Your beginners guide to the Life Goals app
Everything you need to go from "I just unlocked the password" to "I have a one-year plan with daily inputs that compound." Walkthrough, six worked scenarios, eleven frameworks, every setting explained.
Before you start. Three quick orientations depending on how you got here:
- Don't have access yet? The app is in private beta. See the product page for how to join.
- Bought the workbook only? The app is a free companion for workbook owners during the beta. It walks you through every template the PDF contains, with auto-cascade and reminders the paper version cannot do.
- Already unlocked? Skip the intro and jump to the ten-minute quick start below.
- Want the quick reference instead of this deep dive? The shorter User guide is a one-page version of the cascade walkthrough.
What this app is
A cascade. Top to bottom: your five core values, your year-purpose, the two or three life areas you want to focus on, your five-year vision, one Summit Goal per focus area, the quarterly milestones that lead to it, the weekly priorities pulled from those, and the three tasks on your plate today. Nine steps. Each one inherits from the one above.
If you have ever sketched goals on a notebook page and then watched the page rot in a drawer, the cascade is what was missing. Goals do not fail because they were wrong. They fail because today's three tasks do not trace upward to them. This app does the tracing for you.
Your plan stays in your browser. Nothing leaves your device unless you turn on Dropbox sync. You do not need the workbook PDF open while you use the app, but reading it once gives you the why behind each step. The app handles the what and the when.
What you will actually see
Swipe (or scroll) through the slider below to get a sense of the look across the cascade. These are unedited captures from the live app.
Who this guide is for
- People who have never used a guided goal-planning app before.
- People who tried to set goals on paper and bounced off the friction.
- People who own the workbook but cannot tell where the app fits.
- Beta testers who want one canonical place to see the whole picture.
Who this is NOT for
Honest list, so you do not waste an hour finding out the hard way:
- Team coordination. This is a single-user planner. No shared boards, no assignments, no comments. Use Notion or Linear instead.
- Pure task management. The app's day card has three priority slots, not a backlog. If you need to track 80 tickets, use a real task manager and keep this for the higher-altitude planning.
- Habit gamification. No streaks-as-leaderboard, no points, no badges. The two-day rule and the lazy-day version replace gamification with structure. If you want streak rewards, try Streaks or Productive.
- One-off planning. Planning a single vacation or wedding does not need a five-year cascade. Use a checklist app.
- Allergic to introspection. The Vision and Purpose steps ask you to write about your life. If that feels like therapy you did not sign up for, this is the wrong tool.
The seven pages of this guide
Open the one that matches your situation. No required order. Most readers cycle between How-tos (when stuck) and Scenarios (when looking for shape inspiration).
How do I… →
44 question-driven recipes: where to start, how to set up an annual goal from your values, how to catch up after missing days or weeks, how to set up and track habits, how to retire a goal, troubleshooting. Read this if you have a specific question.
Walkthrough →
The full 90-minute first session, step by step, with cropped screenshots and a common-mistake note on every step.
Scenarios →
Six worked personas (career pivot, health rebuild, creative launch, sabbatical, finance focus, comeback year). Each shows values, vision, Summit Goals, habits, a year-1 timeline, and a day in the life.
Frameworks →
The eleven techniques the app is built on (Goal Cascade, Vision Interview, Three Futures, Summit Goal, Goal Plan, Focus Quarter, Trigger / Action / Reward, Two-day rule, Traffic Light, Life Areas Map, Lazy Day). Plain language + in-app location.
Cadence →
The five nested cycles (daily / weekly / monthly / quarterly / annual) with target durations, where each lives, and how every persona runs them.
Surfaces →
Every UI element explained: topbar, stepper, ob-bar, ripple dot, command palette, More menu, banners, modals, empty states, mobile, dark mode.
Settings →
Every setting: 26 themes, cadence preferences, Dropbox sync, ICS calendar export, notifications, demo mode, save and load, PWA install, keyboard shortcuts.
Ten-minute quick start
If you only have ten minutes right now and want to feel the app before reading anything, do this:
Unlock the app
Open the app URL. You will see a password screen with one input and an Unlock button. Paste the beta password from your welcome email. The app remembers you for this browser session, so the gate will not show again until you close the tab.
Skim the welcome carousel
A short overlay introduces what the app does. Tap through the dots. The last slide has two buttons: Start at the beginning (recommended) and Skip ahead to daily reflection (jumps straight to habit tracking if you only want the rhythm part for now).
Try the demo to see what a finished plan looks like
Open the More menu (top right, three dots) and tap Load demo data. A confirmation modal asks if you want to save your current plan first. Since you have not entered anything yet, just click Load demo. You are now in a fully-populated three-year demo plan. Walk through the stepper at the top of the app to see each step rendered with real content.
A banner at the top says Demo mode · Back to my data. Tap it whenever you want to return to your empty plan with nothing lost.
Save a backup
From the topbar tap Save. A .save file downloads to your computer. That is your portable backup. You can email it to yourself, drop it in a cloud folder, or load it from a different browser later via the Load button.
Tip. If you have a Dropbox account, the More menu has a Connect Dropbox option that syncs your plan automatically across devices. It is optional. The manual .save file works perfectly without it.
After the quick start
When you are ready for a real first session, open the Walkthrough page and budget 90 minutes (with breaks). At the end of that session you will have:
- Your top five values, ranked.
- A one-sentence purpose for the year.
- A Life Areas Map with two or three areas dialed up as focus.
- One to three visions sketched (you pick one to make active).
- One Summit Goal per focus area, dated and measurable.
- A first-quarter set of milestones and a first-week plan.
- One or two habits in the Habit Garden.
The cadence after that
Where to go next
- Have an hour and a half? Open the Walkthrough.
- Want to see what a finished plan looks like? Open Scenarios.
- Curious about the techniques behind the steps? Open Frameworks.
- Want to tune themes, sync, or notifications? Open Settings.