Getting Started with Existential
Welcome! 👋
You’ve made a great choice by trying out Existential — a journaling app designed for reflection, perspective, and personal insight.
How is Existential Different?
Existential isn’t your typical journaling tool. Instead of focusing on daily entries, it’s organized by weeks and years to give you a clearer view of your life’s bigger picture.
Think of it like tracking the stock market — instead of getting caught in daily ups and downs, you zoom out to observe long-term trends, momentum, and meaningful moments.
Creating Your Account
To get started, tap “Get for free.” in the very top-right of this page.
Sign up with your email and a password, or use your Google account — easy as that.
Navigating Your Dashboard
Intro Tutorial
When you first log in, you’ll see a mini Getting Started tutorial in the bottom-right. It includes the below five essential checklist items to get acclimated.
Tap any item to read it’s instructions and then "Mark complete" when finished.
You can also choose to skip it, if you prefer, by tapping “Skip this checklist.
Let’s walk through those five steps in more detail:
1. Add Your Birthdate
Your birthdate helps to finish setting up both your timeline and journal starting points.
To do – simply open your ☰ main menu and on the Account tab add your birthdate.
2. Create Your First Entry
Your journal dashboard is organized into a vertical list of years. Each yeah contains around 52 weeks within it. Each of these weeks are initially marked by it's week number (i.e. 1-52).
Tapping on a week will expand a journal for those 7 days.
In your entry – you have:
Summary – A few keywords that encapsulate what happened that week. It allows you to quickly, at a glance, see your week from your journal dashboard.
Journal Entry – write about whatever occurred in the week and any takeaways.
Week Rating – you can choose to score your week from 1-10 based on how well you felt it went. It can help track your mood, quality of life, and feeling of progress.
Tap anywhere outside the journal entry modal to save and close it.
You’ll notice the week will change color to reflect your rating. Your summary will likewise be reflected.
3. Mark an Upcoming Event
Your journal isn’t just for looking back — it can help you plan ahead too.
Tap on an upcoming week to open it’s journal entry. In the Summary field, enter your reminder – i.e. “Kate and Ben visiting” or “Trip to Iceland 🧊”
4. Customizing Years
At the top of each year in your journal is a bar that contains a:
Year label (e.g. 2025)
Year summary field – A summary for the year. What's occured or goals accomplished. Can also mark upcoming plans or goals in future years.
Year menu – the ••• menu on the right of each year can be clicked to expand further options. These include Year Ratings and Adding Images.
5. Add a Milestone
Your Timeline at the top of your dashboard is designed to show life’s peaks, valleys, and pivotal events.
To edit – tap the main menu ☰ in the top right. Then, tap the Timeline tab.
To add a milestones:
📌 Quick tip
Use categories to color-code different types of milestones — like career, relationships, or travel. See other category ideas on the Timeline guide.
Continued Reading…
And that’s it! You’ve covered much of the basics.
From here, explore deeper tips in our other help articles:
