Autolog in Ninety Days
Anyone who already records activities or workouts with the Apple Watch automatically captures a lot of relevant information in Apple Health. With Autolog, this data can also be used for habit tracking in Ninety Days without having to manually enter the corresponding quantities again afterwards.
With the Autolog feature in Ninety Days, workout durations and distances from supported activities and workouts can be synchronized from Apple Health. As soon as the recorded quantity reaches the defined baseline of a habit, the habit is automatically marked as completed for the corresponding day.
Synchronization takes place automatically when Ninety Days starts and can also be triggered manually at any time via Settings.
The role of the baseline in quantity-based habits and how the Baseline Model works in Ninety Days are described in detail in the following article:
The Baseline Model in Ninety Days
Automation where it makes sense
Quantities for supported habit workouts no longer have to be entered manually in Ninety Days when using Autolog. If, for example, a workout is recorded with the Apple Watch, information about the activity is already available in Apple Health. Instead of manually entering it a second time in Ninety Days, the relevant quantities can be imported automatically.
Users decide individually which habits should be linked to an activity from Apple Health. Multiple habits can also be linked to the same workout type. This makes it possible, for example, to track different baseline goals for the same workout activity. In addition to the automatically recorded quantities, manual quantities can still be added for a day at any time for a habit with Autolog enabled.
Autolog is not intended to replace a conscious approach to personal habits. It only automates the import of information that is already available through Apple Health. Especially for steps, distances covered, or recorded workouts, this reduces the additional effort involved in habit tracking. Other habits can still be consciously logged manually.
Not every habit therefore needs to be automated. Instead, it can be decided individually for each habit whether automatic logging makes sense or whether manual interaction should remain part of the tracking process.
💡 Learning
Autolog does not automate the habit itself, but only its logging. Automation is particularly useful when an activity is already reliably recorded and additional manual logging provides no added value.
Everyday examples of Autolog
Autolog can only be used for quantity-based habits that can be linked to a supported activity or workout from Apple Health. Depending on the selected activity, Ninety Days automatically uses the appropriate unit of measurement. For example, steps are recorded as a count, running distance in kilometers, and the duration of a functional strength training workout in minutes.
With the release of Ninety Days 3.7, the following activities and workout types are available for Autolog:
Apple Health Activities
| Activity | Unit | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Steps | Steps | Daily steps |
| Flights Climbed | Flights | Elevation changes are recorded and displayed as flights climbed. |
Apple Health Workout Types
| Workout Type | Unit | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Mind & Body | Minutes | Meditation, mindfulness |
| Walking | Kilometers | Walks |
| Functional Strength Training | Minutes | Strength and fitness training, gym |
| Running | Kilometers | Jogging, running workouts |
| Skating | Kilometers | Inline skating, skateboarding |
| Hiking | Kilometers | Hikes |
| Elliptical | Minutes | Elliptical training at the gym or at home |
| Dance | Minutes | Dance workouts |
| Swimming | Meters | Indoor and outdoor swimming |
| Cycling | Kilometers | Mountain biking, road cycling |
| Other | Minutes | Individual activities such as reading |
Example of Autolog using daily steps
Steps are one of the simplest ways to make everyday movement measurable. A personal daily goal can help to become more aware of activity levels and track them over a longer period of time.
In Ninety Days, for example, a habit can be created with a baseline of 8,000 steps per day and linked to steps from Apple Health. If 6,500 steps are synchronized initially, the habit remains below its baseline. As soon as the recorded step count reaches or exceeds 8,000, the habit is automatically logged as completed by Autolog.
This not only shows whether the baseline has been reached, but also the actual quantity recorded. If, for example, 11,250 steps are taken, Ninety Days imports the actual quantity. The baseline therefore does not represent a maximum value, but remains the personal minimum for the respective day.
This type of tracking becomes particularly interesting over a longer period of time. The quantity view shows how daily step counts develop and on which days the personal baseline was reached. Larger quantities are displayed in a compact format, for example 11K for around 11,000 steps.
In this process, Autolog only eliminates the need to manually transfer the step count. The personal goal of, for example, 8,000 steps remains a conscious decision by the user.
More flexibility with the “Other” workout
Not every activity can be clearly assigned to a specific workout type in Apple Health. The “Other” workout therefore provides additional flexibility for tracking other quantity-based habits by duration with Autolog. In Ninety Days, the “Other” workout can be linked individually to a quantity-based habit for this purpose.
I personally use the “Other” workout for my reading sessions, for example. Reading is of course not a traditional workout, but the Apple Watch makes it very easy to record the duration of a reading session this way. A typical reading session on the couch looks like this for me:
- Start an “Other” workout on the Apple Watch.
- Lean back and read a book, usually for 15–20 minutes.
- End the workout after reading.
- Open Ninety Days and synchronize the recorded minutes with the reading habit.
The synchronized duration is then imported as the quantity for the reading habit and compared with its baseline. If my baseline is 15 minutes, for example, and I read for 20 minutes, the actual 20 minutes recorded are stored in Ninety Days and the habit is automatically logged as completed.
✨ Insight
The automatically recorded reading times allow me to reflect on my progress and see how regularly I actually read. At the same time, this type of tracking motivates me to pick up a book more often and start additional reading sessions.
To integrate reading even more firmly into my daily routine, I have set up a daily reminder for 5:30 p.m. using the Routines feature in Ninety Days. This not only reminds me of my reading session, but also allows me to see directly via Autolog how much time I actually spent reading afterwards.
Autolog synchronization process
Synchronization only takes place in one direction: from Apple Health to Ninety Days. Apple Health remains the authoritative source for the automatically recorded activity data. Data imported via Autolog cannot be manually changed in Ninety Days – no data is transferred from Ninety Days back to Apple Health.
With each synchronization, Ninety Days considers a total period of 14 days for habits with Autolog enabled, including the current day. This means that activities from several days ago that have not yet been synchronized with Ninety Days can also be imported.
If multiple workouts of the same type exist on a given day, their respective quantities are combined for that day. Two running workouts of 3 kilometers each, for example, result in an automatically recorded daily quantity of 6 kilometers for a correspondingly linked habit.
If the underlying values in Apple Health change within this 14-day period, the updated values are also reflected in Ninety Days during the next synchronization. Activities that are more than 14 days old are not synchronized again by Autolog.
Synchronization requires Ninety Days to have the necessary read permissions for Apple Health.
The most important synchronization rules summarized:
- Synchronization only takes place from Apple Health to Ninety Days.
- Each synchronization considers a total period of 14 days. The current day is already included in these 14 days.
- Multiple workouts of the same type are combined into a total quantity for the respective day.
Enabling Autolog in Ninety Days
When Autolog is enabled for a habit for the first time, Ninety Days requests the necessary read permissions for Apple Health. To use Auto Log fully, access to the corresponding activities and workout data must be granted.
The Apple Health permission request is only displayed once. The granted permissions can subsequently be adjusted or revoked at any time via the iOS Settings.
After permission has been granted, Autolog can be enabled for the respective habit and the desired Apple Health activity can be selected.
The appropriate unit of measurement is automatically adopted from the selected Apple Health activity. If “Running” is selected, for example, Ninety Days uses kilometers as the unit of measurement. As long as Auto Log is enabled for the habit, this unit cannot be changed manually.
When Autolog is enabled for a habit for the first time, the global Autolog feature in the Ninety Days Settings is also enabled. It controls whether automatic synchronization with Apple Health is generally allowed to run. If the global feature is disabled, the individual Autolog configurations of the habits are retained, but no Apple Health data is automatically synchronized.
Synchronization with Apple Health can also be started manually at any time via the Ninety Days Settings. The same synchronization rules apply as for automatic synchronization.
I wish you every success with the Autolog feature and with developing new habits using Ninety Days.
Andreas Stein