What's the difference between scheduling and logging?

Plan versus record

Think of a paper diary with two pens. In pencil, you write what you intend to do next week: gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 18:00. In ink, you tick what really happened: gym on Monday at 18:10 and Thursday at 19:00.

• A schedule looks forward. It says when something should happen and can remind you.
• A log looks back. It says that something happened and when, and can carry a short note and a colored flag.

Neither replaces the other. A plan without records cannot tell you whether you follow it. Records without a plan are still useful: they answer "when did I last water the fern?" or "did I already take it today?", which is what many people need most.

Why setting a schedule seemed to do nothing

A schedule never logs anything by itself. After you save one, three things change, and all of them are easy to miss on the first day:

• Faded entries appear on the calendar on the planned days, as faded entries in the Week and Day views and as hollow rings in the Month view. If today is not one of the planned days, today looks the same as before.
• Reminders fire only at the planned times, and only if the time has a clock time and a reminder set. Nothing happens until that moment comes.
• Past days stay as they were, back to the day you created the activity. A brand-new activity has no history of missed days.

Your Day streak and your totals count logs only, so a schedule does not change them either.

How the two meet on the calendar

The calendar is where plan and record come together:

• Faded entry on a future day: planned, not yet due.
• Faded entry on today or a past day: planned, not logged. Tap it to log it, and set the real time if it happened earlier.
• Full-color entry: logged, whether it was planned or not.

You can log anything on any day without a schedule: tap Log on the day and pick one or more activities, or scan a photo of the item. A log on an unplanned day simply shows in full color. Logging is never limited to planned times.

What is free and what is Premium

Everything on the record side is free: routines, activities, logging, back-dating, notes and flags, the photo scan and the calendar for today and past days.

The plan side is Premium: the Plan tab where you set weekdays, times, single dates and active periods, the reminders that sit on those times, and tapping future days to plan them. See pricing for the plans and scheduling for what a schedule can do.

Which one do you need?

Start with logging only if your main question is "when did I last do this?" or "did I already do it today?". Many routines, like plant care, filter changes or a supplement you take with breakfast, work fine that way. Add a schedule when you keep forgetting at a certain time, or when you want to see planned days you missed. More on starting out in how it works.

Common questions

Keep reading

More on this topic

• Two-week habit trial: a schedule template with a built-in end date
  Try a new habit for exactly two weeks: a copyable template, a keep-or-drop rule set in advance, free daily logging and a day 14 review that decides.
• Weekday-only routine schedule template: Monday to Friday, nothing on weekends
  A copyable Monday to Friday routine template and how to schedule it in EasyRoutine so workday habits show only on weekdays and your weekend stays clear.
• Can EasyRoutine track a one-time task, or only recurring ones?
  Yes, within limits. Plan a one-time task on a single date with a reminder (Premium), or log it any time for free. EasyRoutine is built for repeating tasks.
• Your schedule doesn't match your actual routine anymore? Plan for the usual week
  Planned habits keep showing as missed? How to compare your plan with what you really do, move times and days to fit the usual week, and keep the old weeks honest.
• My activity runs on the wrong weekdays: how to fix days scheduled by mistake
  Picked the wrong days when you set up a schedule? Change the weekdays on that time and the new pattern replaces the old one. Your past logs stay as they are.
• Changing my schedule made old weeks show the wrong missed days
  Edited a schedule and old weeks now show different missed days? Why faded entries follow the current plan, and how to change a plan without rewriting history.
• Different times on weekdays versus weekends for the same activity
  Run at 7:00 on workdays and 9:00 at the weekend? Give one activity two scheduled times, each with its own weekdays, instead of two copies of the activity.
• How to pause a schedule temporarily without deleting it
  Going away for a week? EasyRoutine has no pause switch, but you can end a schedule before the break and restart it after, mute reminders, or archive for a while.
• How to plan next week in advance (and see it on one calendar)
  Plan next week in advance in 15 minutes: look back, place fixed dates, fit habits around them. In EasyRoutine, scheduled activities already sit on future days.
• How to schedule an activity twice a day at different times
  Need a morning and an evening slot for the same activity? Add two scheduled times to one activity, such as 8:00 and 20:00, each with its own days and reminder.
• My scheduled activity didn't show up today: what to check
  A scheduled activity is missing from today's calendar? Check the weekdays, the active period, the selected routine, a highlighted tile and whether it was archived.
• How to stop a treatment schedule automatically after two weeks
  Set a short treatment to end by itself: give the scheduled time a From and an Until date, and it shows and reminds you only between them. No deleting afterwards.