🧩 Routines

✨ What It Does

Routines bundle every step of a recurring scenario—morning warm-ups, shut-down checklists, pre-trip packing—into a single play button. Hit start and Benji guides you through the sequence so nothing gets skipped and the whole flow takes the same amount of time each run.

🎬 Quick Demo

🚪 Access & Activation

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

🧭 Core Workflow

• Click Create routine to open the form. Set a name and emoji, pick a time of day (Any, Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night), choose the days it should appear (all enabled by default), and optionally start it paused.
• Time-of-day and day selections feed the routine filters so it shows up exactly when you need it—in the list, widget, and player.
• After saving, open the routine’s ••• menu → Edit routine items to build the step list:
  • Habit steps reference existing habits (or let you create new ones inline). They inherit habit duration and completion rules and update the underlying habit log.
  • Item steps are one-off tasks such as “Pack chargers” or “Open windows”. They’re perfect for checklists you don’t want stored as habits. Give them durations to keep totals accurate.
• Drag to reorder steps; the editor constantly updates the routine’s total duration so you know how long the full flow takes before scheduling it or dropping it into the planner.

🧱 Habit Steps vs. Item Steps

• Habit steps: best for ongoing habits you already track. They award habit points, respect habit privacy, and show up in habit stats. Use them when the step should influence your habit grade or appear elsewhere in Benji.
• Item steps: standalone checklist entries that live only inside the routine, leaving habit streaks and points untouched—perfect for packing lists, travel prep, or occasional chores that you still want in the flow.

🗂️ Collaboration & Sharing

• Open a routine’s menu → Sharing to invite teammates. Invited users can play the routine, contribute completions, and see active progress.
• Routine invites surface in the header (desktop) and filters popover (mobile) so you can accept or decline on any device.
• Habits inside a shared routine keep their own privacy: assigned habits still belong to their original owners, and completions respect each habit’s privacy setting.

▶️ Running a Routine

• Click a routine card to start a run. Every launch creates (or resumes) a routine instance with a progress bar, completed/remaining counts, and quick navigation.
• Active instances appear in the left sidebar so you can reopen them in a modal while you work elsewhere in Benji.
• Use the view toggle:
  • Player focuses on the current step with large controls.
  • List shows every step so you can mark items non-linearly when you already know the flow.
• Habit steps provide dedicated Done, Skip, and Fail buttons. Item steps use the same controls. Keyboard shortcuts (Alt/Option for Skip, Cmd/Ctrl for Fail) remain optional—you can always use the buttons or menu.
• Habit steps update the underlying habit log instantly; item steps only affect the routine instance. Jump back or forward, or use Reset to clear the whole instance without touching the routine definition.
• Routine instances remember your position automatically. If you pause halfway through, reopening the instance picks up exactly where you left off.

🗓️ Scheduling & Planner Integration

• Routine duration equals the sum of step durations. When you drop a routine onto the planner calendar, Benji blocks out that amount of time so your schedule matches reality.
• Planner events created from routines link back to the player, making it easy to start the flow when the calendar reminder fires.

📊 Widgets & Dashboards

• Routines widget (My Day): shows routines matching the current time (or “Any” time) and lets you launch them instantly. Widget settings let you include/exclude “Any” time routines or show routines created by collaborators.
• Routines inherit the same durations you defined in the editor, so scheduling them on My Day or in Planner keeps your dashboard timeline accurate.

⚡ Alfred & Quick Actions

Learn more about Alfred in the Alfred & Spotlight guide.

• Create routine: opens the routine creation form
• Search for specific routines to open or launch them
• Access pending routine invites and recently active runs

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

• Cmd/Ctrl + K: open Alfred to access Routines commands
• Alt/Option + click on a step to log a Skip instantly (works in Player and List views)
• Cmd/Ctrl + click on a step to mark it Failed without opening the menu

🔐 Global Settings & Privacy

• Feature visibility, widget toggles, and invite management all live under Settings → Features → Routines.
• Timeline visibility flows through the underlying habits; when you mark habit steps done from the player they respect each habit’s privacy and point rules.
• Sharing access is scoped per routine: collaborators you invite can run and edit, while uninvited teammates can’t see the flow.

🏆 Timeline & Points

• Leaderboard changes come from the habit steps you log; item steps stay internal to the routine.
• Resetting or pausing a routine instance leaves underlying habit logs untouched, so timeline and leaderboard totals remain consistent.

🔗 Integrations & Dependencies

• Habit steps update the associated habit logs immediately, influencing Habit widgets, scores, and planner blocks.
• Dropping routines into Planner creates linked events that maintain duration parity and provide a quick jump back into the player.
• Shared routines respect the same infrastructure as Habit lists and planner invites, so keep those integrations healthy for smooth collaboration.

😌 Pausing Routines

• Heading out on vacation or shelving a flow for a season? Mark the routine as Paused from the edit dialog. Paused routines disappear from the widget and player until you unpause them, but every habit/item remains intact for later runs.