A recipe book of the questions people actually ask. Organized by intent, not by app feature. Each recipe is short: the question, three to five steps, and a link to a deeper page if you want more.
Three reasonable entry points depending on what you have time for:
Have 90 minutes for a real first session. Open the app, unlock with the beta password, and walk the 9 steps top to bottom. The Walkthrough page is the canonical guide for this path.
Have 10 minutes and want a feel for the app first. Unlock, open the More menu, tap Load demo data. Browse a fully-populated 3-year plan. Click Back to my data when ready. The Quick start walks this.
Just want to track habits, no planning. Unlock, on the welcome carousel tap Skip ahead to daily reflection. You land in the Habit Garden. Define one habit. Use it daily. Add planning later when you have time.
I just unlocked the app. Now what?
A short welcome carousel introduces what the app does. Tap through the dots. The last slide gives you two paths: Start at the beginning (recommended for first-timers) or Skip ahead to daily reflection (jumps straight to habit tracking).
If the carousel does not appear, you have already dismissed it. Open the More menu → About to see the same intro content.
Do I need to do all 9 steps in order?
Recommended yes for your first session, because each step inherits from the one above it. You can skip Vision (step 4) if it feels fake on day one and come back to it after a month. Everything else is load-bearing: skipping Values or Life Areas leaves Summit Goals untethered.
Once your plan is set up, you can jump to any step anytime via the stepper at the top or the command palette (Cmd+K).
How long does the whole thing take?
First session: ~90 minutes (with breaks). One sitting, one good coffee.
Daily after that: 5 minutes.
Weekly: 10 minutes on Sunday evening (or whichever day you pick).
Monthly: 30 minutes, end of month.
Quarterly: 60 minutes, end of every 12-week block.
Yearly: 2-3 hours, end of December (or early January).
Total time per year if you do all five cadences: ~75 hours. About 12 minutes of planning per day on average.
Can I just track habits without all this planning?
Yes. The welcome carousel has a Skip ahead to daily reflection button that jumps you to the Habit Garden (step T4A). You can define habits and track them daily without ever setting up values, vision, or Summit Goals.
The downside: habits without an anchoring outcome drift. A 30-minute run habit is more sustainable when you know it is in service of a sub-2-hour half marathon Summit. But starting habits-only is a valid path. Add the planning side when you are ready.
Setting up your plan (values to annual goal)
How do I pick my values?
Open the Values step (T1A, first in the stepper).
About 50 value cards appear (Family, Honesty, Growth, Adventure, etc.). Tap to add a card to your hand. Tap again to remove.
Aim for a shortlist of about 8, then trim to 5.
Drag the 5 cards into rank order. Position 1 is your North Star.
Save (auto). Move on to Purpose.
Tip
Pick the 5 you actually live by, not the 5 you think you should. The cards downstream will be tested against these.
How do I write a purpose sentence?
The Purpose step (T1P) has one text field with the prompt "This year I am here to…". Finish the sentence.
Keep it under 25 words.
Use your top 3-4 values explicitly or implicitly.
Aim for honest, not poetic. It does not need to sound like a mission statement.
Example: "This year I am here to be present for my family, ship one creative project I am proud of, and rebuild a body that can hike for hours without complaint."
How do I pick focus areas?
Open the Life Areas step (T1B). Ten sliders appear (Family, Career, Health, Finance, Relationships, Creative, Learning, Community, Spiritual, Recreation).
Score each one 0-10 based on where you are today, not where you want to be.
Pick 2 or 3 to mark as focus this year. The cap is 3.
Save (auto).
How to pick smart
Do not pick all low-scoring areas. Picking Health (3), Finance (3), and Creative (3) signs you up for three brutal climbs at once. Pick at least one focus area where you are already strong (to protect it through the focus year) and one or two to grow.
How do I sketch a Vision?
The Vision step (T2A) uses the Three Futures technique. Three slots: Plan A, B, C. Write each as a short paragraph describing a plausible 5-year version of your life, in present tense, as if you are already there.
Plan A usually compounds what is already working.
Plan B is the bridge: different but reachable.
Plan C is the deliberate stretch: the one your safest self would never pick.
Then tap Make Plan X my active vision on the one you want to walk toward. The other two stay as comparison surfaces.
How do I set up an annual goal based on my values?
This is the heart of the cascade. Values do not become annual goals directly; they flow through Life Areas, Vision, and Summit Goals. Walk it top to bottom:
Read your top 5 values (Values step). Note: which value did you rank #1 and why? The North Star value gets the biggest pull.
Read your purpose sentence (Purpose step). Which values show up explicitly? Those are the ones your annual plan should serve most.
Pick the focus area (Life Areas step) most aligned with your top value. Example: if Family is #1, Family is probably a focus area. If Creative work is #1 and Career is #2, Creative is the obvious focus.
Read your active vision (Vision step). What does the 5-year picture look like in that focus area? Imagine the version of you who got there. What did they do in year 1?
Open the Summit Goals step (T2B). For the focus area, write one Summit Goal that:
Is outcome-shaped (describes the destination, not the activity)
Has a target date (year and month, usually 12-36 months out)
Is defensible (if a friend asked "how will you know you got there," you have an answer)
Sanity-check against the values: if a friend asked "which of your top 5 values is this Summit serving?" you should be able to point to one or two. If not, the Summit is disconnected from your foundation.
Repeat for each focus area (2 or 3 Summits total).
Worked example
Values: 1. Family, 2. Health, 3. Creative work. Purpose: "be present for my family, rebuild a body that hikes, ship one creative project." Focus areas: Family (preserve), Health (rebuild), Creative (ship). Active vision: Plan B (climate-PM career, fit body, monthly dinners with partner). Annual Summit for Health, anchored to value #2: "Run a 10k in under 55 minutes by Sept 2027 with no injury setbacks longer than 2 weeks." Dated, measurable, defensible, and clearly serves value #2.
How do I cascade from year down to today?
Once Summits are set, the Execute step (T3X) is where the cascade lives. It has 4 sub-tabs: Today, Week, Quarter, Year.
Open Execute → Year. For each Summit, draft 3-5 milestones with dates. Drag across quarters.
Open Quarter. Pick 3-5 milestones from your year list that belong to the current 12-week block.
Open Week. Turn the quarter into 3-5 priority tasks for the coming week.
Open Today. Pick three priority tasks for today from the week list.
On your first session, fill Year + Quarter + Week. Today fills in tomorrow morning.
Setting up and tracking habits
How do I set up a habit?
Open the Habits step (T2C) or jump straight to the Habit Garden (T4A).
In the input bar, type the action and hit Enter (or tap Add). Example: "10 min walk".
The new habit row appears. Tap it to expand the editor and fill the five fields:
Action: the smallest version of the behavior ("lace up and step outside" not "go for a 10k").
Identity statement: the "I am someone who…" version of the habit ("…runs three times a week" / "…writes every morning"). This is the BJ Fogg / James Clear identity-based-habit pattern.
Habit stack: the trigger sentence in the form "after I [existing routine], I will…" ("after my morning coffee, I will…"). The "after" anchor is what makes the habit reliable.
Lazy day version: the smallest acceptable version when the full habit is not feasible.
Reward: the closing-the-loop satisfaction. Often just marking the habit done in the Garden is enough.
Set the cadence (daily / weekdays / Mon-Wed-Fri / weekly / custom days).
Optionally link the habit to a Summit Goal so the Insights view can show the connection.
Save.
Aim for one or two habits per Summit, not five. Consistency beats variety.
How do I track habits daily?
Open the app. It lands on Today by default.
The Habits row shows each scheduled habit with a checkbox.
Tap to mark done. Tap again to undo.
Done is the full action. Lazy day is the smaller version (a separate "lazy" toggle). Both count as a kept day.
If you forget for a day or two, the next time you open the app you can backfill (tap any past day in the date strip).
What's a lazy-day version and why does it matter?
Every habit has a "lazy day" field: the smallest acceptable action when the full habit is not feasible.
Full habit: 30-minute run. Lazy day: 10-min walk + 5 push-ups.
Full habit: 1,000-word writing session. Lazy day: 200-word voice memo.
Full habit: meditate 20 min. Lazy day: 3 conscious breaths.
The lazy day exists so a bad day does not kill the streak. It makes the two-day rule actually possible: you can almost always do the lazy version, even when sick or busy.
Set the lazy day embarrassingly low. If your "lazy" version is still hard, it is not lazy enough.
How do I change a habit's cadence or action?
Open the Habit Garden (T4A).
Tap the habit row to expand the editor.
Change any field (action, trigger, cadence, lazy day version).
Save.
The change applies from today forward. Past completions are not affected.
How do I remove a habit that isn't working?
Do not delete it; archive it. Archiving preserves the history (streaks, completions, related insights) but stops showing the habit on Today. This is important for honest year-end review: you should be able to see which habits you tried and dropped, not just which ones survived.
Open the Habit Garden.
Tap the habit row.
Tap the Archive action.
Confirm.
If you change your mind: Settings → Danger zone → Show archived habits to unarchive.
How do I add a habit later?
Same flow as the original setup. The new habit slots into the Garden alongside existing ones. If it serves a specific Summit, link it during creation so the Insights view can show the connection.
When to add vs not: after at least 4 weeks of consistent execution on your current habits. Adding habits before the existing ones are automatic is how people overwhelm themselves and drop everything.
My habit feels too ambitious. How do I shrink it?
Two options:
Edit the action permanently. A 1,000-word writing habit becomes a 500-word habit. Less ambitious, more sustainable. Adjust the lazy-day version proportionally.
Split into "minimum" + "stretch". Keep the 1,000-word habit but rename it "stretch goal" and add a new "minimum 200 words daily" habit. Track both. The minimum is what keeps the streak; the stretch is what compounds.
Shrinking a habit is not failure. It is calibration. The two-day rule + the lazy version exist exactly because consistency at a lower bar beats inconsistency at a higher one.
The daily and weekly rhythm
How do I do my daily reflection?
Open the app. It lands on Today.
Mark off any habits you completed.
Write one line in the reflection field. Anything: a win, a worry, a noticing.
Pick or confirm tomorrow's three priority tasks.
5 minutes max. If you only have 30 seconds, just check off the habits and close the tab. Better to do something small daily than nothing on a busy day.
When should I plan tomorrow vs reflect on today?
Both happen on the daily Day card, but the timing is up to you. Two valid patterns:
Evening reflect + plan (default): at the end of today, mark today's habits, write a one-line reflection, and pick tomorrow's three priorities. Done before bed. Morning is clear.
Morning reflect on yesterday + plan today: same activity, shifted to morning. Better if you tend to crash into bed.
Switch via Settings → Cadence → Reflect timing / Plan timing. Both can be set independently.
How do I do my weekly reflection?
On Sunday (or your configured day), open the app. The weekly reflection card surfaces in the Day view.
Name one win from the week.
Name one challenge or thing that slipped.
Draft 3-5 priority tasks for the coming week (the app pre-fills suggestions from your month focus).
Save and close.
10 minutes. Couch, tea, phone on silent.
What's the minimum I can do on a really busy day?
30 seconds: open the app, tap the habits you did. Close it. The streak stays alive; the reflection field stays blank; tomorrow's priorities can wait.
On a day you cannot even open the app: do nothing. The app does not punish you. The two-day rule kicks in only after you miss two consecutive scheduled days for a single habit. One miss is human.
How do I traffic-light my milestones?
Open the Execute step → Year or Quarter sub-tab.
Each milestone row has a small dot. Tap to cycle Green → Amber → Red.
Green: on track, no intervention needed. Amber: at risk, a small correction now prevents Red later. Red: off track. Needs a decision (rescue, reschedule, or retire).
Be honest about Amber. The temptation is to leave everything Green until the deadline hits. Honest Ambers catch drift two weeks before the missed deadline.
How do I grade a milestone Achieved, Partial, or Abandoned without navigating?
The fastest way is the milestone-peek modal:
Open Execute → Year, or open any cadence step that has the milestones timeline dropdown.
Tap a milestone pill in the timeline (or in the Plan-Review panel on the year overview).
The peek modal opens. You see the milestone title, KPI target, current value, dates, area, and notes.
Three big buttons under How did it land?: Achieved, Partial, Abandoned. Tap one. The grade saves immediately and the modal closes.
If you need more context first, the modal has two secondary links: "Open the month plan" and "Edit on the goal card." Both navigate away. The grading buttons keep you where you are.
For mid-progress milestones with a numeric KPI, the modal also shows the current value with a small input next to it. Update the number, then grade. No need to open the goal card just to change the value.
Catching up after a gap
I missed yesterday. What do I do?
Open the app. Tap yesterday in the date strip. The Day card for yesterday opens. Check off any habits you actually did. Skip the reflection if you do not remember the day clearly.
One missed day is normal. The two-day rule only triggers on two consecutive missed scheduled days.
I missed a week. What do I do?
Do not backfill the whole week. Doing a fake reflection across 7 forgotten days is worse than not doing it.
Open the app today.
Do the next weekly reflection fresh (this Sunday's). Acknowledge the gap in the win/challenge fields ("Challenge: skipped last week, here's why").
For habits, mark the days you remember (if any). The rest stay unmarked. The two-day rule will show a flag on the Insights view; that is fine.
Reset tomorrow with the lazy-day version of each habit. Lazy days for a week, then back to full.
A gap is information, not a verdict. The Insights view will show a dip; the dip teaches you about the conditions that broke the rhythm.
I missed a month. What do I do?
Skip the monthly check-in for that month. There is nothing useful to check on data that mostly does not exist.
Do a small reflection on the gap: what was happening that made the app fall off? Travel? Stress? A specific event? Write a one-paragraph note in the next weekly reflection card.
If a Summit Goal slipped a meaningful amount, traffic-light it Amber or Red and decide at the next quarterly check-in (rescue, reschedule, or retire).
Resume daily with just one habit on lazy mode. Add the others back one per week.
What not to do
Do not try to "catch up" by doubling-down for two weeks. That is how people burn out, then drop the app entirely. Re-enter slowly.
I missed 90+ days. What do I do?
The app fires the abandonment-recovery modal automatically when you reopen after 90+ days of inactivity. It is not a wall of guilt; it is three honest questions designed to reframe the gap as information.
The three questions:
What changed in your life that broke the rhythm? One line. Travel, illness, work crunch, breakup, new baby, depression spell, project crisis. The diagnostic matters more than the apology.
What would have to be different for the rhythm to work this time? Smaller habits? Different reflection time? Mobile-only? Calendar reminders on? Be specific.
What is the smallest commitment you can sustain right now? If you cannot commit to anything, the answer is "open the app once a week." That is enough.
After you answer, the modal offers three paths:
Resume the existing plan as-is. Sometimes the plan was fine; life just got in the way. The streak counters reset to zero, the longest-streak counters survive, the Wall of Wins is intact.
Light reset. Keep the plan, but reset all habits to lazy-day versions for the next 30 days. The two-day rule pauses for 14 days while you ramp.
Full reset. Archive the old plan, start over with a new Vision + new Summits. Your data is preserved (you can browse the old plan in the archive); the slate is cleaner.
Once dismissed the modal does not fire again until another 90-day gap. You can re-invoke it from More menu → Reset / abandonment check if you want a clean slate sooner.
My streak is broken. Do I start over?
No. The streak is a number, not your identity.
The Insights view shows two numbers for each habit: current streak and longest streak. The longest streak is permanent (it preserves the proof you can do it). The current streak resets when you miss two days. That is fine. Start a new current streak tomorrow.
Habits that have survived a few "current streak reset" cycles are more durable than habits that have never been broken. The reset teaches you what conditions break the rhythm.
Managing goals mid-year
How do I change a Summit Goal mid-year?
Open the Summit Goals step (T2B).
Tap the Summit card to edit.
Change the outcome text, target date, or evidence definition.
Save.
The quarterly check-in is the natural moment to do this (it walks every Summit and asks "does this still pull?"). Mid-quarter changes are fine but introduce some volatility in the cascade.
How do I retire a goal that's not working?
Retiring is not failing. It is calibration. Three steps:
Open Summit Goals (T2B). Tap the goal to retire.
Tap the Retire action (in the editor footer).
Write a one-line reason (preserved in the year-end review).
The retired goal moves to the Wall of Wins under the "Retired" category. It is not deleted; the history stays. If you reactivate later, the original target dates and evidence remain.
How do I add a new focus area mid-year?
Open the Life Areas step (T1B).
Score the area (if not already scored).
Toggle the focus this year flag.
The Summit Goals step will prompt you to add a Summit for the new focus area.
The cap is still 3 focus areas. If you are already at 3, you need to demote one before promoting another. The demoted area stays tracked but loses its Summit slot.
What do I do when a milestone is Red?
Red means "off track and needs a decision." Three options, picked at the monthly or quarterly check-in:
Rescue: identify what went wrong (an obstacle in the Goal Plan that became real), revise the plan, set a recovery milestone.
Reschedule: the timeline was unrealistic. Push the target date out.
Retire: the milestone was the wrong target. Archive it.
The wrong answer is "leave it Red and hope." A Red milestone left sitting for two months poisons the cascade above and below it.
I think the Summit Goal I picked is wrong. What do I do?
Trust the signal. If you have spent 4 weeks working toward it and your gut says it is wrong, it probably is. Two paths:
Reframe: keep the underlying outcome but rewrite the Summit to focus on what you actually care about. (Example: "Run a sub-2:00 half marathon" might become "Finish a sub-2:30 trail half marathon with no injury" if the road-race target felt joyless.)
Retire and replace: archive the wrong Summit. Open the Vision step, reread your active vision, and write a new Summit anchored to it.
The Goal Plan obstacles section is also a good signal. If the obstacles you wrote feel like "I do not actually want this," that is data.
Customization and data
How do I change the theme?
Open the More menu (top right) → Settings → Appearance tab.
Tap any of the 26 palette swatches. The whole app re-skins in place.
Toggle Light or Dark mode at the top of the same tab.
Faster way: tap the small theme swatch in the topbar (next to Save/Load) for a quick-picker.
How do I set up Dropbox sync?
Open More menu → Connect Dropbox.
A Dropbox OAuth window opens. Sign in and approve.
The app creates Apps/Life Goals Program in your Dropbox.
Saves now go there automatically. Loads pull from there on a new device.
To disconnect: Settings → Sync → Disconnect. The folder stays in your Dropbox; the app just stops syncing.
How do I export to my calendar?
Settings → Reminders tab.
Set times for daily plan + reflection, weekly reflection, monthly check-in, quarterly check-in, annual wrap-up.
Tap Download .ics.
Open the downloaded file. It imports into Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook automatically.
The events recur indefinitely. If you change the schedule later, re-download and re-import; the new events replace the old ones.
How do I install on my phone?
iPhone (Safari): Share button → Add to Home Screen.
Android (Chrome): Three-dot menu → Install app (or Add to Home screen).
Desktop (Chrome / Edge): Install icon in the address bar (a small monitor with a download arrow).
Once installed, the app runs full-screen without browser chrome. It caches the shell offline; you only need network for Dropbox sync.
How do I back up my data?
Two ways:
Manual: Topbar → Save button. A .save file downloads. Drop it in a cloud folder, email it to yourself, or stash it on a USB drive.
Automatic: Connect Dropbox sync (see above). The app saves your plan to Dropbox after every change.
If you have not saved in 7+ days and your plan has data, the app surfaces a soft save-reminder banner.
How do I switch devices (laptop to phone, say)?
Two paths:
With Dropbox sync: Connect Dropbox on device A. On device B, unlock the app and connect Dropbox. The plan auto-syncs.
Without Dropbox: On device A, tap Save in the topbar. Email the .save file to yourself. On device B, unlock the app, tap Load, pick the file from your email. Confirm overwrite.
Either way, your plan now lives on both devices. Future changes on either device need to be re-synced (manually via Save/Load, or automatically via Dropbox).
Troubleshooting
The app won't load.
Hard-refresh: Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows / Linux).
Check the browser console (F12 → Console tab) for errors. Screenshot the first red line.
Try a different browser. If it works elsewhere, the issue is in the first browser's cache.
If still broken, email support@goalsandprogress.com with the screenshot.
I forgot my password.
There is no in-app reset (the password is hashed in your browser). Email support@goalsandprogress.com; the password will be re-sent to you. Once you have it back, paste, unlock, done.
I lost my data (cleared cache, switched browsers, etc.)
If you have a .save file: topbar → Load → pick it.
If you have Dropbox sync: open the app, connect Dropbox. The plan auto-restores.
If neither: unfortunately the data is gone. Set up Dropbox sync now to prevent the next time.
The theme looks broken (colors off, text unreadable).
Open Settings → Appearance.
Switch to Classic Glass (the default). The app should render cleanly.
Switch to Light or Dark mode explicitly. Sometimes the auto-detection from your OS gets confused.
Re-pick your preferred palette. The visual reset usually fixes it.
If a specific palette is broken in dark mode, email support with the palette name. It might be a contrast bug.
If that fails, Dropbox itself may be down; check status.dropbox.com.
The manual .save file path always works regardless of Dropbox status.
Privacy, cost, and how this is different
Where does my data live?
Your plan lives in your browser's localStorage. Nothing leaves your device unless you explicitly turn on Dropbox sync.
No account, no sign-up. The beta password unlocks the app; it does not create a server-side profile.
No telemetry on your goals. Plausible Analytics tracks anonymous page views (cookieless, no IP retention). It cannot see what you wrote.
Dropbox sync (optional): writes a single .save file to Apps/Life Goals Program/ in your own Dropbox. The app cannot read anything else in your Dropbox; the app-folder scope is enforced by Dropbox.
If you clear browsing data, the plan is gone. Save a .save file weekly, or turn on Dropbox sync.
During Beta 1 (closes 31 August 2026): free for workbook owners, and free for the first 100 testers who fill in feedback.
After beta, the plan is to offer the app at a price that sits comfortably below most goal-and-habit apps you have already paid for. The workbook itself is $39.99 (one-time) at gumroad.com. The final app price is not set yet; beta testers will be the first to know and will get the final version free as the thank-you.
How is this different from Notion, Sunsama, Todoist, Streaks?
Different category of tool, not better-or-worse.
Notion goal templates are a blank canvas. You build the cascade yourself. This app ships the cascade. If you like designing your own system, Notion. If you want the system pre-built, this.
Sunsama / Akiflow are daily-planning apps focused on calendar + tasks. They do not climb the cascade to values, vision, or annual goals. Use Sunsama for the day, this app for the year (or both, hand-shaking via the ICS export).
Todoist / Things are task managers. They hold backlogs of hundreds of items. This app holds the three priorities for today, drawn from the cascade. Complementary, not competitive.
Streaks / Productive / Habitica are habit trackers with gamification. This app's Habit Garden tracks habits without points or leaderboards, and anchors each habit to a Summit Goal. If you want the dopamine hit, use Streaks. If you want the long-horizon anchor, use this.
Paper planners have no cascade enforcement and no reminders. They are excellent for the daily ritual of writing by hand. The app is excellent for the bookkeeping. Most beta testers use both.