Learning · Planning · HourLife Premium
Know where you are, and how long is left.
Track the books, courses, podcasts, videos and articles you are working through, log where you are, and keep what you take from them.
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Counted in real unitsA book reads “p. 182 of 499”, a course “Lesson 14 of 23”, a podcast by episode and a video by minute. Log a session by typing where you are or tapping +10, +25 or +50.
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How long, at your paceEvery card in progress ends with what is left and how long it will take at your rate since you started, from “a day or two” to “over a year”.
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Keep what you take from itCaptures save a quote with its page and your reflection, and can go on to Wisdom, Brain or Someday. Finishing asks for the most valuable thing you took away, and logs the win.
Your first item
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Tap “+” and pick a type
“Add to Library” offers Book, Article, Course, Podcast and Video. Enter the title and the author or source.
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Say why it matters
The answer to “Why does this matter to you?” sits on the card in quotes, so you see it every time you open the page.
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Set the total and a status
Under “Progress tracking”, give the length in pages, lessons, episodes or minutes, and choose “Up next” or “Reading now”. Then tap “Save”.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Tap "+" to open "Add to Library" and pick a type, such as Book, Course or Podcast.
- 2 Enter the title and author, and answer "Why does this matter to you?".
- 3 Under "Progress tracking", set the total (pages, lessons, episodes or minutes) and a status such as "Up next" or "Reading now".
- 4 Tap "Save". Open the item and tap "Update" whenever you make progress.
Four shelves, and what moves between them
Learning keeps everything on shelves: In Progress, Up Next, one Finished shelf for each year, and Set Aside. Let the days pass and watch each card’s pace line move. Log a session, finish something with a win, set one aside or pick it up again, and Insights answers underneath.
Sample · three in progress, five up next, fifteen finished and one set aside, on Tuesday, October 20
Learning
Not a reading list — a learning progress tracker. 3 in progress
Insights
Highlights · wins logged here
In the app, Start and Pick Up Again are on a long press of the cover, and “Set aside” here stands for Edit with the status set to Abandoned. Logging the last page does not finish anything; only Mark as finished does, and it fills the bar to the end. Search reads the title, the author, the why and the note you kept when you finished, so “neglect” finds Four Thousand Weeks. Nothing here is saved; Reset goes back to October 20.
“… left at this pace”
Under each card in progress, one line says how long is left. It takes your rate since the day you started, every day counted, and divides what remains by it. Pick an item, move the start and where you are, and see the line it writes.
Sample · four items, one of each counted kind
An item in progress
Progress since the start, and where it lands
The days left are rounded up, then said in the largest unit that fits: up to two is “a day or two”, under 14 in days, under 60 in weeks (days ÷ 7), under a year in months (days ÷ 30), and past that “over a year”. So 59 days reads “about 8 weeks” and 60 reads “about 2 months”. There is no line before the first page is logged, none for an article, which is done or not, and none once you reach the end. Days off count against you: picking an item up again keeps its first start date.
Where a capture goes
A capture is a quote, thought or idea, with where you found it and what it means to you. “Send to” decides where it lives: on the item, in your Wisdom library, in the Brain inbox to process later, or on your Someday list. Turn the switches and read what each place receives.
Sample · a capture from Thinking, Fast and Slow
From: Thinking, Fast and Slow
REFLECTION
SEND TO
Someday / Maybe disappears while Brain inbox is on, because the inbox is where you would decide that. With “Save here” off, the capture is not kept on the item at all, and the item’s CAPTURES count does not move. A Wisdom entry made this way is set to show on Today.
A year of finishing
Every finished item keeps the day it was started and the day it was finished. Here are the sample’s fourteen of 2026, start to finish, and under them the month each one landed in. Insights charts only the last six months, and its “avg finish” is the mean of every span.
Finished in 2026, by start date
The Pragmatic Programmer · Book
How to Do Great Work · Article
Designing Data-Intensive Applications · Book
CS50’s Introduction to AI · Course
The Mom Test · Book
Acquired: Costco · Podcast
Show Your Work! · Book
Range · Book
Inventing on Principle · Video
Figma for Developers · Course
The Psychology of Money · Book
Four Thousand Weeks · Book
Huberman Lab — Sleep · Podcast
Atomic Habits · Book
Finished each monththe last six are the chart
- Book
- Course
- Podcast
- Video
- Article
1this month
14this year
23davg finish, all 15
65d · 0dlongest · shortest
“avg finish” counts every finished item, last year’s Thinking in Systems included, from its start to its finish. A talk watched the day you started it counts as 0 days. Something finished from Edit rather than Mark as finished gets the day you saved it as its finish, so a book you mark as finished long after reading it stretches the average.
Settings
Learning Settings, in the ⋯ menu, has three switches for the page: the progress bar on cards, the linked goal’s name on cards, and the Finished shelves. Turning off “Show finished section” hides every year’s shelf, not just this one.
Tips
- Logging the last page does not finish anything. Use "Mark as finished", which fills the bar, keeps your note and logs the win.
- To drop something, open it, choose "Edit" and set the status to "Abandoned". It moves to Set Aside. Hold its cover and choose "Pick Up Again" to resume; it keeps its first start date, so the pace counts the time away.
- Hold a cover in Up Next and choose "Start" to begin it.
- Today can show a "Learning" card with what you have open. It is off by default; turn it on in Today's settings.
- In Brain Dump, "Add to learning" turns an inbox item into an article in Up Next.
- Settings lets you hide the progress bar on cards, the linked goal badge, or every Finished shelf.
Questions
About Learning day to day.
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What can I track?
Books in pages, courses in lessons, podcasts in episodes, videos in minutes, and articles, which are simply started or done. Each item can carry why it matters, a linked goal and a life area.
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How is “… left at this pace” worked out?
Learning divides where you are by the days since you started, every day counted, and divides what is left by that rate. Up to two days reads “a day or two”, then days, weeks under 60 days, months under a year, and “over a year” past that. It needs at least one page, lesson or minute logged.
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Does reaching the last page finish an item?
No. Log Session only records where you are. “Mark as finished” moves it to the Finished shelf for the year, fills its bar, keeps your completion note and, with “Log as a Win?” on, adds a win to Highlights.
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Can a quote go to my Wisdom library?
Yes. Under “Send to”, turn on “Wisdom library” and the capture becomes a wisdom entry with the item as its source and your reflection as why it resonates. It can also go to the Brain inbox, or to Someday / Maybe.
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What if I give up on something?
Open it, choose “Edit” and set the status to “Abandoned”. It moves to Set Aside, which the page labels “not a failure.” Hold its cover and choose “Pick Up Again” to resume; it keeps its first start date.
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Is Learning free?
No. Learning is part of HourLife Premium.
Works with
Where Learning hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Goals
Link an item to a goal and it appears under Learning on that goal's page.
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Areas
Items linked to a life area are counted and listed under Learning on that area's page.
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Wisdom
A capture sent to the "Wisdom library" becomes a wisdom entry with the item's title as its source, shown on Today.
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Brain
A capture sent to the "Brain inbox" lands in Brain Dump with the item's title as context, to process later. An inbox item can go the other way with "Add to learning".
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Someday
A capture can be saved to "Someday / Maybe" as an idea for later.
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Highlights
Finishing an item with "Log as a Win?" on adds a win to Highlights.
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Today
The optional "Learning" card on Today shows what you have in progress.
Read and try
Books from the library that Learning puts into practice, and something to try on paper or in the browser.
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Ultralearning Scott H. Young Young on aggressive, self-directed learning projects. Learning logs where you are in each one.
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Make It Stick Peter C. Brown, Mark McDaniel Brown, Roediger and McDaniel on retrieval practice, the reason to write down what you take from each source.
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How to Read a Book Mortimer J. Adler Adler's levels of reading, from skimming to reading a book against others.
Already have HourLife?
Learning is under Planning in the module list, and it is a Premium module. The “+” adds to the library; the ⋯ menu holds “Insights” and “Settings”. Hold a cover to start it or pick it up again.
Learning is in the Library, under Planning. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules. It needs HourLife Premium.
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