When I started building a habit tracker, I thought most of my time would be spent writing code.

Instead, I’ve spent a surprising amount of time trying to understand why people actually abandon habits.

I assumed the answer would be motivation.

Then I assumed it would be discipline.

The more I read and the more feedback I get, the more I think the real problem is friction.

Every extra tap. Every confusing screen. Every habit that’s too ambitious. Every moment where someone has to think instead of act.

People don’t usually quit because they don’t want to improve their lives.

They quit because life gets busy, and their system isn’t simple enough to survive busy days.

It’s made me rethink how I build software.

Instead of asking, “What feature should I add next?”

I keep asking, “What’s one thing I can remove to make someone more likely to come back tomorrow?”

I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this.

Have you ever stopped using an app not because it was bad, but because it slowly became too much effort?