Why you get one day off a week

Every habit app runs into the same problem sooner or later: the streak becomes a jailer. People do the thing while they are sick, on the day of a funeral, on their own wedding day, because otherwise a number drops to zero. And when it finally does drop, a lot of people quit altogether.

Simplify1's answer is simple: one declared day off in any seven.

How Take today off works

On Home, while you haven't logged anything yet that day, there is a button: Take today off. Tap it and the app asks once: nothing counts today, your streak is safe, you get one day off in any seven, and you can undo it any time today. If you confirm:

• Nothing is graded. No grade is saved for the day, on your phone or on our servers.
• Your streak is safe. It neither grows nor breaks. It simply walks through the day.
• The app goes quiet. Today's grade, streak warning and mid-day nudge are silent, and your daily reminders skip to tomorrow.
• Competitions treat it fairly. A day off is left out of your average rather than counted as a zero, so resting doesn't cost you the contest.
• Your partner sees a day off, not an empty list that looks like you did nothing.

Changed your mind? Undo it any time before the day ends, and the day is graded as normal.

Why only one in seven

Without a limit, a day off is a loophole. If any day could be declared off, the grade would stop meaning anything: you would simply erase the hard ones. So the allowance is small, and it is spent by saying so on the day, before you have logged anything. A day that simply goes untouched is still a missed day, and it is graded as one.

The seven days are a rolling window, not a calendar week. Take a Thursday off and your next one is available the following Thursday.

Resting is not the same as missing

Some apps let you patch a missed day after it happens. We would rather be honest about the difference. Resting is a decision you make on the day, and the app respects it completely. Missing is something that happened, and the record keeps it. Both are fine. Only one of them is a plan.

That honesty is what makes the streak worth having. Your streak counts any day you complete at least one item, so even a hard day can keep it going with a single honest tick. The day off is for when even that isn't the right thing to ask of yourself.

When to take it

When you are sick. When you are travelling and the day belongs to someone else. On the day of a funeral, a wedding, a birth. For some people it is a weekly Sabbath, set aside on purpose. Take it without guilt. That is what it is for.

Then come back the next day. Your streak will be where you left it, and the ring will start at A+ again.

To see how the rest of the grade fits together, read why an honest B beats a fake A+.