How to use Hindsight

Writing down a decision

1. Tap the plus button on the Decisions screen.
2. Choose Decision for choices that matter, or Quick prediction for small guesses you can check soon, such as whether a meeting will run over.
3. Write your decision. Then write how you think it will turn out. This is your prediction. Be specific enough that you can tell later whether you were right.
4. Move the slider to show how confident you are in that prediction. 100% means you are certain. 50% means it could go either way.
5. If you like, add why you are making the decision, what would prove you wrong, reasons for and against, and a category.
6. Choose when you will know how it turned out, then save.

Fixing a mistake

You have 30 minutes after saving to fix a mistake. Open the decision and tap Edit decision.

After that, the decision is sealed, so you cannot rewrite what you predicted. You can still add dated notes to it, and you can delete a decision at any time.

Updating your confidence

If you learn something that changes how sure you are, open the decision before its check-back date. Under Update your confidence, move the slider, add a note about why if you like, and tap Save update.

Your results always use the confidence you saved at the start, so updating it cannot improve or damage your calibration. Updates are a dated record of how your view changed. Once the check-back date arrives, confidence can no longer be updated.

Checking how it turned out

On the day you chose, the decision moves to Ready to review, and Hindsight sends you a reminder. Open it and choose Right, Partly right, or Wrong. Then tap Save my answer.

Your confidence stays hidden until you answer, so it cannot change how you judge the result. Once you save your answer, it cannot be changed, so your results stay honest.

If you like, tap Add details before you save. You can say whether your reasoning held up, mark which of your reasons turned out to matter, and write what actually happened.

After you save, Hindsight shows how confident you were next to what happened.

If you are not ready to review

Tap Remind me in a week to move the date. If a decision no longer applies, tap No longer applicable. It stays in your record, but it is left out of your results.

When several decisions are due, tap Review all to go through them one by one, or Snooze all a week to move them all to next week.

Looking back

About 4 weeks after you review a decision, Hindsight asks whether you would make the same decision again. You will find it under Looking back on the Decisions screen. Tap it, choose Yes, Not sure or No, and tap Save answer.

This is different from whether it turned out well. You can be glad you decided as you did even when the result was bad, and the other way round. Quick predictions are not asked, because they are guesses and not choices.

Reading your calibration

Calibration shows whether your confidence matches your results. After you have reviewed 15 decisions, the Calibration tab shows how often you were right when you were more or less confident.

On the chart, the dashed line is perfect calibration, where your confidence matches your results. A dot below the line means you were more confident than your results justify. A dot above the line means you were less confident than you needed to be. A bigger dot means more decisions.

Partly right counts as half a point. A confidence range needs at least 3 decisions before it is drawn, and Hindsight uses finer ranges as you review more decisions.

Deeper calibration

With the full version, the Calibration tab adds more. Your score is one number showing how far your confidence is from your results. By category compares your results across the parts of your life, such as Money or Career. Over time shows whether your calibration is improving. Insights points out patterns in your own results.

Insights only appear when there are enough reviewed decisions to say something fair, and each one says how many decisions it is based on. They describe what has happened so far. They are not predictions.

Your year in review

Open Settings, then Year in review, or tap Year in review on the Calibration tab. It shows how many decisions you wrote down and reviewed in a year, how well your confidence matched your results, how that compares with the year before, and the decisions that surprised you most.

A year is a calendar year. A decision counts in the year you wrote it, and a review counts in the year you did it. Only reviewed decisions use their confidence. A decision that is still waiting keeps its confidence hidden. Use the year buttons at the top to look at an earlier year.

Searching your decisions

Tap the magnifying glass at the top of the Decisions screen to search. Type words from a decision, your reasons, your notes or a category, and Hindsight shows every decision that contains all of them. It ignores capital letters and accents.

Tap Filters to narrow the results by status, by how it turned out, by type or by category. Tap Clear filters to start again. Search also finds decisions you marked as No longer applicable, which are hidden from the main lists.

Search never looks at your confidence, so a decision that is ready to review keeps its confidence hidden.

Tips for better predictions

• Be specific. A prediction such as "I will still be in this job in a year" is easier to check than "It will go well".
• Use the whole range. Choose 50% when you honestly do not know, and keep 100% for things you are completely sure about.
• Make quick predictions often. They are the fastest way to reach the number of reviews that unlocks your calibration chart.
• Review honestly. Choose Partly right when that is what happened, rather than rounding up.

Reminders

When you save your first decision, Hindsight asks whether you want reminders. A reminder arrives on the day a decision is due. If decisions are waiting for review on a Monday, you also get a weekly reminder.

Reminders only say how many decisions are ready, and they never show what you wrote.

To change the time of day, or to set Quiet hours when you do not want to be disturbed, open Settings and tap Reminders. A reminder that would arrive during Quiet hours waits until they end.

If you turned reminders off, you can turn them back on in your phone's settings. The Reminders screen shows whether they are allowed and takes you there.

Changing how Hindsight looks

Open Settings and choose Daylight or Lamplight. You can change it as often as you like.

Unlocking the full version

Hindsight is free to use, with no limit on how many decisions you write down. That includes encrypted backup and restore. Deeper calibration, the year in review and export are unlocked with a one-time purchase. There is no subscription.

Open Settings, then Unlock Hindsight, to see what is included and the price in your own currency. If you bought Hindsight before, tap Restore purchase, on a new phone or after reinstalling. Use the same Apple or Google account that you bought it with.

Backup and restore are always free.

Backing up and moving to a new phone

Hindsight keeps everything on your phone. To move to a new phone, open Settings, then Backup and restore, and create a backup.

A backup is one encrypted text file that only your passphrase or your 12-word recovery key can open. Save it to Files, iCloud Drive or Google Drive, or send it to yourself.

On the new phone, install Hindsight and choose Restore from a backup. Restoring replaces everything that is in Hindsight on that phone.

Keep your recovery key somewhere safe. If you lose both your passphrase and your recovery key, nobody can open your backups, including the developer of Hindsight.

Exporting your decisions

Open Settings, then Export your decisions, to save your decisions and results as a Spreadsheet (CSV) or a PDF. You can include all your decisions, or only the ones you have reviewed. The PDF holds your newest decisions, and the spreadsheet holds all of them.

For decisions that are ready to review, the confidence is left out, so it stays hidden until you review them. An export is not encrypted, so save it somewhere you trust.

In a spreadsheet, text that begins with =, +, - or @ is shown with a leading apostrophe, so that it cannot run as a formula.

Locking the app

To keep your decisions private from anyone who borrows your phone, open Settings, then App lock, and turn it on. Hindsight then asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your phone's passcode when you open it.

You choose how long Hindsight can stay closed before it asks again.

If you forget your phone's passcode, you cannot open Hindsight until you can unlock your phone. Your decisions are not lost.

Deleting your data

To remove everything, open Settings and tap Delete all my data. This deletes all your decisions, notes and custom categories from this phone, and it cannot be undone.

Your settings and your backup setup stay. If you might want your decisions back, create a backup first.

Your privacy

Hindsight has no accounts, no ads, and no analytics. Your decisions are stored only on your phone, and nothing is sent to a server.

Your data only leaves your phone when you create a backup or an export file and choose where to save it.

You can read the full privacy policy in Settings, under Privacy policy, and on the Hindsight website.