Sobriety · Health & Body · HourLife Premium
Count the days you’ve held, and keep every one of them when you slip.
Count the days since you last did something you are leaving behind, log slips as data, and mark the milestones you choose.
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A count, not a streak to guardThe big number is the days since your last time. A slip starts it again from that moment, and the runs before it stay on the timeline.
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Your reason, under the countThe why you write before a hard day sits on the goal’s card in your own words, each time you open Sobriety.
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Kept on this deviceGoals, slips and reasons never go to iCloud. They reach your other devices only by Nearby Sync, or in a backup file you save.
Your first week with Sobriety
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Turn it on
On Health, open the ⋯ menu, choose "Settings" and turn on "Show Sobriety". A "SOBRIETY" section appears on the Health page. Sobriety is part of Premium.
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Start a goal
Tap "+" in that section. Name what you are leaving behind, pick a category and set "Last time" to the day you last did it; the count starts there. Tap "Next" and write why it matters.
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Pick the milestones
Tick the moments worth marking, from 1 week to 1 year, or type a custom number of days, and tap "Start". Nothing is ticked for you, and the goal keeps what you pick here.
Every step, in detail
- 1 On Health, open the "⋯" menu, choose "Settings" and turn on "Show Sobriety".
- 2 Tap "+" in the "SOBRIETY" section of the Health page to start a "New Sobriety Goal".
- 3 Name what you are leaving behind, pick a category (Substance, Alcohol, Food, Digital, Behaviour, or Other), set the date under "Last time", and tap "Next".
- 4 Answer "Why does this matter to you?" in your own words, tap "Next", pick the milestones worth marking, then tap "Start".
A run, a slip, and what stays
The big number is the days since your last time. A slip ends that run and starts the next one from the moment you log it, but the runs before it, your best and the slip itself stay. Let the days pass, log a slip, and watch what moves.
Sample · one goal, started Jul 24, 2026, seen on Tuesday, Oct 20 · try it
All milestones reached
“Better sleep and energy”
A slip is data. 45 days still happened. Log what you can so you understand the pattern.
What kind of slip?
Your next count starts from today. Your history stays complete — slips are never deleted.
Lifetime
89 days Started July 24, 2026- 45dCurrent
- 45dBest
- 2Slips
- 98%Clean
Slip log — 2 total · data, not failure
- Sep 5, 2026·Day 43Impulsive
Long week. A bottle already open at a friend’s.
- Aug 24, 2026·Day 31Social pressure
Wedding toast, then the rest of the bottle.
The date under the count is the day the goal started, and a slip does not move it. The track fills from the milestone before toward the next one, and a slip sends it back to the first. “Day N” in the slip log counts from the start, and a slip logged here keeps no note, though the app asks for one.
What a slip asks, and what it keeps
“Log a slip” opens with the count you had: “A slip is data. 45 days still happened.” It asks when, which of four kinds, and two optional lines. The sheet’s own note is the reason for the kinds: “Different types of slips need different responses.”
What kind of slip?
Four kinds, one tap each
The sheet opens on the “Default slip type” from Settings, Impulsive unless you change it.
Unplanned: the urge met an easy moment.
Other people, a round, an invitation.
A breaking point, when things were already hard.
You chose it, knowing. Elsewhere it reads “Deliberate choice”.
What it keeps
And where each part shows again
- Whendate and time
Now, unless you move it back. The count starts again from here.
- Slip log
- History timeline
- Day by Day
- What kindone of four
The colour of the slip’s dot and its label.
- Slip log
- History timeline
- Insights: Slip patterns
- What was happening?optional
“Context, trigger, where you were...”
- Slip log
- History timeline
- Day by Day
- Reflectionoptional
“What would you do differently?” Kept with the slip, for you; no screen shows it again.
- Kept, not shown
- The run before itcounted for you
How many days the run had held. The longest of these is your Best, until the current run passes it.
- Best
- Insights: best ever
- Today’s energyif you logged it
If you logged Energy today, the slip keeps that reading beside it.
- Kept, not shown
“Your next count starts from today. Your history stays complete — slips are never deleted.” There is no delete for a slip.
The history, number by number
Tap a goal to open its history. Five numbers sit under “LIFETIME”, and each is simple arithmetic on the day you started and the slips since. Below them, the timeline lists every run newest first, each bar measured against a year.
Lifetime
The sample goal on Oct 20
- 89days, lifetime
From Jul 24 to today, counting both days:
88 + 1. A slip never shortens it. - 45dCurrent
Days since the last slip, Sep 5. The same number as the card.
- 45dBest
The longest run, the current one included:
max(45, 31, 12). - 2Slips
Every slip on record. None can be deleted.
- 98%Clean
Lifetime days less one for each slip:
(89 − 2) ÷ 89. With no slips it reads 100%.
Timeline
Every run, against a year
A bar’s full width is 365 days, so a run shows its length at a glance, and the shortest still gets a sliver.
- 45 days (ongoing)Sep 5, 2026 → today
- Sep 5, 2026 · Slip
Long week. A bottle already open at a friend’s.
Impulsive - 12 daysAug 24, 2026 → Sep 5, 2026
- Aug 24, 2026 · Slip
Wedding toast, then the rest of the bottle.
Social pressure - 31 daysJul 24, 2026 → Aug 24, 2026
Your reason, and where the record stays
The second step of a new goal asks “Why does this matter to you?”, and it says when to answer: “Write this before difficulty arrives.” What you write is marked “Private — only ever shown to you.”, and the goal it belongs to never leaves for iCloud.
Your anchor
Written once, shown where you look
“Better sleep and energy”
- On the goal’s card, under the count and the milestone track, each time you open Sobriety. “Show reason strip” in Settings hides it.
- Under “WHY” on the goal’s history, just above “Log a Slip”.
Kept on this device
Goals, slips and reasons stay off iCloud
Sobriety is one of the records HourLife keeps out of iCloud on purpose. These are the only ways it leaves the iPhone.
- Not in iCloud
Sobriety records are never synced through iCloud, and HourLife for Mac lists the module as “Stays on your iPhone”.
- Nearby Sync
Device to device, between your own iPhone, iPad and Mac, when they are close together.
- A backup file you save
The Health Records backup in Settings carries your sobriety goals and slips with the rest of Health, and goes only where you save it.
Your streaks, and what tests them
“Insights” in the ⋯ menu of the Sobriety page sets your goals side by side: where each run stands today, the longest you have ever held, and which kinds of slip come up most.
Sample · three goals on Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026
Your longest active streak is 45 days — Alcohol.
4 slips recorded, 0 milestones reached.
Active streaks
Where each commitment stands today.
Your best run ever is 45 days.
Commitments
All active streaks.
- AlcoholAlcohol45d
- Late-night sugarFood18d
- No social media before noonDigital12d
Slip patterns
2 slips in the last 30 days.
Naming the pattern is how you get ahead of it.
- Impulsive2
- Social pressure1
- Deliberate choice1
“Best ever” is the longest run of any goal, ended or not, so it can sit above every current streak. The slip kinds count every slip on record, not only the last 30 days, and kinds with the same count can trade places. A “Milestones” card joins these once a milestone is recorded as reached. The app does not record that yet, so the count reads 0 and the card stays away.
Tips
- Write your reason before a hard day arrives. The app shows it on the goal card, so it is in front of you when you open Sobriety.
- Choose every milestone you want on the last step of a new goal. The goal has no edit, so the milestones you pick there are the ones it keeps.
- If one kind of slip comes up most often for you, set it as the "Default slip type" in Settings so "Log a slip" opens with it already selected.
- Settings lets you hide the slip log, the milestone track or the reason strip if you would rather keep the page to the day counts alone.
- Add the "Sobriety Streak" widget to your Home Screen to see the days on your longest active goal without opening the app.
Questions
About Sobriety day to day.
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Does a slip erase my progress?
No. The count starts again from the slip's date and time, but the slip, the run before it and your best run stay, and slips cannot be deleted. The "Log a Slip" sheet says it plainly: "Your history stays complete — slips are never deleted."
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Is my sobriety data in iCloud?
No. Goals and slips are kept only on the device. They reach your iPad or Mac by Nearby Sync, device to device, and the Health Records backup file you save yourself carries them too.
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Can I track something that isn't alcohol or drugs?
Yes. Name the goal anything ("e.g. Alcohol, Doomscrolling" is the hint), and file it under Substance, Alcohol, Food, Digital, Behaviour or Other.
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Why does the card say "since" a date before my last slip?
The date under the count is the day you started the goal, and a slip does not move it. The count beside it is the days since your last slip, and the history's timeline shows when each run began.
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Can I change a goal after starting it?
No. A goal's name, category, reason and milestones are set when you tap "Start", and the app has no edit for them, so tick every milestone you want on the last step.
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Is Sobriety free?
Sobriety is part of Premium. The rest of the Health page, with its metrics, events and medication, is free.
Works with
Where Sobriety hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Health
Sobriety lives on the Health page, as a "SOBRIETY" section with days clean for each goal and a button to log a slip. Turn it on with "Show Sobriety" in Health's Settings.
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Habits
In a habit's edit form, "Replacement Behavior For" links the habit to a sobriety goal, and the goal's history lists it under "Replacement Behaviors" with today's progress.
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Today
The "Sobriety goals" widget on Today lists each active goal with its day count, and Today shows a card when you pass a milestone you chose.
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Countdowns
Countdowns counts up from your last time for each active goal, and counts down to the goal's first milestone while it is still ahead.
Read and try
Books from the library that Sobriety puts into practice.
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Dopamine Nation Anna Lembke Lembke on pleasure, pain and why a stretch of abstinence resets the balance. Sobriety counts the days.
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Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking Allen Carr Carr's method of removing the desire rather than resisting it, known well beyond smoking.
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking
Allen Carr
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Unwinding Anxiety Judson Brewer Brewer on meeting a craving with curiosity. A slip logged as data is the same move.
Unwinding Anxiety
Judson Brewer
Already have HourLife?
Sobriety is a section of the Health page, once "Show Sobriety" is on in Health's Settings. Its chevron opens the full Sobriety page, whose ⋯ menu holds "Insights" and "Settings".
Sobriety is in the Library, under Health & Body. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules. It needs HourLife Premium.
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