Desires · Life Design · HourLife Premium
Write down what you want from life, before it is a plan.
Keep a bucket list of places, experiences, skills, and things you want, with no deadline, and mark them fulfilled when they happen.
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Ten kinds of wantingA desire is a Place, an Experience, a Skill, a Creation, a Relationship, a Feeling, a Thing, a Giving, a Witness or Other. Each kind has its colour, and the chips over the list show one at a time.
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A why on every cardThe card keeps your reason in italics under the name, and says how long you have wanted it, from “New this week” to “Wished for 3 years”.
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Fulfilled, with the day it happened“Mark as Fulfilled” takes Today or a date you choose, and a note. The card then shows the note in place of the why, and “Fulfilled” lists every one by year.
Your first desire
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Finish the sentence
Open Desires and tap "+". Under "I WANT TO…", write the thing, for example "Learn to sail the coast".
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Say what kind, and why
Pick a "Kind", such as Skill or Place. Under "Why", write what pulls you toward it. It shows on the card.
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Link it if it already has a home
Under "Link to", attach a goal, project, person or life area, then tap "Save".
Every step, in detail
- 1 Tap "+" and finish the sentence under "I WANT TO…".
- 2 Pick a "Kind", such as Place, Experience, Skill, Giving, or Witness.
- 3 Write the "Why". It shows on the card, so you remember what pulled you toward it.
- 4 Under "Link to", attach a goal, project, person, or life area if one already exists.
Things you want, with no deadline
Life Desires is a list of what you want from life, each with its kind, its why and how long you have wanted it. The chips along the top narrow it to one kind. Fulfilled desires keep their own section below, with the day each one came true.
Sample · eight active desires and four fulfilled, on Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026 · pick a kind, or change how the cards look
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Witness · Mind
Watch a total solar eclipse
Once-in-a-lifetime. Shared wonder.
Wished for a week
Egypt, August 2027 -
Giving · Other
Fund a child’s education
Want to give back in a way that compounds.
Wished for 2 weeks
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Relationship
Host one long table for all my friends
Everyone I love in this city, at one table, once.
Wished for a month
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Skill · Learning
Learn to sail the coast
Build confidence on the water and make summer feel bigger.
Wished for 3 months
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Creation · Family
Bind a book of Grandma’s recipes
So her cooking outlives the notebook it’s in.
Wished for 3 months
Family cookbook -
Experience · Mind
Sleep under the northern lights
Cold air, a dark sky, and nothing to do but look up.
Wished for 5 months
Save for Tromsø -
Thing
A good film camera
Slower photos, every frame chosen.
Wished for 8 months
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Place · Family
Kyoto in cherry blossom season
Walk the Philosopher’s Path with Mum while she still loves long walks.
Wished for a year
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✓ Skill · Craft
Make fresh pasta by hand
Tagliatelle for six, rolled out with a wine bottle.
Fulfilled · 9 Aug 2026
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✓ Creation · Family
Plant an apple tree
A Bramley by the back fence, planted with the kids.
Fulfilled · 27 Sep 2026
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✓ Experience · Health
Swim in the sea in winter
Two minutes in the January sea, then hot tea on the shingle.
Fulfilled · 18 Jan 2026
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✓ Experience · Health
Run a half marathon
2:04 in the rain, and I’d do it again.
Fulfilled · 17 May 2026
Desires — Settings
The Display settings change only how the list looks; nothing about a desire changes.
DISPLAY- A chip narrows the active desires only. The fulfilled ones stay, whichever kind you pick.
- Newest first: the list sorts by the day a desire was added.
- A fulfilled card trades its why for the note you wrote when it came true, and its age for the date.
- The life area is left off when it only repeats the kind, as on the long table.
- A pill names the project a desire belongs to, or else its goal.
“Wished for…” counts in whole calendar units: years first, then months, then weeks, so a desire added on July 14 reads “Wished for 3 months” until January 14. One under a week old reads “New this week”. The ⋯ menu holds Insights, Fulfilled (grouped by year), Archived (each with Restore) and Settings, where “Default desire type” sets the kind a new desire starts on, Experience unless you change it.
Wished for a year
Every desire keeps the day you added it, and its card counts up from there. At ninety days a desire becomes a review candidate in Insights; at six months its clock there turns coral. Drag the days on to watch the list age.
Sample · the eight active desires oldest first, and the four fulfilled · drag to a later day
Swipe to see every bar to its end.
| Desire | Added | Days | Card reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyoto in cherry blossom season | 2 Sep 2025 | 413 | Wished for a year |
| A good film camera | 10 Feb 2026 | 252 | Wished for 8 months |
| Sleep under the northern lights | 28 Apr 2026 | 175 | Wished for 5 months |
| Bind a book of Grandma’s recipes | 30 Jun 2026 | 112 | Wished for 3 months |
| Learn to sail the coast | 14 Jul 2026 | 98 | Wished for 3 months |
| Host one long table for all my friends | 15 Sep 2026 | 35 | Wished for a month |
| Fund a child’s education | 6 Oct 2026 | 14 | Wished for 2 weeks |
| Watch a total solar eclipse | 13 Oct 2026 | 7 | Wished for a week |
Some desires have been waiting six months or more.
Old desires are not failures. They just need a fresh keep, connect, fulfill, or release decision.
- Kyoto in cherry blossom seasonFamily413d
- A good film camera252d
- Sleep under the northern lightsMind175d
- Bind a book of Grandma’s recipesFamily112d
- Learn to sail the coastLearning98d
2 active desires entered the list in the last 30 days.
A desire list should stay alive: some new captures, some fulfilled, and some released.
- new 30d
- 2
- new 90d
- 3
- 90+d
- 5
Review candidates lists the five oldest active desires at ninety days or more, with the life area under each name. Nothing nags: a desire’s age shows only on its card and in Insights. Fulfilling, archiving or deleting a desire takes it out of the count. The fulfilled bars show how long each one took, and their average is Insights’ “avg pace”.
From a wish to the day it happened
A desire’s page holds what grows around it: notes and plans, newest first, each with its kind. When it comes true, Mark as Fulfilled asks when, and for a line about how it went. That line takes the why’s place on the card.
Sample · one desire’s page on Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026 · add a note, then mark it fulfilled
✓Learn to sail the coast
Skill · Learning · added July 14, 2026
“Build confidence on the water and make summer feel bigger.”
- PLAN · 2 WEEKS AGO
Ask Sam about the dinghy club’s spring course.
Its card in Life Desires
The same desire, as the list shows it.
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Skill · Learning
Learn to sail the coast
Build confidence on the water and make summer feel bigger.
Wished for 3 months
- active
- 8
- fulfilled
- 4
- avg pace
- 172d
In the app, Mark as Fulfilled sits in the page’s ⋯ menu, beside Edit, Archive and Delete. The note is optional; left empty, the card keeps its why. Any date can be chosen, and the days it took count from the day the desire was added. CONNECTED TO lists the life area and the goal; a linked project shows only as the pill on the card. Archive keeps a desire under Archived with a Restore button, and Delete moves it to Recently Deleted for 30 days.
How your desires are aging, balancing, and becoming real
Insights, in the ⋯ menu, reads the whole list: what is open, which parts of life it points at, how much of it is tied to something you are doing, and how often a desire comes true.
Sample · Insights for the same fourteen desires, two of them archived
5 active desires are ready for review.
8 active, 4 fulfilled.
Your desire list is small enough to review in one sitting.
2 archived desires are out of the active lane.
- total
- 14
- active
- 8
- fulfilled
- 4
Most active desires point toward Family.
Life area works better than a color-coded type here because it connects the desire to a real part of life.
- Family1 fulfilled2
- Mind2
- Learning1
- Other1
- Relationships1
- No life area1
- Health2 fulfilled0
- Craft1 fulfilled0
Most active desires are connected to a next context.
7 of 8 active desires have a life area, goal, project, or person.
- linked
- 88%
- goals
- 1
- projects
- 2
4 desires became real in the last year.
On average, fulfilled desires took about 172 days from capture to completion.
- all time
- 4
- last year
- 4
- avg pace
- 172d
Review candidates and Recent momentum, the other two cards, are drawn above with the ages. Linked means a desire has a life area, a goal, a project or a person; the film camera has none of them. Life-area balance counts fulfilled desires as well as active ones, and leaves archived desires out. A fulfilled desire counts in the month it came true.
Is this the year?
One day a year, the list comes to you. On January 1, Today shows one active desire with a question, and Explore opens its page. Which one depends on the year and on how many desires are open, so each New Year brings a different one round.
Sample · Today on New Year’s Day, if the list stays as it is · pick a year, or add one more desire
2027 ÷ 8 leaves 3, so Today shows the fourth active desire, newest first.
The card is a Today widget, “New year desire”, and shows on January 1 alone; on any other day it takes no space. Fulfilled and archived desires are never picked. Adding or finishing a desire changes the count, and with it which desire a coming New Year shows.
Tips
- Write the "Why" in your own words. It is what tells you, a year later, whether the desire is still alive.
- Insights lists desires older than 90 days as review candidates. Keep, link, fulfill or archive each one; an old desire is not a failure.
- Switch "Card style" to "Grid" in Settings if your list is long and you want to scan it.
Questions
About Desires day to day.
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What kinds of desires can I add?
Place, Experience, Creation, Skill, Relationship, Feeling, Thing, Giving, Witness or Other. The chips at the top of the list show one kind at a time.
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What happens when I mark one fulfilled?
You choose "Today" or a date, and can add a note. The desire leaves the active list for the "FULFILLED" section and the "Fulfilled" list, and its card shows your note and the date.
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Can I keep notes as a desire takes shape?
Yes. A desire's page has "NOTES & PLANS", where each note is a Thought, Plan, Research, Progress or Decision.
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What counts as a review candidate?
Any active desire added 90 or more days ago. Insights lists them oldest first, with their age in days, and marks those past 180 days.
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Does archiving delete a desire?
No. Archived desires wait under "Archived" with a "Restore" button. Only "Delete" removes one, to Recently Deleted, where it can be restored for 30 days.
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Is Desires free, and does it sync?
Desires is part of HourLife Premium. Desires and their notes sync through iCloud with the rest of your data. The display settings stay on the device.
Works with
Where Desires hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Goals
A desire can link to a goal, shown as a pill on its card and under "CONNECTED TO" on its page.
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Projects
A desire can link to a project, which shows as a pill on its card.
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People
Linked people appear under "LINKED PEOPLE" on the desire's page.
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Areas
Each desire can carry a life area, and Insights groups your desires by area.
Read and try
Books from the library that Desires puts into practice, and something to try on paper or in the browser.
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Die With Zero Bill Perkins Perkins on time buckets and memory dividends: some experiences have a last good year to have them.
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Year of Yes Shonda Rhimes Rhimes said yes to everything that scared her for a year. A bucket list is a place to start.
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The Alchemist Paulo Coelho Coelho's fable about following what you want, and the treasure found along the way.
Already have HourLife?
Desires is under Life Design in the module list, and it is part of HourLife Premium. Its page is titled "Life Desires". The "+" button adds a desire, and the ⋯ menu holds "Insights", "Fulfilled", "Archived" and "Settings". On New Year's Day, Today can show one of your active desires and ask "Is this the year?".
Desires is in the Library, under Life Design. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules. It needs HourLife Premium.
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Try Desires in HourLife.
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