Habits
OterApp’s habits surface helps you build the daily behaviours you care about — from morning meditation to evening reading — with a record that survives a missed day.
Creating a habit
Tap New habit and give it a name. Optionally add a note or a reminder notification. Every habit is anchored to a specific date and time — this determines when it first appears and how its recurrence is calculated.
Frequency types
Choose how often the habit repeats:
- Daily — every day at the anchor time
- Weekly — the same day of the week as the anchor (e.g. every Monday)
- Bi-weekly — every two weeks, keeping the same weekday
- Monthly — the same calendar date (e.g. the 15th). If the next month is shorter, it clamps to the last day.
- Yearly — the same date every year
- One-time — appears once and never repeats
Daily check-ins
When a habit is due, mark it complete for that date. Completion is per-occurrence — checking off today’s habit doesn’t affect yesterday or tomorrow. If you miss a day, you can still check it off the next time it appears. Undo a completion if you marked it by accident.
Your streak counts consecutive completions with no gaps. A gap resets the streak to 1. The streak is shown next to each habit as information about your consistency — not as a score you’re trying to defend.
Habits with subtasks
Some habits have steps. Add subtasks to a habit — stretch, warm up, then run. Each subtask has its own completion toggle, and you can mark the main habit done only when all subtasks are finished (or independently, whichever you prefer).
Reviewing history
View your completion history for any habit — a calendar-style grid shows which days you checked in and which you missed. Spot patterns over weeks and months.
Tips
- Pick a consistent anchor time: Habits are tied to their anchor datetime. Setting a morning time means the habit shows up that morning every recurrence.
- Use reminders: Enable a notification reminder so you don’t forget to check in. Reminders fire at the time you set.
- One-time habits for events: Use the one-time frequency for things that happen on a specific date — a doctor’s appointment or a birthday call.
Our approach
Oter’s habits feature is designed around habit formation research (Lally et al., 2010), the habit loop (cue → routine → reward), and identity-based behaviour change (Clear, 2018). Per-occurrence completion prevents the “what-the-hell effect”, flexible frequencies match behaviour to cadence, and streaks serve as information rather than pressure.