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I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

Hey everyone, I am a 20 year old college student who was recently diagnosed with seronegative spondyloarthropathy. Over the last 3 years, Ive tried apps, paper journal, Google Sheets, and notes to track/catalogue my journey. I always ended up quitting within 2-4 weeks and not keeping accurate track.Is this a common experience or do I just have to be better at tracking? Is there a unique/non habit-building way to track/catalogue/recall?Im building something for this (part of the reason why I am asking) - and if anyone is open to a longer conversation, Ill gladly pay for you time!

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FL score

72

out of 100

Verdict

VALIDATE

high confidence

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A tracking system designed specifically for chronic illness patients who abandon generic health apps within weeks.

The pain

Chronic illness patients need to track symptoms, medications, and patterns over months/years to identify triggers and communicate with doctors. Current tools (apps, spreadsheets, journals) require consistent daily discipline that patients with fatigue and brain fog can't maintain. The person asking has tried six different systems and quit each one, this isn't laziness, it's a mismatch between tool design and patient capacity.

The gap

Existing health tracking tools assume users have energy for daily logging and consistent habits. They don't account for: irregular symptom patterns, cognitive load during flare-ups, the need for minimal friction entry, or recall-based logging (remembering what happened last week rather than logging in real-time). No tool has solved the 'I quit after 2-4 weeks' problem that appears common in chronic illness communities.

Build angle

Start by deeply understanding why the founder quit each system, not just 'I forgot' but the specific friction points. Then build the minimum viable tracking mechanism that requires the least willpower. This might be: voice-to-text logging, passive data collection (wearables), weekly check-ins instead of daily, or a system that works backward from doctor appointments. The real product is removing the habit-building requirement, not adding features.

Strengths

  • Founder has lived experience with the problem and genuine motivation to solve it
  • Clear, underserved user segment (chronic illness patients) with real medical need
  • Willingness to pay signal already present (offering to compensate for user interviews)
  • Problem is specific enough to avoid competing with generic wellness apps
  • Healthcare tracking has regulatory moats that protect from commoditization

Risks

  • Market size unclear, how many chronic illness patients actively seek tracking tools vs. accept poor tracking as inevitable?
  • Retention is the core problem, but retention depends on user behavior change, not product design alone
  • Regulatory burden (HIPAA, medical device classification) could be significant depending on positioning
  • Monetization path unclear, patients have low willingness to pay; doctors/insurers are slow to adopt
  • Founder is still in college and managing a serious illness; execution risk is high
  • Risk of building a feature-rich app when the real need is behavioral/psychological support

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