Lifehacks!
I've always considered the GTD/Lifehacks people to be pompous assholes -- playing around with to-do lists because they aren't busy enough at work, or too busy but not mentally engaged enough with work to actually think about work.
But I'm doing an experiment that's similar to that way of thinking this week: using the alarm as just that, a portent of doom. How so?
Well, one usually sets the alarm clock to the time they want to get up. I like to snooze, so I set mine for about half an hour before I need to be up and getting ready. I then press snooze for 45 minutes and show up 15 minutes late for work. No amount of alarm-time shifting changes this.
I've noticed that I wake up about 20 minutes before my alarm goes off nearly every day, breathe a sigh of relief and fall back asleep (this time full of dread) until I'm running late.
So my plan is this: use the alarm to let me know I am running late. Have it go off at a time that is so impossibly close to my needing to leave that making it to work on time is no longer possible. Have it as a "you messed up" bell. I will depend on actually getting out of bed during those first cogent moments and hopefully also sustain the pattern. I will keep you posted on how it works, or I will forget I posted this and never write on the subject again.
But I'm doing an experiment that's similar to that way of thinking this week: using the alarm as just that, a portent of doom. How so?
Well, one usually sets the alarm clock to the time they want to get up. I like to snooze, so I set mine for about half an hour before I need to be up and getting ready. I then press snooze for 45 minutes and show up 15 minutes late for work. No amount of alarm-time shifting changes this.
I've noticed that I wake up about 20 minutes before my alarm goes off nearly every day, breathe a sigh of relief and fall back asleep (this time full of dread) until I'm running late.
So my plan is this: use the alarm to let me know I am running late. Have it go off at a time that is so impossibly close to my needing to leave that making it to work on time is no longer possible. Have it as a "you messed up" bell. I will depend on actually getting out of bed during those first cogent moments and hopefully also sustain the pattern. I will keep you posted on how it works, or I will forget I posted this and never write on the subject again.