Anchor Help Center
Everything you need to get the most out of Anchor. Can't find what you're looking for? Reach out.
Getting Started
-
Anchor is built around a simple loop: set a daily intention, review your events, run a session, receive nudges when your body drifts, and reflect on what happened. Reflections help you recognize your patterns over time.
1. Set your daily intention. Each morning, Anchor will remind you to set your intention for the day. Choose a word or phrase that describes how you want to show up — Grounded, Clear, Composed, Present, Disciplined. This is your anchor for the day.
2. Review today's schedule and set your reminders. Look at your events and tap "Remind me" for the meetings where you want Anchor to prompt you to start a session — high-pressure moments, difficult conversations, or anything where showing up composed matters. If you haven't connected your calendar, add an event manually by tapping the + button in the upper right corner of Today's Schedule.
3. Start a session on your Watch. Open Anchor on your Apple Watch and tap Start Session. Keep your Watch on and return to your work or meeting. Anchor monitors during your session — waiting for shifts in your biometrics that signal a high-pressure moment.
4. Receive a nudge when it matters. When Anchor detects a shift, it sends a unique haptic tap to your wrist — a signal to pause, recenter, and bring your best self back into the moment. Not an alarm. Just a quiet reminder of who you are.
5. Reflect after your session. When your session ends, open Anchor on your iPhone and add a reflection. Write or speak a few words about what was happening. This context is what turns data into patterns and patterns into self-awareness.
The more consistently you complete the loop — session, nudge, reflection — the more precisely Anchor learns your patterns.
Every session counts.
-
Start here — it takes under 60 seconds to begin.
1. Put on your Apple Watch and open Anchor. Tap Start Session.
2. Go into your meeting, presentation, difficult conversation, or interview. Anchor will notify you when needed.
3. When you feel a haptic tap — that's your nudge. Take one breath. Come back.
4. When your session ends, open Anchor on your iPhone and write a quick reflection.
That's the whole loop.
Session → nudge → reflection. The more you use it, the more precisely Anchor learns your patterns.
Sessions & Nudges
-
A session is a block of focused time where Anchor monitors your physiology and delivers a nudge when your body signals a heightened state — helping you stay calm, composed, and present when it matters most.
Sessions are designed for high-pressure moments: job interviews, important meetings, public speaking, difficult conversations — any situation where you want a quiet signal to stay centered.
1. Open Anchor on your Apple Watch and tap Start Session.
2. Keep your Apple Watch on and return to your work or meeting.
3. Anchor supports you during your session — you'll receive a nudge on your wrist when it matters.
Go back to what matters.
Return to the room, the conversation, the moment. Anchor will find you when it needs to.
-
Each session lasts 60 minutes. When time is up, you'll receive a notification on your Apple Watch with two options: end the session or extend it to keep monitoring.
1. When you see "Session paused — extend to continue monitoring," tap Extend.
2. Your session continues — no reset, no interruption.
* You can extend multiple times. There's no hard limit on total session length.
-
You can end a session at any time. Your data and nudges will be saved and sent to the phone app dashboard — where you can add context and reflect on what may have been driving your heightened state. Over time, this builds your personal pattern library.
1. Tap the active session on your Apple Watch, then tap End Session and confirm.
2. Open the Anchor app on your iPhone when convenient.
3. Review your session data and add a reflection to log what was happening.
-
A nudge is a unique haptic tap from your Apple Watch — Anchor's way of saying: your body is tensing up. Take a moment to be present.
Nudges trigger when your heart rate and heart rate variability signal a shift away from your intended state. They're not alarms. They don't demand anything. They create a moment of pause and awareness.
Most people feel a nudge, take one breath, and return to focus.
That pause is the whole point — a quiet presence in the middle of pressure, reminding you of who you actually are.
Reflections
-
Reflections are short notes you write to yourself after a session — or any time. The goal is to capture what was driving your elevated state so you can recognize environmental patterns over time.
1. After a session ends, open the Anchor app on your iPhone and go to the dashboard. You'll see a prompt to add a reflection.
2. Write anything — or tap the microphone to speak. A word, a sentence, or more. What matters is capturing what was happening around you.
3. Tap Save. It's added to your journal.
* You can also open the Journal tab at any time to add a reflection outside of sessions.
-
All reflections are saved in the Journal tab, organized by date. Tap any entry to read it in full. Filter entries by tags you create — "Weekly standup," "1:1 with manager," "Difficult conversation" — and see only those situations over time.
Over time, you'll see patterns.
What throws you off, what brings you back, and which moments your body responds to most.
Your Presence Index (Coming Soon)
-
The Presence Index is a daily calm score — rated 1 to 10 — reflecting how regulated your nervous system was throughout the day based on your session data.
Higher scores represent calmer, more composed days. Lower scores surface moments where stress or reactivity was elevated. Over time, you'll see weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual trends at a glance.
Tap into any day to see the specific sessions, nudges, and reflections from that period — connecting patterns to the meetings, environments, and situations that affect you most.
The more consistently you log reflections after sessions,
the richer your Presence Index becomes over time.
Calendar
-
When you connect your Apple calendar, Anchor displays your events for the day and reminds you to start a session before the meetings where you anticipate pressure. Most of us already know which meetings make us nervous — the hard part is remembering to prepare. Anchor handles that for you, prompting throughout your day so you never have to think about it.
1. From the Home dashboard, tap Connect Calendar in the Today's Schedule section — or go to Settings → Calendar → Connect.
2. Choose Apple Calendar and grant access.
3. Select which calendar categories to include.
Privacy note
Anchor only reads event times and titles. It never accesses notes, attendees, or any other details.
* You control which meetings you want reminders for in the Today's Schedule section of the Home dashboard.* If you're unable to connect your calendar, you can always add events directly in the app by tapping the + button in the upper right corner of Today's Schedule.
Good to Know
Quick answers to common questions about Anchor.
-
Anchor helps you notice rising physiological pressure during important moments to help create awareness and return to composure before reacting. This pause is power.
-
Neither. Anchor is practical in-the-moment support.
-
Yes. Anchor uses Apple Watch signals and haptics.
-
Use it daily, during moments that matter. This creates muscle memory the more you use it which in turn develops presence in high pressure moments.
-
Yes. Your sessions, reflections, and Calm Scores are private and visible only to you.
We built Anchor to support you—not to monetize your personal data. We do not sell your data or share your personal insights with third parties.
Privacy is foundational to how Anchor is designed.
Get in touch.
Email: support@contextualnorth.com
We built this app. We want it to work for you.