The short version
Routinery is a routine runner: a sequence of timed steps you execute in order. Lunar is a capacity planner: it asks how much you have today and shows you only what fits. If your routines are stable, Routinery is great. If your brain is on a 28-day curve, the routine that worked Monday might be too much next Monday.
What Routinery does well
- Step-by-step timed routines. Each step has its own timer that auto-advances. Excellent for time-blindness.
- Visual progression. You see the whole sequence and where you are in it.
- Habit chaining. Stack steps into morning, evening, or pre-work routines.
- ADHD-friendly framing. The product is positioned for executive-function support.
Where Routinery stops
A routine app assumes the routine itself is the answer. For ADHD women on a cycle, the routine has to flex:
- Same routine, every day. Routinery doesn't know your luteal phase started yesterday and the 9-step morning is now impossible.
- Routines aren't tasks. Routinery isn't built for the 12 one-off tasks you owe people this week. It's for repeating sequences.
- No energy filter. The routine runs the same whether you have 90% capacity or 20%.
Side by side
| Feature | Routinery | Lunar |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed timed routines | Core focus | Not the focus |
| Open task management | Limited | Yes |
| Built for ADHD women | General ADHD | Yes — specifically |
| Cycle awareness | No | Yes — phase-aware |
| Energy-based filter | No | Yes — 4 levels |
| AI task breakdown | No | Yes (Pro) |
| Body doubling | No | Yes |
| Adapts when you're depleted | No | Yes |
| Free tier | Limited | Free, no card required |
Why Lunar exists
A routine works when your underlying energy is steady. ADHD women on a menstrual cycle don't have steady underlying energy — estrogen drops in the luteal phase and pulls dopamine with it. The 7-step morning routine that felt easy in your follicular week is genuinely harder in your luteal week. Not a discipline problem. A neurochemistry one.
Lunar asks two questions every morning: where are you in your cycle, and what's your energy like right now? Then it filters your task list — including the routine pieces, if you want them in there — down to only what your brain can plausibly do today.
The hormone–ADHD connection Routinery can't see
A fixed routine assumes fixed capacity. Women with ADHD on a cycle don't have that. In the follicular phase, when estrogen peaks, your 9-step morning routine feels manageable — even energizing. In the late luteal phase, when estrogen drops and dopamine follows, the same routine feels like climbing a mountain. You're not failing the routine. The routine isn't built for your biology.
Lunar doesn't build routines — it builds adaptive task lists. Every day it asks how much you have, and then gives you only what fits. On a depleted week, your "routine" might be three things. On a peak week, it might be twelve. That flexibility is what allows you to show up consistently across the whole cycle, not just the good weeks.
What a real week looks like
Follicular phase, Monday. You open Routinery. Your 8-step morning runs perfectly — coffee, journal, quick tidy, workout. You're done in 40 minutes and you feel great. You open Lunar, high-energy check-in, and tackle four deep-work tasks. Both tools are working.
Luteal phase, Monday. Same Routinery. Same 8 steps. But step 3 (tidy up) becomes a 20-minute spiral, step 5 (workout) gets skipped, and by step 6 you've opened Instagram. The routine didn't flex. You blame yourself. You open Lunar instead. You tap "low energy." It shows you: make coffee, reply to the one email that's urgent, take a slow walk. Three things. You do them. That's your Monday. Good enough.
Common questions
Can Routinery and Lunar work together?
Yes, and many ADHD women use both. Routinery handles repeating sequences (morning wind-up, evening wind-down) where the steps are fixed and predictable. Lunar handles the day's actual variable work — tasks, projects, errands. The two apps aren't competing for the same job.
Does Lunar have timers like Routinery?
Lunar doesn't have timed step-by-step routines. It focuses on task capacity filtering — which tasks fit today — rather than exactly how long each step takes. If time-blindness is your main challenge, Routinery's timers are genuinely valuable and Lunar doesn't replace them. If the challenge is deciding what to do when you're depleted, Lunar is the tool for that.
What if I don't track my cycle?
You don't need precise cycle data to use Lunar. You log your phase manually at check-in — "I think I'm in my luteal phase right now" is enough. The energy-level filter (exhausted / low / okay / high) works completely independently of cycle phase. Many users ignore the cycle feature entirely and just use the energy filter, which still dramatically improves how manageable the task list feels on hard days.
If you came from Routinery
You can keep Routinery for the parts of your day that benefit from a fixed sequence — morning ritual, evening wind-down, pre-work startup. Use Lunar for everything else: the actual work, the errands, the projects, and the days when the routine itself is too much. Most ADHD women who try both keep both. Try Lunar free for a cycle and pay attention to what the luteal week feels like when your task list is allowed to shrink.