Build → running every morning
Lockin turns that five-dollar forfeit into the one argument stronger than the snooze button. You set the morning deadline, the step target, the stake. The contract does the rest.
Suggested starting contract
$5/day against missing your daily target of Step target before morning deadline.
Open Lockin, tap 'New Commitment,' and select Morning Run from the habit library. This pre-fills the step target and morning deadline defaults.
In the 7-step wizard, tap 'Set deadline' to pick the time of day by which your step target must be reached. The default is 23:59 (end of day), but for a morning run habit you choose a custom earlier time, typically 9:00am or 9:30am. A run completed at 9:31am with a 9:30am deadline does not count, even if the step total is hit. The deadline is set once at contract creation and applies to every scheduled day for the life of the contract; it cannot be changed mid-contract. A tighter deadline raises the difficulty and unlocks higher Locks and XP rewards, so a 7:30am cutoff is rewarded harder than a 10:00am one.
Default is 4,000 steps before deadline — enough that a casual walk around the block will not satisfy the contract, but a 25-minute morning run gets you there comfortably. Adjust to match your current fitness and route — a longer run or hillier terrain may warrant a 5,000 or 6,000 step target. Set a number high enough that the run is the only realistic path to it.
Grant Lockin read access to your daily step count. This is a one-time step. Lockin reads only your step total and nothing else — no GPS, no heart rate, no workout details.
Pick a daily stake between $1 and $500. Then choose the registered charity that receives any forfeited amount — categories include climate, mental health, animal welfare, and digital literacy.
This is not in the app, but it is the most important setup step. Every minute of extra morning time has to come from the other end of the day. Set a phone-down alarm for the night before.
From Lockin's data
Beta users who set a fixed morning deadline — rather than an open-ended daily target — reported substantially higher completion rates in the first two weeks. Anchoring to a specific clock time, not a general intention, was the single trait most common among contracts that completed the full 20-day stretch cleanly.
"I had started running three times before this. Never made it past two weeks. The stake is small but losing it to charity felt genuinely bad — bad enough to get my shoes on at 6:15am in February."
— Anonymous beta user, morning run challenge, 9 weeks active
Because motivation is not a reliable mechanism at 6:15am. Lally et al. found that behaviour becomes automatic only after sustained repetition in a fixed context — and the average person needs more than two months to reach that automaticity. Before the habit is formed, every morning is a fresh negotiation. Without a concrete cost attached to losing that negotiation, the warm bed wins most of the time. Lockin introduces a financial forfeit that makes the cost of skipping tangible and immediate, which is precisely what motivation alone cannot do.
Yes. You set the step target when you create the contract, and it stays fixed for the contract's duration — this is intentional. Consistency in the target is part of what trains the habit. Adjusting the bar daily reintroduces the same decision-fatigue that makes the habit hard to build in the first place. Finish the contract period, then create a new contract with a higher target if you want to level up.
Forfeited stakes go to a registered charity from Lockin's vetted list. You choose the charity from categories including climate, mental health, animal welfare, and digital literacy when you set up the contract. Lockin charges a small platform fee to cover payment processing and operations. Refer to the transparency page inside the app for charity-by-charity tallies.
Lockin enforces a single per-day deadline, not a windowed start-and-end interval. When you set up your contract you pick the cutoff time — for example, 9:30am — and your step target must be reached before that cutoff. Steps logged at any point in the day before the deadline count; steps logged after do not. The contract specifies a step target you set at signup — by default, 4,000 steps — chosen high enough that a short morning walk to the corner store will not hit it. The combination of the early deadline and the step target is what enforces the morning-run intent: you cannot retroactively cover a missed morning with an evening jog, and you cannot satisfy the contract with ambient walking before work.
Inside the 7-step wizard you tap 'Set deadline' and pick the time of day by which your step target must be reached. For a morning run habit this is typically 9:00am or 9:30am. The default before you change it is 23:59, which is too loose for a morning run, so you set a custom earlier time on the 24-hour picker. If your step target is 4,000 steps and your deadline is 9:30am, a step total of 3,500 at 9:30am does not count even if you finish the run by 9:35am. The deadline is locked in once at contract creation and applies to every scheduled day for the life of the contract — it cannot be edited mid-contract, which is intentional. A tighter deadline (a 7:30am cutoff rather than 9:30am) raises the difficulty of the contract and unlocks higher Locks and XP rewards.
Free to download. You set the target, the stake, and the charity.