I was fed up not doing things on time, going to bed late, getting out of bed late. Although I was always keen to plan ahead, thinking it’s easy to act, I always ended up not doing what I planned. That’s why I decided to push things a little bit and add real constraints. I got inspired by an old Reddit thread, and I admit there are some escape hatches, but it’s fine for now. If I trust the system, and remind why I’m doing this, I’ll (normally) act.
My organisation relies on several items :
- a BED alarm
- a HEY alarm
- a Lock all screens shortcut (iPhone, iPad, Macbook via SSH if reachable). basically a loop that lock the device every X second X times. It forces me to stop using my devices.
- a Chaos shortcut. a series of events I don’t want to happen : all my lights at full power, a loop with an alarm every 2 minutes, a song I hate on my HomePod. Could be even worse.
- NFC cards in my bathroom (Morning and Evening)
- Actions and DataJar app (available on the App Store)
EVENING : Stop what I do and prepare to go to bed
- Every Sunday, an automation enables my BED alarm.
- When the alarm stops, it launches a “Evening Bathroom Checker” shortcut to :
- launch “Lock all devices” shortcut
- wait 90 seconds (some time to leave the sofa)
- check if the variable GOING_TO_BED is 1 in DataJar. if no, launch the Chaos shortcut. if yes, set back GOING_TO_BED to 0
- Tapping my Evening card launches a “Going to bed” shortcut to :
- set global variables SLEEP and GOING_TO_BED to 1 (using Actions app)
- set a scene in my bathroom (dimmed warm light)
- enable Sleep Focus
- If I open Safari or any other distracting app I tend to open once in bed, a “Web App Checker” shortcut launches and check SLEEP value. If 1, lock 5 minutes.
- Once in bed, I launch a Sleep shortcut that turn off all my lights and sockets, and disables cellular data, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
MORNING : Wake up and leave bed, then enable things
- When my Sleep alarm stops in the morning, it sets my lights (bedroom + bathroom) to a very dimmed blue.
- When my HEY alarm stops, it launches a “Morning Bathroom Checker” shortcut to :
- wait 90 seconds (some time to get up)
- check if the global variable WAKE_UP is 1. if no, launch the Chaos shortcut. if yes, set back WAKE_UP to 0
- Tapping my Morning card launches a “Wake up” shortcut to :
- set SLEEP to 0
- set WAKE_UP to 1
- enable cellular data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- turn off Sleep Focus
- turn off my bedroom light
- enable my BED alarm for the evening. The notification reminds me to adjust it, if I know that I have things planned that evening, for instance
DAY
If I open social apps like Facebook, Instagram, a shortcut launches and check if time is within “allowed” time ranges (using Actions app). If no, run the “Lock 5 minutes” shortcut (a simple locking loop)
I also have a “Day” card in my living room, linked to an alarm with the same logic (and locking Mac only). It forces me to take regular breaks in the day. It’s so easy to get lost when you’re following the wrong track when working on a task.
It may seems overcomplicated, but like I said, I have tried lots of things before that didn’t work. I’d like to know your own tips and I’d be more than happy to explain the process to anyone interested, or share shortcuts.
As many are involved and custom, I chose not to share them, but I may do if against the community rules. Be kind, it’s my first Reddit post ever !
Hope this could inspire some of you !
