I just need to create a system where I naturally go to bed and wake up at my desired times with no effort? Let’s see… 50 100-watt light bulbs hanging on a timer above the bed in the morning, WiFi scheduled house lights that get increasingly dimmer and lower color temperature over the day, black and white smartphone after a certain time. Heck, this WiFi router already has easy-to-use child control software built in that I can to automatically cut off Netflix past a certain time of night. I got this. (I actually only have 10 light bulbs hanging over my bed, but I’m considering adding more so it does more than wake-me-up and functions like light therapy.)
This notion comes quite naturally to me, and I do some of it myself—e.g. shutting down the PC with Windows Task Scheduler after a certain time, same with the WiFi router. But what always trips me up is that if you set up such a system, you’ll always eventually find a way to circumvent it. So such a setup usually works fine for a few weeks, then I find a way to temporarily disable it, despite my safeguards to the contrary, and from that point on, I either deactivate the whole system or watch myself go through the arduous temporary-disable routine every day.
I also experienced systems becoming less effective over time, but thankfully I find many drop-offs eventually stabilizes at some level of effectiveness above zero. I might be doing things a bit differently than you though, I don’t have anything as strong as the computer just fully turning off. I think I would get fed up with that, it’s too strong, too all-or-nothing. I prefer a larger number of smaller nudges and softer barriers. The phone turning black and white was one of more surprisingly effective tricks, psychologically it makes it ‘feel’ like I’m up too late, without me really being conscious of it.
It might be like when when following a very strict diet, you can have a single bad day, and it’s way too easy to feel like you may as well just order 10 pizzas because you fell off the wagon.
So sometimes I disable the blocker and keep watching Netflix; sometimes I stop and realize I’m actually tired, and I’ll probably enjoy the episode more when I’m more awake tomorrow anyway. Sometimes I turn off the wakeup lights and go back to sleep, but even a minute a being blasted with bright light at a specific morning time seems to positively nudge my sleep schedule towards consistency. It’s okay that the various systems are not that consistent individually, as long they sometimes work, then it’s all good.
Out of curiosity, how’d you set your smartphone to black & white after a certain time? I’m aware of ways to change colors (e.g. via accessibility settings or alternative launchers), but not how to do so at a schedule.
I’m not sure if this is a Google Android Pixel specific feature, but on my phone it’s under: Settings → ‘digital wellbeing and parental controls’ → bedtime mode → customize → grayscale. And then you set the timing by setting the bedtime timing.
The Engineer
Surely I can automate this.
I just need to create a system where I naturally go to bed and wake up at my desired times with no effort? Let’s see… 50 100-watt light bulbs hanging on a timer above the bed in the morning, WiFi scheduled house lights that get increasingly dimmer and lower color temperature over the day, black and white smartphone after a certain time. Heck, this WiFi router already has easy-to-use child control software built in that I can to automatically cut off Netflix past a certain time of night. I got this. (I actually only have 10 light bulbs hanging over my bed, but I’m considering adding more so it does more than wake-me-up and functions like light therapy.)
This notion comes quite naturally to me, and I do some of it myself—e.g. shutting down the PC with Windows Task Scheduler after a certain time, same with the WiFi router. But what always trips me up is that if you set up such a system, you’ll always eventually find a way to circumvent it. So such a setup usually works fine for a few weeks, then I find a way to temporarily disable it, despite my safeguards to the contrary, and from that point on, I either deactivate the whole system or watch myself go through the arduous temporary-disable routine every day.
I also experienced systems becoming less effective over time, but thankfully I find many drop-offs eventually stabilizes at some level of effectiveness above zero. I might be doing things a bit differently than you though, I don’t have anything as strong as the computer just fully turning off. I think I would get fed up with that, it’s too strong, too all-or-nothing. I prefer a larger number of smaller nudges and softer barriers. The phone turning black and white was one of more surprisingly effective tricks, psychologically it makes it ‘feel’ like I’m up too late, without me really being conscious of it.
It might be like when when following a very strict diet, you can have a single bad day, and it’s way too easy to feel like you may as well just order 10 pizzas because you fell off the wagon.
So sometimes I disable the blocker and keep watching Netflix; sometimes I stop and realize I’m actually tired, and I’ll probably enjoy the episode more when I’m more awake tomorrow anyway. Sometimes I turn off the wakeup lights and go back to sleep, but even a minute a being blasted with bright light at a specific morning time seems to positively nudge my sleep schedule towards consistency. It’s okay that the various systems are not that consistent individually, as long they sometimes work, then it’s all good.
Out of curiosity, how’d you set your smartphone to black & white after a certain time? I’m aware of ways to change colors (e.g. via accessibility settings or alternative launchers), but not how to do so at a schedule.
I’m not sure if this is a Google Android Pixel specific feature, but on my phone it’s under: Settings → ‘digital wellbeing and parental controls’ → bedtime mode → customize → grayscale. And then you set the timing by setting the bedtime timing.
Update: Looks like it’s a general Android feature: https://www.androidpolice.com/how-to-set-up-digital-wellbeing-on-your-android-phone/