Progress Report

In short, progress on getting to bed at a reasonable time has been ASTONISHING - and I have kept to my resolution to stop posting at forums. I have visited a couple of times after I said I would stop, and this is for two reasons: in the "real world", the iOS v Android battle has flared up in a big way - and it is genuinely very exciting! Unfortunately, my adversary, the Fanboy, has quoted one of my posts, even though he knows I have vowed to stop visiting - but I'm not going to reply, because I know full well that if I do, it will never end. In the other forum, I posted a new poll without a time limit - but that seems to have stopped getting new posts or votes. I have just resolved to not visit either forum again until 17:00 on Friday - I want to be out of the habit of visiting them ASAP, but not miss any further responses to any of my own posts.

With those two time and energy killers seemingly under control, it's time to look at the other big issue - getting to work as soon as work time rolls around. Since self-administered threat of small forfeits has worked well for bedtime, I will apply the same method for starting work at the correct time as well. It probably wouldn't work if I was a more generous person - but since it does work, I will use it. Common alternatives are unavailable to me. I cannot, for example, ask another person to monitor me, because I cannot run even the tiniest risk that either my family or my employer discover that I have been slack about starting work at the correct time.

My bedtime method is to use the Windows Task Scheduler to require a target bedtime by 21:00, a check that this has been done at 21:05, and then I use the Google Calendar to monitor that I hit the target set on pain of a small forfeit (it is surprising that the threat of a small forfeit (small enough for me to know for sure that it WILL be carried out!) works - but it does - so I am grateful for having devised this method).

Thus, my plan for good starts is as follows:

* alert at 9:00 for start time
* check done at 9:05
* alert for lunch break at 12:00
* check done at 12:05
* forfeit if not working again by 14:00

Update 25-Oct-11: morning start and lunchtime control both used today - and both worked. These simple ideas genuinely have the potential to make big, important changes to my life!