How to Create a Milestone Journal Entry

Kwame, a 48-year-old high school basketball coach, lost his wife to cancer eleven months ago. The first anniversary of her diagnosis is coming. The first anniversary of her death is weeks after that. He doesn't want those dates to look the same as any other entry in his journal. He wants them marked — held apart — so he can find them again when he needs to.

Milestone entries are a special journal entry type designed for significant dates: anniversaries, firsts, turning points. They appear with a distinct visual marker in your timeline and can be filtered separately from other entries.

Steps

1. Open the Journal tab and tap "New Entry"

Tap the Journal tab at the bottom of the screen, then tap the + New Entry button. This opens the entry type selection screen.

2. Select "Milestone" entry type

You'll see three entry types:

• Free-form
• Guided prompt
• Milestone

Tap Milestone. This opens a slightly different entry form — one that includes fields for milestone type and date alongside the writing area.

3. Choose the milestone type and enter the date

Tap the Milestone Type field to select from the list:

• Anniversary (of the loss)
• First holiday or celebration without them
• Their birthday
• Your birthday
• A day they would have loved
• A new beginning
• A hard day
• Other (write your own label)

After selecting the type, set the date. You can enter today's date, a past date (if you're writing retrospectively), or a future date (if you're writing in anticipation of a day you're dreading).

4. Write your entry

Write as much or as little as you need. The text field works the same as in a free-form or guided entry. There's no expected format for a milestone entry — some people write a few sentences. Some write pages. Some write a list of things they remembered that day.

5. Tag the entry with emotions

Use the emotion tag selector to add tags like "sadness," "gratitude," "anger," "love," or any of the available options. Multiple tags can be applied to a single entry.

6. Save the entry

Tap Save. The milestone entry appears in your journal timeline with a distinct visual marker — a small flag or badge icon in the corner of the entry card — so it stands out from your regular entries.

What to Expect

Milestone entries appear in your main journal timeline alongside all other entries, but they are visually distinct. You can filter your journal to show only milestone entries by tapping the filter icon and selecting Milestones.

When an anniversary you've recorded approaches, Grief Companion will send you a gentle notification the day before. The notification does not use celebratory language. It says something like: "Tomorrow is a day that matters. We're here if you need us."

You can choose to turn anniversary notifications on or off in Settings → Notifications → Anniversary Reminders.

note

Milestone entries are available on all plan tiers, including Free.