Habits
Two taps, then put the phone down
What an ordinary day in Simplify1 looks like: a few ticks, an honest letter, and reminders that know when to stay quiet.
JournalGrading
Weights: the one setting that changes everything
Low, Medium, High, Critical. One worked example shows how the same missed item can cost a little or a lot.
If you only ever change one setting in Simplify1, make it this one.
What a weight is
Every item on your list has a weight: Low, Medium, High or Critical. The weight multiplies the item's points. Low counts ×1, Medium ×2, High ×3 and Critical ×4.
Weights belong to items, not to whole categories. "Morning prayer" can be Critical while "Evening devotional" is Medium, even though both sit under Faith. The day's grade is the weighted points you earned divided by the weighted points that were possible, and that percentage maps to a letter.
A worked example
To keep the arithmetic easy, give every item the same 100 base points. Here is a day with six items:
| Item | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Morning prayer | Critical ×4 | 400 |
| Call home | High ×3 | 300 |
| Workout | Medium ×2 | 200 |
| Budget check | Medium ×2 | 200 |
| 8,000 steps | Low ×1 | 100 |
| Read 20 pages | Low ×1 | 100 |
| Possible today | 1,300 | |
Now miss exactly one item and see what happens:
- Miss the steps (Low): 1,200 of 1,300 is 92.3%, an A-.
- Miss the workout (Medium): 1,100 of 1,300 is 84.6%, a B.
- Miss morning prayer (Critical): 900 of 1,300 is 69.2%, well below a B.
Same list, five of six items done every time, and three very different days. Without weights, all three would grade the same: five of six is 83.3%, a B, whichever item you skipped. That is the problem weights solve. They let the grade tell the difference between letting something small slide and skipping the thing you said mattered most.
How to set them
- Keep Critical rare. If everything is Critical, nothing is, and the grade goes back to treating every item the same.
- Weight for the season you are in. If training for a race is the point of the next three months, make the workout High and let the steps be Low.
- Be honest about what you would regret. The item you would be most disappointed to miss tonight is a good candidate for High or Critical.
- Revisit them when life changes. A new job, a new baby, a move: your weights should move with you.
Changing a weight doesn't rewrite saved grades. Last month's record stays the record.
Why weights belong to items
It is tempting to think in areas: "faith matters more than fitness". But days are made of particular things. Inside one area, some items carry the whole point and others are nice to have. Weighting each item lets the grade follow that. A missed devotional and a missed morning prayer can cost different amounts, if that is how your faith actually works, and a skipped stretch never has to cost as much as a skipped run.
Free and Premium
Everyone is graded by the same formula on all four weights, so scores on a shared leaderboard mean the same thing. On the free plan your items carry suggested weights, and you can correct the suggestion once on any built-in item. Setting your own weight on every item, whenever you like, is part of Premium.
If your employer covers your account, a leader can assign you an item with a priority. That priority sets the item's weight for you, and an assigned item stays on your list.
Try it
The sample day on our home page grades item by item exactly like this. Each area's buttons set the weight for every item in it, so you can watch the letter move as you change what counts.