👋🏽 Hi, I’m Chine, the creator of the Stoplight app! For years I struggled to stick with a morning routine. I would make a routine in my Notes app and stick to it diligently for a few weeks. And then, like clockwork, I would wake up one morning and feel too tired and overwhelmed to do my entire routine. I’d take a look at my Notes app and feel overwhelmed by the mountain of tasks I needed to complete before I even started my day. I’d think to myself: “I barely feel like getting out of bed, how am I gonna do all of this stuff?”. So instead, I just wouldn’t do anything on the list, and eventually I’d stop doing the routine altogether. Books like Atomic Habits inspired me to add more systems and routines to my life, but I secretly always felt that something in me was broken and I’d never be able to stick to a routine long-term.

The issue is that modern advice about daily routines tells us to stick to the same routine each day. They say that sticking to the exact same routine builds consistency, discipline and automatic habits. Well, for people like me who struggle with maintaining a consistent level of motivation day to day, the same routine every day actually has the opposite effect. Some days, I have all the energy in the world and crushing my morning routine feels like a piece of cake. Other days, even doing one thing on my list feels hard.

With Stoplight, I wanted to create a system that worked with my body’s natural tendencies, not against them. I now have 3 different morning routines. One high-energy routine that I do on days where I wake up with a lot of natural motivation, an average-energy routine that I do on most days, and a low-energy routine with just one step for days when I wake up with little motivation to start the day. Now I have the freedom to choose my routine based on my energy level. I no longer feel like my routine is destined to fail at some point.

I hope this system can be as beneficial to you as it’s been for me, my family and my friends.