Ritmo

Inspiration

I've struggled with morning routines my entire life. Not because I don't want them - I love the idea of a perfect morning. The problem? Life doesn't cooperate.

You set your alarm for 6:30 AM. You plan a beautiful 90-minute routine: meditation, workout, healthy breakfast, journaling. Then you wake up at 8:45 AM with a 10 AM meeting.

Traditional routine apps give you two options: complete the full routine (impossible) or skip it entirely (demotivating). Both choices suck.

I wanted a third option: adapt the routine to fit my actual schedule.

That's Ritmo. When you're 2 hours late with a meeting in 75 minutes, Ritmo doesn't judge you. It compresses your 80-minute routine to 30 minutes, fits it before your deadline, and keeps your streak alive.

What it does

Ritmo is a time-adaptive routine manager that intelligently adjusts to your real schedule.

Core Features

Daily Scheduling

• Set routines for specific times (7:00 AM Morning, 7:00 PM Evening)
• Choose which days to repeat (weekdays, weekends, specific days)
• Get reminders before routines start

Smart Late Detection

• Automatically knows when you're running behind schedule
• Detects upcoming calendar conflicts
• Calculates exactly how much time you have available

Automatic Compression

• Analyzes your routine and next deadline
• Selects minimal versions of each task
• Creates optimized timeline that fits perfectly
• Shows before/after comparison (e.g., "80 min → 48 min")

Daily Flow Management

• Shows different views based on time of day
• Tracks progress through today's routines
• Displays countdown to next routine
• Celebrates when all routines complete

Streak Tracking

• Proper daily habit formation (once per day max)
• Resets at midnight if you don't complete
• Can't game the system with multiple completions
• Visual streak counter with status messages

Example Scenario

Monday, 7:00 AM - Morning Routine scheduled (80 minutes)

You wake up at 9:00 AM - 2 hours late!

You have a meeting at 11:00 AM - Only 2 hours until deadline

Ritmo detects this and shows:

• "⚡ Running Late! 2h behind schedule"
• Original routine: 80 minutes (won't fit!)
• Compressed routine: 48 minutes (fits with 30min buffer!)
• "Quick Start (Compressed)" button

You click and complete the compressed routine by 9:48 AM

• 72 minutes before your meeting
• Streak maintained!
• Still got your essential morning routine done

How we built it

100% built through conversations with MeDo - no traditional coding required.

The MeDo Development Journey

Week 1: Foundation

How we built it

The idea for Ritmo didn't start with a prompt or a feature list. It started with a simple question: what makes daily life frustrating for people?

I was watching YouTube videos about productivity when I stumbled upon content about morning routines. That led me down a rabbit hole - I started researching successful people's routines, reading about habit formation, thinking about building a routine tracking app. But the market already had plenty of routine apps. I needed something different.

Then I noticed something: people with routines feel anxious when they can't stick to them perfectly. I felt this myself - that guilt when you wake up late and your carefully planned morning falls apart. The question became: how can people maintain their routines even when life doesn't go according to plan?

That's when the core concept hit me: what if the routine automatically adjusted based on when you actually start your day? If you wake up late, the app compresses your routine to fit the time you have. That became Ritmo.

The MeDo Development Journey

I built everything through conversations on the MeDo platform. No traditional coding - just describing what I wanted and iterating based on what appeared in the live preview.

Starting Simple: The Foundation

My first prompt was straightforward: "Create a routine tracking app with a dark theme." MeDo generated a basic structure - users could create routines and track tasks. Simple, but it worked.

Adding Context: Calendar Integration

As I used the early version, I realized routines don't exist in isolation. If you have a meeting at 10 AM, that affects your morning routine. So I asked MeDo to add a calendar feature where users could record appointments. Then I went further: "Make calendar events automatically appear in the routine timeline." MeDo connected the systems - now your meetings and routines lived in the same schedule.

Weather-Aware Routines

I thought about outdoor activities - morning runs, walks to the coffee shop. What if it's raining? I described this to MeDo: "For outdoor tasks, check the weather. If it's rainy, warn the user." MeDo implemented a weather integration system that alerts you when conditions aren't ideal for outdoor routine items.

Social Features Without Losing Focus

One evening I thought: what if you could share routines with friends? See how they're doing, get motivated by their consistency? I asked MeDo to add friend functionality - add friends by code, view their routines, see their streaks.

I almost added a chat feature, but stopped myself. That would turn Ritmo into a messaging app. The routine tracking would get lost. So I kept it focused: you can add friends, see their routines, that's it. Clean and purposeful.

For privacy-conscious users, I also added the ability to hide specific routines from friends. Your meditation practice is public, your therapy routine stays private - your choice.

The Design Transformation

Midway through development, I looked at the dark theme with blue accents and felt... nothing. It was cold, generic, forgettable. I wanted warmth and personality.

I told MeDo: "Change the design to burgundy and beige. Make it feel warm and inviting." The transformation was immediate - the app went from sterile productivity tool to something that felt personal and premium. MeDo generated the entire color system, updated all the components, adjusted the typography. It felt like a completely different app.

Gamification: Streaks and Badges

To give users a sense of accomplishment, I added the "N day streak" counter. Then badges - achievements for consistency (7 days, 30 days, 100 days), for trying new routines, for different completion patterns. These small celebrations make the daily grind feel meaningful.

The Compression System: The Core Innovation

This was the most complex feature to build through conversation. I described the scenario:

"When someone wakes up late and has a meeting in 2 hours, their 90-minute routine won't fit. The app should automatically compress it - keep the essential parts, skip the optional ones, calculate if it fits."

MeDo understood. It generated:

• Time detection (are you late?)
• Next event calculation (what's your deadline?)
• Task version selection (minimal vs normal)
• Duration optimization (does it fit?)
• UI comparison (before/after visualization)

All from natural language descriptions. No algorithms written manually.

Daily Schedule System: The Recent Evolution

The latest major feature transformed Ritmo from a one-shot tool into a complete daily manager. I explained:

"Routines should have scheduled times. When you complete one, show the next. At midnight, reset everything. Make the home screen change based on what time it is and what you've completed."

MeDo built:

• Schedule settings (time, repeat days)
• Four different home screen views (no routines, running late, between routines, all complete)
• Automatic midnight reset
• Status tracking (pending, running, completed, skipped)
• Next routine countdown

The app now guides you through your entire day, not just individual routines.

The MeDo Development Experience

What Worked Beautifully

The live preview was incredible. I'd describe a feature, and within seconds, see it appear on the left side of the screen. Click around, test it, then continue the conversation with refinements. This tight feedback loop made development feel like sculpting - iterative, visual, immediate.

MeDo maintained context across hundreds of conversations. It remembered the burgundy color scheme from weeks ago. It knew the task version structure. It understood the streak system when adding new features. No documentation needed - the AI just... remembered.

The Challenges

The main issue: When adding major features, sometimes existing buttons would stop working. Add the calendar system, suddenly the settings button breaks. Implement friends, the delete routine button disappears. Not every time, but occasionally.

I learned to test thoroughly after each big change and immediately report issues: "The settings button in the All Routines section doesn't work anymore." MeDo would fix it within a conversation or two.

What Surprised Me

Building a complex app through pure conversation felt like magic at first, then gradually became normal. By the end, I was describing advanced features ("cascade compression for multiple routines before calendar deadlines") and MeDo would generate sophisticated algorithms without me writing a single line of code.

The weather integration, the calendar sync, the friend system, the compression algorithm - all of these required API integrations, data structures, edge case handling. MeDo handled it all through dialogue.

Technical Stack (All MeDo-Generated)

• Frontend: React + TypeScript
• Styling: Custom CSS with Crimson Pro + Lora fonts
• State Management: React hooks + localStorage + Supabase
• Calendar: Event scheduling and conflict detection
• Weather: API integration with condition-based alerts
• Friends: Code-based sharing system
• Compression: Time calculation engine with task version selection
• Streak: Daily tracking with midnight reset
• Deployment: MeDo one-click publish

Every function, every component, every CSS rule - generated through conversation.

Built With

• english
• korean
• medo