GuideHabits and GoalsiPhoneMac
Habits
Turn a repeated intention into a rhythm you can keep. Honest timing, groups, weekly targets, and no streak that punishes a missed day.
A habit in Kept is a promise on a rhythm. You say what you will do and how often. Kept shows it on the days it applies, lets you check it off in one tap, and keeps the record without turning it into a score that shames you.
Create a habit
Open the drawer and tap Habits, then Add habit. On Mac, the Habits card on Today offers Add a habit. You can also ask the assistant, use the Shortcuts action, or let a connected agent create one.
The editor asks for a few things:
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Habit | Say it the way you would say it to yourself. "Walk after lunch." |
| Kind | Something you do, or something you are stopping. |
| Schedule | Every day, Weekdays, or a Weekly goal of one to seven times. |
| Time | Optional. A habit with a time and named days can appear on your calendar. Weekly-goal habits and things you avoid stay off it. |
| Part of day | Morning, Non-negotiables (shown as Core on iPhone), Training, or Evening. |
| Group | An optional label you create, such as Recovery or Deep work. |
A habit you build to stop something, such as "No phone after 9pm", is an avoidance habit. Kept knows the evening is the evening and never marks it late at breakfast.
Link a habit to a goal from the goal's page, with Add practice or Link existing on Mac and Add a practice on iPhone. From a goal, the practice sheet also offers Suggested drafts drawn from the goal's own title and target; tap one to fill the editor, then edit or dismiss it before you save. Kept will not create a second practice with the same name. Where Cloud AI and the habit builder are on, Build with Kept opens the builder with that goal attached. The habit editor itself stays short.
Check in
Tap the circle on Today, in Habits, or on the Protocol widget, or say "Complete my next habit in Kept". The Control Center control checks off the next open habit. Each check-in is a dated record, so one day never overwrites another. Tap a checked circle again to take a mistaken check-in back; widgets offer an undo of their own.
Today lists only the habits that apply to today. A weekday habit rests on Saturday. A weekly habit stays available until you have kept it once that week. A three-times-a-week habit shows how many are done and never invents a clock hour it is late by.
Groups
Groups are your own labels. Choose one in the editor, or New group to make one on the spot. Manage groups renames, archives, restores, and reorders them. Archiving a group keeps its habits and their history. Kept never regroups habits on its own.
Honest timing
- A habit you just made is never already late.
- A weekly habit counts the check-ins you actually recorded this week, from the day the habit existed.
- Changing a habit's schedule mid-week does not rewrite what earlier days were asking for.
- A monthly or free-form rhythm stays off Today's list and off the calendar, and stays available in your library to mark by hand.
Habits on the calendar
Turn on calendar visibility in the editor and a habit with a time appears as a chip on its days. On iPhone, press and hold the chip to move it, then choose Just this day or Every day. Moving a habit never checks it in.
Adapt instead of starting over
Edit the name, the rhythm, the time, or the group as your life changes. Archive a habit when it should leave the daily list; its history stays and it can be restored. Delete habit, at the bottom of the editor on iPhone, removes it for good after a confirmation, with a short Undo. Kept never removes an earned day because a later day was missed. The history is for reflection, not for punishment.
Turn Habits off altogether in Settings → App Layout. The Habits tab then shows a single Turn on Habits control so the way back is obvious.
Next: Habits and Apple Health, where a walk can check itself in.