Start on the 1st
Locktober is a month locked: the whole of October, from the 1st to the 31st. Start the lock on the Lock page with 1 October as its start. Day 1 is the day a lock starts, so the 1st is Day 1 even if the cage goes on in the evening, and 31 October is Day 31.
You can set a planned end of 31 October, or leave the end open and see how far the month takes you. If you are already locked when October comes, keep that lock running: every October day still fills in on your calendar.
Seals on fixed dates
Seals come on the Fibonacci days, so a lock started on 1 October reaches them on the same dates for everybody: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 21 October, then 34 days on 3 November, 55 on 24 November and 89 on 28 December.
The early seals come quickly and carry you through the first week, which is the hardest. The month ends on Day 31, three days short of the 34 seal, if you want a reason to keep going.
Under a minute each evening
Log each evening: caged all day, part of it or not at all, what happened and who with, and how horny you have been. On a plain caged day, Hold to log does it in one press. Switch on the evening reminder in Settings, by push or email, so a busy evening does not slip past.
Your log streak counts evenings logged, whatever they say, and a shield covers an evening you forget. Log honestly: a day you took the cage off is still a day logged, and the reason stays in your journal only.
Missed a few evenings? Log them together
If you miss some evenings, Today offers the gap since your last entry. Several days at once lets you pick the days before today, fill them in with one set of answers, and save them together. A day you already logged only changes if you tick it, and Undo takes the batch back.
A keyholder, if you want one
A month is a good length to try a keyholder. Holding the key is free for them, with no journal of their own; letting them in is part of Plus for you. Send them an invite from Sharing, and they see only what you switch on for them, which you can change at any time.
Before the 1st, agree what the month is: a target of 31 October or later, how often tasks come, and the limits that are never crossed. Terms write that down for both of you. Nothing in them is enforced, and you can pause your keyholder in one tap whenever you need to.
Proving it with CageWatchr
If you use CageWatchr, connect it once on your ClackID account and switch on CageWatchr figures in Settings. Its verified figures sit in their own section beside your journal's, so what was proved and what you logged stay apart.
Keeping your check photos here is for people who pay for Plus, not the free 14 days. Only photos from checks sent after you switch keeping on are kept, never earlier ones, so switch it on before the 1st if you want the whole month. Only you see them unless you switch them on for somebody you share with, and they go when the period you chose runs out.
Look after yourself
A month is long if you have not locked for that long before. Read Cage hygiene and comfort before the 1st: fit, cleaning, skin and sleep matter more over a month than over a weekend. Take the cage off straight away for pain, numbness, a change in colour or swelling, whatever the date.
Stopping early is not failing. Every day you logged stays in your journal, and the next lock can start whenever you are ready. After each evening's log, the check-in asks how you are, really; it is for you alone.
Day 1 is the 1st. Log it that evening, and let each seal carry you to the next.
All the best, Erik