Guide · Keeping track

“When did I last…?”

By MJ, maker of Calibrate · Updated Oct 2026

When did you last change the water filter? Flip the mattress? Back up the laptop, descale the coffee machine, water the big plant? Some things repeat without a schedule. The only question that ever matters about them is when they last happened.

Why the usual tools fit badly

A reminder makes you guess the interval up front, then interrupts you on a day you didn't choose, whether or not the thing needs doing. A habit tracker is worse: a chore you do twice a year renders as an endless column of missed days. Both tools turn “I'd just like to know when I last did this” into a small standing debt.

What these things actually need is not a schedule. It's a memory: a timestamp you can consult, and stamp again when the day comes.

Keeping track: a last-done log

Calibrate has a quiet list for exactly this, called Keeping track. Each entry is one line:

Water filter · 4 months ago
Bedsheets · 5 days ago
Backups · last · Jun 2 · 5 weeks ago

Did the thing today? Tap the row to open it, tap Mark today, and the date updates. You can write a note on any mark, so a car service keeps its mileage. Each entry also learns your real rhythm from the marks themselves: “roughly every 3½ months.” It shows the cadence you actually live.

It lives in Spaces, one tap deep

Keeping track has its own room: open Spaces and tap the Keeping track register. Add a line for anything you'd like a memory of, and from then on, the day you do the thing, open its row and tap Mark today. A mark lives in its own record, separate from your to-dos, so it never lands on Today and never counts as work done. It stays on that day's record. Wrong tap? Tap Undo beside today's mark and it's gone.

Not just chores

Look at what people actually type into search: when did I last have an eye test, when did I last get a tetanus shot, when did I last give blood, when did I last back up my laptop. The pattern is anything important, rare, and unscheduled. Some lines that earn a place in a last-done log: the dentist and the eye test, the tetanus booster, donating blood, calling a faraway friend, descaling the coffee machine, changing the toothbrush head, checking the tire pressure, watering the big plant, replacing smoke-alarm batteries. None of these deserve a recurring reminder shouting at you on an arbitrary day. All of them deserve an answer when you wonder.

No overdue. Ever.

Keeping track never turns red, never badges you, never decides that four months is “too long.” It answers the question you asked, when did I last?, and leaves the judgment to you. That's the difference between a lamp and an alarm: one shows you where things stand, the other decides you're behind. If four months feels fine for your filter, it's fine. If it doesn't, you'll know the moment you look.