How to Set and Change Your Goal

Your goal tells AlcoLog what you’re working toward. It sets your weekly target, decides which card you see on the AlcoScore screen, and picks the mode the app runs in: every goal logs drinks in Tracking Mode except Quit entirely, which switches AlcoLog to Sober Mode. You choose a goal during setup and can change it at any time. Goals are free for everyone.

# Step 1. Pick your goal

During setup, the screen What brings you here? lists five goals. Tap one, then tap Continue.

• Cut back: “Drink less than I do now”. You set a weekly unit cap.
• Stay under a limit: “Keep my weekly units in check”. You set a weekly unit cap, starting from your local health guideline.
• Build sober days: “More dry days each week”. You set how many alcohol-free days you want each week.
• Quit entirely: “Turns on Sober Mode”. AlcoLog counts your alcohol-free days instead of your drinks.
• Just track: “I want to see my data”. No target and no goal card.

Below the list, a small panel shows which mode your pick puts you in: Tracking Mode for every goal except Quit entirely, Sober Mode for Quit entirely.

# Step 2. Set your target

The next screen depends on the goal you picked.

• Cut back asks How much do you want to cut back? Drag the slider to a weekly cap between 1 and 40 UNITS / WEEK. It starts at about 70% of your local guideline (9 units in the UK), a nudge toward a real reduction.
• Stay under a limit asks What does success look like? The slider starts at your local health authority’s weekly guideline, and a tag above the number says where it came from, for example DETECTED, UK · CMO GUIDELINE. AlcoLog counts in UK units (10 ml of pure alcohol), so outside the UK the number is converted: 14 in the UK, 25 in the US (NIAAA’s 14 standard drinks), 13 in Australia and New Zealand, 3 in Canada. A hint card turns the number into something you can picture, such as “About 6 pints of beer or 1.6 bottles of wine”.
• Build sober days asks How many dry days per week? Pick 1 to 7 DRY DAYS / WEEK. It starts at 3.

Tap Set My Target to go on.

• Quit entirely has no target. Instead you set up Sober Mode: tell AlcoLog when your last drink was (the count starts the day after), then optionally add your reasons for stopping, or tap Skip for now. The full walkthrough is in How to Use Sober Mode.
• Just track shows No targets, no judgment. Tap Sounds Good.

# Step 3. See which mode you start in

Near the end of setup, Two modes, one swipe explains both modes. The mode your goal starts in carries a You start here badge: Sober Mode for Quit entirely, Tracking Mode for everything else.

You’re not locked in. Swipe across the Home screen to see the other mode, or go to Settings > App Mode. Goal and mode move together:

• Turning Sober Mode on changes your goal to Quit entirely.
• Turning Sober Mode off from Home or App Mode changes your goal to Build sober days (3 dry days a week, unless you’ve set a number before).

Tap Continue to finish setup.

# Step 4. Read your Goal card

Open the AlcoScore tab. The Your Goal card sits directly under the score dial. What it shows depends on your goal.

Cut back, Stay under a limit and Build sober days show your week so far against your target:

• The big number is this week’s total over your target, labeled UNITS THIS WEEK or DRY DAYS THIS WEEK. Weeks run Monday to Sunday, and a session that’s still running already counts.
• The progress bar is green while you’re on track and turns amber as you get close to a unit cap (90% of it) and red once you pass it. A green On Track pill appears only when you’re on track; the card never adds a negative label.
• The footer line looks ahead, for example “4 days left, on pace”, “2 units left this week” or “Goal met for the week”.
• The seven small bars are Monday to Sunday: green for a dry day, red for a day with drinks, today drawn taller, days still to come muted. On Build sober days, dashed outlines mark spare days: days you could drink and still hit your dry-day target.

Tap the card to open Goal History, one bar for each of your last four completed weeks.

Quit entirely shows a QUIT card with your day count and the date you started, and a milestone card at days 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180, 365 and 730.

Just track shows no card. The rest of the screen is the same.

After four weeks in a row under your cap (or at your dry-day target), the card turns gold and reads GOAL ACHIEVED. Tap Reflect on Your Goal to see your stats, then choose Keep My Goal, or Set a New Goal to pick a goal and move your target (tap Update Target to save). Once you close it, the gold card won’t come back for at least four weeks.

The goal card sits beside your AlcoScore, not inside it: your goal and target are never part of the score. See How to Understand Your AlcoScore.

# Step 5. Change your goal or target

1. Open Settings. Under Goal, the Your Goal row shows what you have now, for example “Current goal: Stay under a limit, 14 units / week”. Tap it.
2. Your saved goal carries a CURRENT badge. Tap a different goal, or keep the same one.
3. For a goal with a number, adjust the slider under Your Target.
4. Tap Save Goal at the top right. It stays grey until you’ve changed something.

Moving into or out of Sober Mode takes one extra step:

• Picking Quit entirely: the top-right button reads Continue and opens the Sober Mode setup, which asks when your last drink was. If a session is running, AlcoLog asks End your session? first.
• Leaving Quit entirely: a Saving turns off Sober Mode note appears under the goals. Tap Save Goal, then Turn Off in the Turn off Sober Mode? alert. Drink logging comes back.

To go through the whole setup again, tap Settings > About > View Onboarding. It opens on your current goal and target, so tapping straight through keeps them.

# What happens to your history

Changing your goal never deletes anything:

• Your sessions, drinks, check-ins, streaks and notes all stay, and History shows everything.
• Your AlcoScore doesn’t move, because the goal is not part of it.
• The goal card measures against the goal and target you have now, and that includes the four past weeks in Goal History and the four-week run behind the gold card. Lower your target and a week that was under the old cap can show as over the new one.
• Cut back and Stay under a limit share one weekly unit target, so switching between them keeps your number. Your dry-day target is kept when you switch away from Build sober days.
• Saving Just track in Settings clears your weekly targets. If you later pick a goal with a target, the slider starts from the default again.
• Your weekly unit target is also the limit behind the weekly progress on your widgets. With no unit target set, they use your local guideline.