My calendar was running my life. I wanted my goals to.
That is the honest reason I started building Cupboard.
The problem I kept running into
For most of my career, my day has been shaped by one thing: my calendar. Meetings, pings, recurring check ins, random “quick chats.” By the time I looked up, the workday was gone.
Then there was everything outside of work. Getting kids out the door. Drop offs and pickups. Bedtime routines. Texts about schedules. Groceries, bills, house projects, the constant swirl of family logistics. That time filled up just as quickly.
The pattern was always the same. I knew what my high value work was for the week. Strategy thinking. Deep product work. Writing. Learning. I also knew what mattered most at home. Being present with my partner and kids. Taking care of my health. Investing in friendships and community. These were the things that would actually move the needle in my career, my relationships, and my life.
But those things kept getting pushed into “in between time.”
I was spending about 80 percent of my time on things that were urgent or scheduled, and maybe 20 percent on what actually mattered, both at work and at home. On the rare days when I did get to my most important work or truly present family time, it felt like an accident, not the result of a system I could trust.
I tried fixing this the way many of us do. I downloaded every productivity app I could find. I built complicated Notion systems. I tried different todo tools and a handful of habit trackers. Some of them were great products, but they all had the same flaw for me.
They started with tasks or streaks, not with goals.
I need my day to connect to something bigger
I am someone who needs a clear line between what I do today and the bigger things I care about.
If I am lifting weights, I want to know how it connects to “Be strong and healthy at 70.”
If I am working on a side project, I want to see how it serves “Build financial freedom” or “Grow as a builder.”
Most tools either give you:
- Lofty goals that sound inspiring but are not specific or measurable
- Or daily streaks that are very specific but totally disconnected from any higher level purpose
I am good at setting ambitious goals. I am also very good at setting goals that are not S.M.A.R.T. They sound impressive, but they are vague. “Get in the best shape of my life.” “Be more present with my kids.” “Do more deep work.” None of that translates directly into what to do today at 4 p.m.
At one point I picked up a book about healthspan by Dr Peter Attia and it really hit me. I wanted to be strong and healthy as I age, to play with my kids and one day my grandkids, and to avoid the slow decline that so many people experience. But even with all that insight in front of me, I still felt overwhelmed. I did not know where to start on a random Tuesday afternoon. Lift weights or do cardio. Focus on sleep. Change my diet. Book a doctor visit. There was no clear bridge between the big idea of healthspan and the specific actions I needed to practice every day.
On the other side, I have tried pure habit streaks. Drink water. Meditate. Read ten pages. Go for a run. That works for a while, until life happens. A streak breaks. I get sick or travel or have a rough week with the kids, and suddenly the streak is gone.
There was a stretch where I followed a very solid diet plan for weeks. I was eating clean, tracking what I ate, and actually feeling good about the routine. Then one late night I ordered a California style burrito with fries in it. It was great in the moment, but it felt like it broke the spell. The next day I caught myself thinking that I would get back on track later, maybe on Monday. In the meantime my food choices slowly slid in the wrong direction and that one burrito turned into a small spiral.
When the streak breaks, I tend to give up because I have lost the context. I forget why I started in the first place. The habit is no longer anchored to a goal I care about, so it is easy to drop.
What I was missing was a system that keeps the entire chain visible.
Goal → Habit → Today’s action → Progress over time
Why I decided to build my own thing
I have spent years building products that sit at the intersection of behavior change, human psychology, and productivity. I read the research. I worked with world-renown behavioral economists. I have seen how powerful it is when you design systems around real human behavior instead of wishful thinking.
At the same time, I am a working parent with a full calendar, competing priorities, and limited energy. I am building this for people like me first. People who want to live intentionally, but have to fit that intention into a real life with kids, work, bills, and messy days.
Cupboard started from a simple problem: most of us let our calendar and inbox dictate our day, along with everyone else’s priorities and the constant randomness of life. Meetings, messages, kids’ schedules, last minute requests, and small fires show up first. The things that actually matter to us only get attention if there is leftover time.
The purpose of Cupboard is to flip that script by making your goals the starting point and letting them drive what shows up today, across work, family, and your own personal wellbeing.
No tool I tried did that in a way that felt complete, science based, and flexible enough for the reality of my life. So I decided to build one.
What Cupboard does differently
At a high level, Cupboard is a goal first, science based habit app that turns your big life priorities into a small, focused list of what to do today. Your calendar no longer runs your life by default. Your goals do. Cupboard Description
Here are a few things that make it different.
1. Goals sit at the top of the hierarchy
In Cupboard, everything starts with goals. Not tasks. Not a blank checklist.
You define the big things that matter to you across your whole life, not only work. Cupboard already comes with categories like:
- 💪 Health and Fitness
- 😴 Sleep and Recovery
- 🧠 Mental and Emotional Wellbeing
- 🎯 Focus and Productivity
- 📈 Career and Growth
- 📚 Learning and Skills
- ❤️ Relationships and Social Life
- 👪 Family and Parenting
- 💰 Money and Finances
- 🏡 Home and Environment
- 🎨 Creativity and Hobbies
- ✨ Spirituality and Meaning
- ⚖️ Time and Life Balance
- 📱 Digital Life and Consumption
- 🤝 Community and Contribution
The goal is to help you see your life as a set of themes you are actively investing in, instead of a pile of unrelated tasks.
2. Habits are the bridge between goals and your day
Under each goal, you create habits. These are the recurring behaviors you want to practice that move that goal forward.
For example
Goal: Get Healthy
Habit: Track calories most days
Habit: Do cardio to run a 5k
Goal: Be present with my kids
Habit: Device free one on one time three times a week
Cupboard treats habits as recurring commitments that belong to a goal. You never lose sight of why a habit exists. On any given day, your Today view shows a focused list of habit occurrences, each labeled with the goal it serves.
You are not just “going for a run.” You are making progress toward “Run a 5k without stopping” or “Lower my resting heart rate.” That context matters.
3. Custom fields turn habits into measurable data
This is the part I am most excited about.
Most habit apps let you check things off. Some let you log a number. Cupboard goes much deeper by letting each habit have custom fields that define what progress looks like for that habit.
The custom fields are the unit of measurement.
For example:
- For “Track calories,” a custom field might be “Calories” as a number you enter each day
- For “Cardio to run a 5k,” a custom field might be “Miles run” or “Minutes per mile”
- For “Deep work on a key project,” a custom field might be “Minutes focused” or “Pomodoros completed”
- For “Invest time in my marriage,” a custom field might be “Minutes of intentional conversation”
Cupboard uses AI behind the scenes to suggest compelling custom fields for each habit you create. That prompt and experience are critical. It is where the app helps you translate a vague habit into a measurable behavior that connects back to the goal.
Over time, these fields let you see real trends, not just streaks. How many weeks in a row did you average eight thousand steps a day. How often are you actually doing deep work for at least ninety minutes. Are you gradually increasing your miles or shaving time off your pace.
This is how we keep things science based. We define behaviors clearly, measure them, and roll them up into a picture of progress.
How Cupboard is meant to help
When I think about Cupboard, I think about the real ways it should make your life easier. What are you actually asking this app to help you with.
Here are a few of the main things Cupboard is designed to do.
- Help you see, at a glance, what actually matters this week across your whole life, not only what is on your calendar
- Turn your fuzzy goals into a clear set of habits and specific actions that show up on your Today view
- Give you a simple way to track real progress, in numbers, not just checkmarks
- Keep you connected to your goals when life happens and your streaks break
- Help you rebalance when you drift into spending most of your time on low value, urgent work
- Show you that you are actually moving toward the person you want to become, even if the progress is small
If Cupboard can show up for you in these ways, it will earn a place in your daily routine.
Why I believe I am the right person to build this
I am building Cupboard because I have lived this problem for years.
I know what it is like to look back at a week and realize the most important things barely got touched. I know how frustrating it is to bounce between tools, trying to force them into a system they were never designed for. I know the temptation to give up when a streak breaks and the shame that sometimes follows.
At the same time, my work has given me a front row seat to how people change behavior in the real world. I have seen what helps people follow through, what overwhelms them, and what actually sticks. I care deeply about making that kind of support available in a simple, calm product that respects the complexity of real life.
Cupboard is my attempt to bring those worlds together.
A clear, goal driven structure.
A habit system rooted in behavior science.
A flexible way to track real progress across every area that matters to you.
Where this is going
The long term vision for Cupboard is to become a kind of personal operating system. A place where your daily actions, weekly rhythms, and periodic check ins all align with your real priorities. Cupboard Description
But I am trying not to get ahead of myself. The first job is simple.
Help you stop living entirely by your calendar and start living by your goals.
If that resonates with you, then Cupboard is for you.