# Pause, move or run a routine

Canonical: https://godspeedmissioncontrol.com/guide/routines

A routine is work Godspeed does by itself at set times, such as the nightly research on your goals. Your first goal starts seven of them ([How the daily work runs](/guide/daily-work)).

## See your routines

1. Open the notebook and click **Settings** in the sidebar.
2. Scroll to **Routines**.
   Each routine has a row: what it does, when it runs, its next run and its last run. For example: "Last ran today at 05:30, and it worked."
   ![The routines in Settings, each with its time, its next run and a Pause button](/guide-images/routines.png)

You can also ask in the chat: "what runs on its own?"

If your seven routines are not listed after your first goal, see [The seven routines do not appear](/guide/troubleshooting#the-seven-routines-do-not-appear-after-your-first-goal).

## The night chat tidy-up

With a chat app connected, Godspeed keeps one routine that no goal started: **Night chat tidy-up**, every night at 01:30 on your clock.

Your chat with your assistant is one long conversation. Once it grows too long, your assistant shortens it by summarising its older part. While it does that you wait for minutes, with nothing but "typing" on the screen. This routine does it at night instead, while the chat is quiet.

It only ever shortens your own chat, never while you are using it. It sends you nothing, because its work is the chat itself, so its row shows no reply. You can pause it like any other routine; your assistant will then shorten the chat itself again, in front of your next long message.

## Pause or resume a routine

1. Click **Pause** on the routine's row.
   The row says "Paused. Nothing runs until you resume it."
2. To start it again, click **Resume** on the same row.

Or say it in the chat, for example "Pause the deadline reminders".

> [!WARNING]
> **Weekly check-in** opens every coaching talk you have. Pausing it pauses all your talks, not only the weekly one.

## Move a routine

Ask in the chat:

```text
Move the weekly check-in to Saturday at six
```

Or in **Settings**, under **Follow-through**, open **Routine times**. Each routine that runs at a time of day shows its times and days: change them and click **Use these times**. Several times in one day share their minutes, like `10:00, 16:00`. The weekly check-in moves its talk with **Move the talk**: every day, one weekday, or one day of the month. **Coach reminders and habit check** has no time of its own: it looks every 15 minutes whether something is due.

## Run a routine now

Under **Routines**, click **Run due routines**. It runs every routine whose time has come but that has not run yet, for example after your computer was off.

To get one piece of work right away, ask in the chat:

- `research my goal <name> now` for the research on one goal
- "decide today" for today's plan
- "today's brief" for your [morning brief](/guide/morning-brief)

## Add a routine

Ask in the chat, for example "Switch on my morning brief". It sets the routine up and tells you when it runs.

Or use the form below the list in **Settings**, **Routines**: choose the routine by its name, a daily time or the minutes between runs, and click **Enable routine**. It offers the recipes your mission control has, and never one that already runs.

You can add a [morning brief](/guide/morning-brief), a [weekly review](/guide/weekly-review), and [research watches and page watches](/guide/watches).

## Remove a routine

Ask in the chat, for example "Remove the weekly check-in". There is no remove button.

A removed routine stays removed on that machine, even when you add a goal later. To stop one for a while, pause it instead.

On a Mac or Linux computer you can also use a terminal and Hermes, the program that runs your assistant. `hermes cron list` shows the routines and their ids, and `hermes cron remove <job id>` removes one.