Logging sessions

Log a session

Press Log a session, pick what you just did and Save. The length, day and people come filled in, and how it felt is one optional tap.

Press Log a session (the first button in the sidebar on a computer, the Log tab on a phone) and pick what you just did: search your shelf, or press one of the items under Recent.

Check the length. It starts at your usual for that item, and last time's length is a chip of its own, Again; change it if today ran short or long.

If you like, tap a face for how it felt (under Feelings and notes). It is optional.

Press Save. A message confirms it, with Undo.

Dates in these examples follow the sample's own calendar, so a session saved as today carries the sample's today, not yours.

That is all a session needs. Everything else in this chapter is for when you want more, and each part of it is optional.

Where you pick from

On a computer

Press Log a session (the first button in the sidebar, or L on the keyboard) and the picker asks what you just did. A search of your shelf is on top, with the cursor in it. Under it is Recent, your last six. Each Recent row does one of two things: press the row to open the log sheet on that item, with last time's length and people filled in, or press its button (Log 59m) to log it again exactly as last time, with no form. Then come your Pastimes if you keep any, your Circles, and Not here? Add an item, for something not on your shelf yet (an item you did without owning goes on its shelf as Not owned). With nothing on your shelves yet, the picker is one search, Find it, that adds the item and logs it in the same step.

On your phone

On a phone the Log tab opens the same picker in a sheet: the search on top (it does not raise the keyboard until you tap it), then Recent, where a row opens the log sheet and its button (Log 59m) logs it again at once, then your Pastimes, your Circles and Not here? Add an item. From the log sheet, Back returns to the picker, and Back again closes it. On an item's own page, the Log tab opens the log sheet on that item.

With a Circle chosen

With a Circle chosen, the list is that Circle's: Recent with the Circle holds what it has done (its button repeats one of its nights), then Played with the Circle's people holds what its people play with you, all on the Circle's own shelf (its board games, for a game night); anything else is one tap away under Something else. After a board game in a sitting, the next pick works the same way.

Drafts, and closing the sheet

A draft is kept if the page reloads, open the sheet again and it offers the item back, with Resume and Discard. Closing it with something chosen or typed asks first (Keep editing or Discard), and so does any sheet you have typed into, such as Send feedback or a series' list of volumes, whether you press ×, tap outside it or swipe it down.

What the sheet fills in for you

The day is today, and the length is your usual: the middle of your last five sessions of it, else of its series or its shelf; with one or two sessions, last time's; the catalogue's guess only with no history. Each is labelled. Last time's length is always one press away as its own chip, Again: 59m, last time, beside your usual when the two differ.

Custom takes a length as you write it: 1h 45, 1:45, 1.75h or 105 are all 1h 45m, and it shows what it read.

On Movies, logging a film marks it finished, unless you choose Stopped partway. On TV Shows a show is finished only when you say so.

Press Save before last time's settings have loaded and it waits for them, a second and a half at most, and says so.

How it felt is one tap, and optional: open Feelings and notes, tap a face and its word shows under the row.

The sheet asks the same things in the same order for every shelf. How long, When and Who was there come first, on one screen with Save; Feelings and notes opens the faces and your note. Who was there takes a name, and your people and Circles are chips under the box, one tap each; last time's table comes back already picked, as one line with Change. The sheet remembers whether you left the extras open.

Under the note, More details holds the rest: a headline, the format, a game's expansions and score sheet, energy and, last, Spent. A note holds 2,000 characters; a counter shows from 1,600.

Spent is what the session cost: Add spending: food, travel, entry adds a line with an amount and its currency, what it was (Food & drink, Travel, Entry, Rental, Supplies or Other) and a word of your own, up to 20 lines. Edit holds it too, and a session's own page offers Add spending while it has none. Only you ever see what you spent; it counts on your Budget page. If an amount cannot be read, Save waits and the foot says Check the amount in spending, with Fix spending to take you to it.

Who sees the session is said once, in the foot of the sheet, over Save. Change opens the two settings for this session alone, Keep this one out of feeds and who can read your note, and says where the audience for everything you log is set (Settings > Who sees what). On a session with a shared Circle that is someone else's, it also says that the Circle's owner can share its nights by link, where a headline you write can appear unless you keep that session out of feeds.

The foot of the sheet is one short line and one row. The line says who sees the session (Friends see this, Followers see this, Only you, or You and who was there), with Change beside it for this session alone, and it stays there while you type. The row is Save and log another (Save + another on a phone) and Save, which names what it saves (Save 2h 39m · with Theo and Sam, or with 2 people when the names do not fit; a name still being typed under Who was there is saved too, and named on Save), so people carried over from last time are never a surprise. The sheet scrolls; the foot stays put.

Notes here are about this one session. What stays true of the item whatever the night has a place of its own: Your notes, on the item's page, a shared note for others to read and a private note for you alone.

After you save: the receipt

After a save comes the receipt, its session number printing over the dots as the save lands. It leads with the one thing worth saying (a new best score, a first win against someone, a finish, the tenth night of a Circle) and offers the next step: mark the next volume read, or Another from tonight on a night of several games.

Save and log another saves and keeps the sheet open, it turns over to the picker for the next one, with what you logged this sitting listed above the search. Ctrl or Cmd+Shift+Enter does the same from the keyboard.

Logged with two or more people who are not one Circle yet? The receipt asks Same crew every week?. Name it saves them as a Circle that meets weekly on that day (Thursday crew, yours to rename), with tonight as its first night; Not this crew or Never ask stops the question on this device.

Logging a volume past where you had read to, with Tick them in order on? The sheet says which volumes it also marks (Also marks Vol. 6 to 11 as read). After the save, the receipt's Mark Vol. 12 read ticks the next one, and A range ticks several.

An item you had taken off your shelf is still logged, and its receipt offers Put it back.

Undo on a receipt reads Undoing until ShelfChronicles has taken the session back, then stamps it VOID.

Changing a session later

To change a session afterwards, press Edit on it, on the item's page or in History (on a computer, each session on an item's page keeps Edit and Remove under the ⋯ at the end of its row). It opens in a sheet laid out like this one: the same length chips (a length none of them is shows as Custom, and Custom reads 1h 45 or 1:45 as the sheet does), the same Today, Yesterday and Earlier, who was there, who won and the faces, with the headline, format, energy and notes under Details. Who sees the session is said in its foot too, beside Save changes, and Change there holds the same two settings and the same line about a shared Circle that is someone else's, since a headline can be written or changed here.

The change shows at once, and the Saved toast's Undo puts it all back as it was, people you took off included, with their own feeling and note, and without telling them twice.

Pastimes, for time away from the shelf

Pastimes are for time that is not an item: a walk, the gym, cooking. They sit beside your shelves with no item to own, and you log them like any session. Pastimes is in the sidebar, under Play, and in More on a phone. Setup asks which ones you do, right after your shelves, and you can skip it.

On the Pastimes page, pick the ones you want to keep, or add your own with a name and a colour. Each tile shows when you last did it and the time this month. Press a tile to open the log sheet on it, or press its + button (+ 1h) to log it again at its length in one press. Pastimes also sit in the Log picker, and typing a name finds them.

Pastime sessions stay out of your friends' feed unless you share one when logging, and they have no Spent line. They count in History, in your time in Stats, in recaps and in trophies.

Log again

The Log 59m button logs the same item as last time, today, in one press. A touch waits a second so a stray tap can be cancelled; a click logs at once.

What Log again remembers

Most sessions are the same as last time. Each card in Continue has a button that says so, like “Log 59m”: it logs today with last time's length, people and format.

Never the feeling, because a face filled in for you would answer for you.

On a series it logs the next unread volume, and the button says which, like “Log Vol. 6”.

Log again always means last time: the same length as last time, even after an odd one (a two-minute check, a marathon). Your usual length is in the log sheet, named as your usual.

Why a tap waits a second

On a touch screen the pause is on purpose. The button sits under your thumb as you scroll, so a tap waits a second before it counts. A mouse cannot do that, so a click logs at once.

Move to another page while it waits and nothing is logged, the next screen says Not logged and the title, with Save to log it after all.

Close the app or lock the phone while it waits and it logs at once, since you meant it.

Logging again from Log

The Log tab opens the picker in a sheet: a search of your shelf on top, then Recent, where a row opens the log sheet and its button (Log 59m) logs it again. When that button has waited its second, the line under the title turns into a Logged stamp with the day, and the sheet closes on the receipt. Below Recent are your Circles and Not here? Add an item. Installed on a home screen, the app has shortcuts to it.

The small arrow beside Log a session in the sidebar opens your last three, each with its Log 59m button and Time it.

Searching from there

In the search, a match shows its small cover and says Choose: it opens the sheet on that item, ready to save; Not here? Add an item opens the Add an item sheet with what you typed, and the log sheet on the new item once it is added. The arrow keys move through the matches, and Enter (the Search key on a phone's keyboard) opens the highlighted one, or adds what you typed when nothing matches.

Timers

Start a timer for a session still going. It is kept on your account, survives a closed tab, and Log fills the length in for you.

How to use it

Pick the item you are starting and press Start a timer, at the end of the How long row. On a computer, the arrow beside Log a session also has Time it beside each of your last three.

Carry on. The clock is kept on your account, so it survives a closed tab or a sleeping phone and follows you to your other devices.

When you stop, press Log. The sheet opens with the running time filled in as the length, and you Save as usual.

The Log tab turns over to 0:00 and shows the running time on every page, and a tap still opens the picker sheet: the running timers at its top, each with Log, Pause (or Resume), Details and Discard, and everything else below, so logging something else meanwhile is the same as ever.

The timer takes a band under the page header, with the item, the time and its buttons. Log settles the running time into the length it will log before the sheet opens.

What a timer keeps, and its limits

Up to three can run at once.

Writing it up never loses time: Log settles the running time into the length it will log, then opens the sheet with it filled in, in the whole minutes the clock shows (2:59 is 2 minutes).

The clock keeps running until you save. Close the sheet without saving and the timer is still going on the Log tab.

A timer forgotten overnight stops itself at 12 hours and says so: log it or discard it.

Paused, the time is struck through, like a stopwatch's lap.

How it felt

How it felt is seven faces, from upset to hooked, with neutral in the middle. It records how a session left you, not how good the item is, so sad is a fair answer for a book that moved you. Hooked is the top: already reaching for the next one. On reading and watching shelves, the sixth face reads inspired rather than proud.

What you think of the item itself has a place of its own: Your rating, on the item's page. Logging never asks for it.

It is always optional, and never filled in for you, not even by a Log button. Energy (drained, neutral, energized) is under More details, for anyone who wants it.

Months of feelings are what let Stats say what is worth your time, let Home bring back a forgotten favourite, and give your recap its mood. See

How your time felt.

Game nights

A game night is a session with people and a result: pick the Circle, type the scores and tap the cup, or say We all won or We all lost for a co-op.

Press Log and choose the Circle, Tuesday Crew for example. Its people are already in.

Pick the game.

Type the scores and tap the cup for whoever won, or choose We all won or We all lost for a co-op. They sit under Who was there, or under Who won in More details when the people came filled in. Leaving the cup off is fine.

Press Save, or Save and log another, which keeps the people and the date for the next game of the night.

Who won and the scores

Who won gives a game night these answers:

No cup, the default. The session is saved without a result, and a night is complete without a winner.

A player won: type the scores and tap the cup for whoever won. The keyboard's Next goes from one player's score to the next, and after the last to How it felt. Ties and teams are fine; tap the cup for everyone who won.

We all won or We all lost, for co-op games. The result belongs to the whole table; pressing it again takes it back.

With every score typed, ShelfChronicles gives the cup to the highest, and says so. When a lower score beat yours it asks once if the lowest score wins that game.

Under the scores, Highest score wins or Lowest score wins says how this game is won, with Change scoring beside it; ShelfChronicles remembers it for the game.

How the sheet knows the Circle

A game night is a session with people and a result. Log it from the sheet's Circle chips and the people are already there.

On the day a Circle usually meets, an item from that Circle's shelf (a board game for a game night, a book for a book club) comes with the Circle and its people in when you last logged it with that Circle or two of its people are already at the table, and says so (its × takes it off); otherwise the sheet asks, with a chip such as Tuesday Crew?, and one tap puts the Circle and its people in.

Pick two or more of a Circle's people without the Circle and the sheet offers Count as a session of that Circle, unticked.

Save a new Circle from the sheet and, when earlier sessions had at least two of its people, the message offers Review, which opens the Circle's page on its one-time list of those nights.

A sheet opened on a night (Log last night, or a Circle picked) logs every Log button and every pick into that night: its day, its Circle and the people shown, never last time's; the receipt then names the day and the table (Logged Everdell · yesterday · with 4).

A timer started from the sheet keeps the Circle and the people, and Log brings them back.

With a phone for everyone at the table, table mode lets each player type their own score and files the night as one session:

Table mode.

Logging offline

Logging needs no signal. A session saved offline, or after your sign-in ran out, waits on this device and sends itself when it can.

What waits, what sends and what still opens

No signal at a friend's place is normal, so logging does not need one.

What happens offline

A session saved offline waits on the device, marked Waiting in History (with +1 waiting beside its month) and on its item's own page.

One saved after your sign-in had run out waits the same way: the message says You have been signed out, with Log in again, and it is sent once you are signed in as the same account, never as another.

It sends itself when the connection comes back, and then says Saved with the day it went, in solid ink where Waiting was dashed pencil.

A timer started offline keeps its own start time and catches up the same way.

What still opens

The pages you have opened are kept on the device too, so Shelves, History, your items and your people open without signal, saying when they last synced.

When ShelfChronicles does not answer

When the connection is fine but ShelfChronicles itself does not answer, a shelf or an item's page shows what the device kept with a thin "Couldn't reach ShelfChronicles" line and Try again, and People fills in again by itself once you are back online.

The examples in this guide never go offline, the sample lives in the page itself, so there is no signal to lose.

Where that copy lives, and how to turn it off on a shared computer:

Your device.