and collaborator access all respect the owning habit’s privacy setting, so review those toggles before looping teammates in.

🏆 Timeline & Points

• Each habit completion awards up to 10 points (or your custom value) in the leaderboard; punishing points can subtract when you log a fail.
• Only Golden streak posts appear automatically, and they inherit the Habits privacy setting. Edit or delete the habit entry to remove the corresponding post and points entry.

🔗 Integrations & Dependencies

• Habit durations feed directly into routine totals and planner blocks—keep them accurate so schedules and widgets stay in sync.
• Rest periods pause habit visibility across Day view, widgets, and planner reminders, preventing duplicate reminders while you recover.
• Assigning habits inside shared lists ties them to collaborator dashboards and the My Day widget, so coordinate privacy and points before reassigning.

💡 Tips & Edge Cases

• Duplicate habits from the card menu when you want a similar template with minor tweaks.
• Apply a rest period before vacations so your score and filters don’t nag you while you’re away.
• Assign habits via shared lists to keep personal dashboards tidy—toggle “Show habits from other people” off when you only want your own responsibilities.
• Custom points and punishing points are great for gamifying accountability—just remember they directly affect the leaderboard and streak incentives.