A routine planner app for weeks that aren’t all the same.
Your Tuesday isn’t your Saturday. Ethos lets you set what each weekday asks of you, then lays out the right routine every morning, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, with no account to make.
A routine for each weekday.
Open the week, pick a day, and add what that day is for: the run on Tuesdays, deep work in the mornings, reading before bed. Each task gets a time and, if you like, how long it takes. A strip across the top shows this week’s dates, so you always know which Monday you’re looking at.
You set this once. From then on, each morning starts with that weekday’s routine already in place, and you only come back to the week when your life changes.
One-offs and monthly tasks.
Not everything repeats every week. A one-off goes on any date, today or later, without touching the routine. A monthly task sits on a weekday in a set week of the month, such as the first Saturday or the last Friday, and comes back each month on its own.
You can also write a short note on how a day went, which is handy when you look back.
Borrow another day’s routine.
Bank holiday Monday? Use Saturday’s routine for today and leave Monday as it is for next week. The day’s menu also lets you push the rest of the day back when you’re running late, or take the day off.
A routine bends with the day instead of breaking, and the plan you made for an ordinary week is still there tomorrow.
Anchors for the hard days.
Mark the one or two tasks that hold a day together as anchors: getting up on time, taking medication, the school run. On a hard day, make today light, and only the anchors count.
Rest days and days off count as kept, and Ethos has no streaks, so a light day keeps your routine intact rather than setting it back. The habit tracker page explains how Rhythm measures that over time.
The same week on every device.
With Ethos Plus, your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch share one week through the private part of your own iCloud. There is nothing to pair. Settings shows each device and when it last synced.
Ethos merges changes one task and one day at a time. If two devices recorded the same days differently, it asks which to keep rather than guessing. Without Plus, the watch still keeps in step with your iPhone.
No account, and a backup every week.
There is no Ethos account and no Ethos server, so there’s nothing to sign up for and nothing of yours on our side. Once a week Ethos saves a backup to Files and keeps the last eight, and you can restore one from Settings.
Compared with a calendar or a paper planner.
A calendar is built for appointments. Fill it with a morning routine that repeats every weekday and the things that really are appointments get lost among them. A paper planner needs the same routine copied out week after week.
Ethos keeps the routine and the appointments apart but in view together: your tasks on a timeline, and today’s calendar events shown faintly beside them if you turn that on.
Free to start.
Your routine, the week and Rhythm are free, with reminders, widgets and Apple Watch paired with your iPhone. Ethos Plus adds iCloud sync and a few extras, such as the watch without your iPhone, the printed month and making groups for the people you live with. Prices are shown in the app.
Questions
Can each day of the week be different?
Yes. Every weekday has its own routine, with its own tasks and times. Monday can start with deep work and Tuesday with a run.
Can I change today without changing my routine?
Yes. Move a task for today, skip it, add something with “Just today”, push the rest of the day back, or use another day’s routine. The week stays as you set it.
Does it sync between my iPhone and my Mac?
With Ethos Plus, yes. Every device on your Apple Account shares the same week through your own iCloud. The Apple Watch keeps in step with your iPhone for free.
Do I need to make an account?
No. There is no Ethos account and no Ethos server. Sync uses the private part of your own iCloud, which only your Apple Account can open.
What if I stop paying for Plus?
Sync pauses and the extras lock again. Nothing you made is deleted, on your devices or in iCloud, and buying Plus again picks up where it left off.