How do I create custom categories (lanes)?

Premium accounts can add their own life domains alongside the standard categories.

What custom categories are

LifeCharted ships with a set of standard categories — called lanes — like Residence, Education, Work, Travel, and Health. Custom categories let you add your own life domains alongside them, such as Faith, Volunteering, Music, or Caregiving.

Each custom category gets its own row on the timeline, its own color, and an optional icon, so events in it are easy to spot.

Creating one (Premium)

Custom categories are a Premium feature. Open the Add Event flow and choose "Create a custom category." Give it a name (required), pick a color, and optionally add an emoji icon.

Creating a category immediately starts a new event in it, so you can capture your first entry right away. Free accounts see the option with an upgrade prompt instead.

Renaming, reordering, and deleting

From the same Add Event screen you can edit a custom category to change its name, color, or icon, and drag your categories to reorder how the lanes stack on the timeline.

When you delete a custom category that still has events, you are asked whether to move those events to another category or delete them — so nothing disappears by accident.

Privacy works the same as other categories

Events in a custom category use the same visibility controls as everything else — each event is Private or Shareable, and you can mark sensitive events to keep them out of AI features. See the privacy article for the full picture.

Rules of Thumb

Create a custom category only when an area of your life does not fit the standard ones — a few well-chosen categories read better than many sparse ones.
Pick a distinct color so the new lane is easy to scan on the timeline.
Reassign events when deleting a category if you still want to keep them.

Common Mistakes

Expecting custom categories on a Free account — they require Premium.
Creating overlapping categories (e.g., both "Travel" and "Trips") that split related events across two lanes.
Deleting a category without reassigning its events when you meant to keep them.

Take action

Use this article as a guide, then jump back into the product while the advice is fresh.

Add an Event

How do I add an event?

Create a short title, choose the right category, and add a date or date range.

How do privacy and visibility settings work?

Every event has a visibility level. Lane defaults handle most decisions automatically — you only need to override when something is an exception.

What are Eras and how do I set them up?

Eras let you group years of your life into named chapters that appear as a colored band above the timeline.