Your Cortisol Meter: The Stress Gauge You Didn't Know You Needed

Most productivity apps ask how you're feeling. Locked In now shows you — with a live cortisol meter built from what you actually do.

What the Cortisol Meter actually measures

It's not a mood survey. It's a real-time score computed from your local data:

• Plan consistency — Are you making plans and completing them, or just generating and abandoning?
• Focus completion rate — Finished blocks vs skipped blocks across your timer sessions
• Mood trend — Your last 10 check-ins: improving, declining, or stable?
• Streak momentum — Current streak, longest streak, and whether you're building or breaking
• Recovery signals — Movement breaks, wind-down blocks, sleep-protected scheduling

All of this runs locally on your device. Nothing leaves your browser unless you explicitly sync.

The gauge: three zones, one glance

Zone	Score	What it means
Ready	0-33	Low stress, high capacity. Push harder, take on more.
Caution	34-66	Moderate load. Stick to routine, protect recovery.
Overloaded	67-100	High stress, low reserves. Cut scope, add breaks, switch to Chill Mode.

The needle moves daily. If you crushed three plans this week with 90% block completion and your mood is trending up, you're in Ready. If you've skipped 5 of 8 blocks, mood is declining, and your streak just broke, you're in Overloaded — and the app tells you why.

Why this changes how you plan

Most people plan for who they want to be. The cortisol meter plans for who you are right now.

• In Ready zone → AI gives you Max-effort plans: longer blocks, ambitious priorities, stretch goals
• In Caution zone → Balanced plans: standard blocks, realistic priorities, one movement break minimum
• In Overloaded zone → AI auto-suggests Chill Mode: shorter blocks (15-20min), more breaks, wind-down enforced, sleep protected

You don't have to guess. The meter sits at /app/cortisol and updates every time you open it.

It's not a diagnosis — it's a decision tool

The meter doesn't tell you "you're burned out." It tells you "your completion rate dropped 20% and mood trended down for 4 days — here's a plan that accounts for that."

That distinction matters. One creates shame. The other creates agency.

Try it

1. Open Locked In and start a few plans
2. Complete some timer sessions (don't skip the breaks)
3. Log mood check-ins honestly
4. Visit Cortisol Meter in the side panel

Watch the needle move as your habits change. It's the only productivity metric that adapts to you instead of asking you to adapt to it.

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Locked In is free, local-first, and built for teens and students who want structure without rigidity. Try it here — no sign-up required.