Guide · 6 min read
How to Create Your First Goal (and When to Add a Deadline)
Set up a Goal in ProtoHabit: name it, pick habits, choose a difficulty from Light to All-in, and decide whether a deadline will help or hurt.
Open Goals and tap Create
From the Goals tab, choose a template — Health, Finance, Personal Growth, or Work & Career — or start from scratch with your own name and emoji.
first-goal-01-create.webp Name the outcome, not the activity
"Run a 10k in October" beats "Running". A Goal describes where you are going; the habits inside it describe how you get there. Keep the name specific enough that you will know when you have arrived.
first-goal-02-name.webp Add the habits that serve it
Pick from the recommended habits for your template or browse the full library. Three to five habits is the sweet spot for a new Goal — you can always add more once the first ones feel automatic.
first-goal-03-habits.webp Choose your difficulty
From Light to All-in, difficulty sets how demanding your plan is: how many habits, how often, how ambitious the targets. Start one level below what you think you can handle — you can raise it any time, and early wins compound.
first-goal-04-difficulty.webp Decide: deadline or no deadline?
Add a deadline and an optional target (a weight, an amount saved, a distance) if your goal has a real finish line. Skip it for identity goals like "be a reader". A deadline switches the Goal into Challenge Mode with countdowns and projections.
first-goal-05-deadline.webp Save and meet your Goal screen
Your new Goal gets its own screen: habits, progress, streaks, and — if you set a deadline — a countdown pill and projection chart. This is home base for everything the Goal contains.
first-goal-06-goal-screen.webp
A Goal in ProtoHabit is a container: one place that holds every habit, deadline, target, and insight related to a single outcome. Getting your first one right takes about three minutes — and one honest decision about deadlines.
The deadline question
The step people agonize over is the deadline, so here is the decision rule:
- Add a deadline when the goal has a natural finish line and a real consequence for missing it — a race, an exam, a savings target for a trip, a wedding. Deadlines unlock Challenge Mode: a countdown, day-by-day checklist, calendar view, and a projection graph that tells you whether your current pace will get you there.
- Skip the deadline when the goal is really an identity you want to keep — “be someone who reads”, “stay strong”, “keep a tidy home”. Forcing a date onto a forever-goal just manufactures an arbitrary cliff. Let the gold zap streak be your scoreboard instead.
Difficulty is a dial, not a badge
Choosing All-in on day one feels great and fails quietly in week two. The difficulty setting exists so your plan matches your current capacity: Light for busy seasons, the middle levels for steady progress, All-in for when the goal is genuinely your top priority. Mojo pays attention to how you actually perform and will nudge you when your setting looks wrong in either direction.
Next up: if you added a deadline, read Using Challenge Mode to hit a deadline. If you skipped it, organizing habits with Goals and templates shows how to keep multiple Goals tidy.
Put it into practice
Open ProtoHabit and try it — this guide will still be here.
