90 Days of no distractions (Need Accountability)

Yea Beeminder has been the most effective thing at reducing screen time I have tried.

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04/11/2023 Day 29
Good evening folks,

How I did Today:
Followed rules today.

What I did instead:
Cleaned up kitchen, plowed a plot for my garden, exercised and going to do some gaming with friends later. Much more fun than setting on reddit for 5 hours being a couch potato!

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report:
2 HR 42 MINS

The new app goal adjustment really brings down this number. Note I did not include an hour of screen time in this because it was me setting up my new home wifi mesh network. Required the use of an app and took me a bit to get the settings right. But like I said it was a required thing as before parts of the house did not get wifi and it was not mine less scrolling hence no including it.

Rule Changes:
Before I had a rule no posting before 9PM but I am changing that starting immediately to any time after 4PM. Note I will say if I failed the prior day and screen time will be from prior day but will be talking about what I did today. I am doing this for the following reasons:

  1. I take my anti anxiety at 8PM. I take it at night as it makes me tired. By 9PM or 10PM I am usually awake but I am in a half awake state. Meaning usually I do not feel like writing a whole lot. By moving the time earlier I will be more awake and might have more interesting things to say.

  2. I have started bee blitzing as @sheik (thanks again for the idea) talked about. I feels really good to get things done early and just be able to relax at night. As a life long procrastinator it gives a wonderful new feeling.

  3. Sometimes I procrastinate on doing my post after 9PM as I usually don’t feel like doing much after taking my medications. Sometimes I have stayed up later because of that which makes me less motivated the next day.

Other Items:
Had a good day. DID ANOTHER BE BLITZ AND IT FELT GREAT!!! I have a lot of goals right now but have been very manageable as most goals are not super hard to do.

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Hehe, I’m glad Beeblitz works for you.
It continues to work for me, I even got some buffer on it :sunglasses:

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04/12/2023 Day 30
Hello fellow bees,

How I did Today:
Followed rules today.

What I did instead:
Cleaned up kitchen, hanged out with my wifes family. Going to talk to my cousin on discord.

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:
3 HR 16 Mins

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Third day in a row of bee blitzing. Feels good to not procrastinate. Beeminder goals are going to good. They have actually made me happier as having things not pile up because I am doing more frequently has really helped. I have made it to day 30! A 3rd of the way there!!!

2 Likes

Wait, what’s beeblitz?

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Described above, for me it means as soon as I get home I knock out all my beemergency goals that are not time proximity based (such as brushing teeth before bed). In other words not procrastinating till the end of the night to do my beemergency goals.

3 Likes

04/13/2023 Day 31
Hello fellow hive dwellers,

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Going to clean up kitchen, help my wife cook, spend some time with wife and maybe help clean up the living room.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
Yes

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:
1 HR 50 Mins

I got below 2 hours for the first time!!! I dont expect this to be an everyday thing buy shows real improvement.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Not bee blitzing today though dont have much in beemergency today anyhow. I was woken up early by a tick. Took me a while to find tweezers. So really tired. It has been a good day though.

2 Likes

Going to break my usual format as I am really excited right now (2HR 39Mins yesterday). So one of the loopholes that existed with my normalappopens goal was it was open season when it came to my desktop computer. Well I decided to create a script with GPT 4 (some GPT 3.5 because 4 stopped working) in python had to fix a few minor errors it made.

Well I now have a script that will auto send data when I switch a tab or open a site that is not “Beeminder”. I had not really read the API documentation but that was no problem with GPT. Now I can track my desktop usage too not just phone. I could actually set it up to track desktop app usage beyond just my browser use. Below are some pictures of the output to site and general output from script. Also as a side note I was not actually browsing reddit was just testing.


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Quick update I got it formatted the same as it shows when I use my phone.

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Can you explain again how this goal works, please? I can see that all data points have the value one, but what is the criteria for deciding if the goal is successful or not (aka when does it derail)?

I have been logging window titles for a long time using ActivityWatch but stopped a couple of months ago because I didn’t do anything with the data, and frankly, ActivityWatch kind of makes the process overly complicated.

The idea of directly logging the titles into Beeminder is actually genius. (I am only a little bit worried that dreev is going to be upset when we spam his database.) I have thought about beeminding my window titles for a while; this could be the right way of doing that.

Edit:

I found the explanation in your other thread:

I will either change the primary value to a 1 or a 0. A 1 means I just opened the app for no reason and it was not really needed. I then will go to the comment filed and the app name and explain I opened the app mindlessly. If it is a valid reason then I will put a zero in the value and then in the comment I will put the name of the app and the valid reason I am using it.

So at some point during the day, you review all the window titles? I really like it. I wanted do something like that, but got stuck on the most efficient way of accomplishing that. Simply doing it using the Beeminder GUI is (again) genius.

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04/15/2023 Day 33
Hello fellow pollen collectors,

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Cleaned out both cars, spent time with wife.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A (Did not say yesterday on my out of format post)

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:
3 HR 22 Mins

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Got the cars all cleaned today. Feels nice to get stuff done.

2 Likes

For my iphone I have actually changed it a little bit. I have it put a value of 2 instead of 1 now. This forces me to go back and change it after every app use that is in what I call the distraction list. If I forget to well it stays a 2 and I get one less app open. I could technically setup a individual shortcut automation for each app so it auto put the app name but that would be a lot of individual items.

For desktop ones I am mainly leaving as is unless I actually do have a valid reason for opening an app since it is over all nice and automated (most of the time my more less needed searches are on my computer). If there was a valid use and I forgot to mark it or dont remember it just counts as an app loss. Also I am not nearly as worried about over use of my desktop since I actually have to walk to it and it is not with me everywhere. But in any case it is nice to have a system in place to prevent overuse on it too. Though makes me wonder what else I could do with python scripts for Beeminder automation.

3 Likes

04/16/2023 Day 34
Greetings, esteemed apian compatriots! (GPT’s idea for greeting and I love it)

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Been under weather but read a ton of BEEMINDER blog posts. I think I might be addicted. Also good thing BEEMINDER does not count against screen time.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Read a bunch of BEEMINDER blog posts. Feel crappy but still in a good mood.

3 Likes

04/17/2023 Day 35
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Took a walk with wife helped clean up house some.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Had great day.

2 Likes

04/18/2023 Day 36
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Mowed the lawn going to spend time with my wife.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Got a lot done today its another bee blitz day. Though with doing lawn the bee blitz is just now finally done. Been a good day.

2 Likes

04/19/2023 Day 37
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Today I am using a buffer day. So not sure yet honestly.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Screen Time Goal

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
I am tired so using a buffer day and gonna chill. Got all my beeminder goals done. Would have been a bee blitz but going to derail on a do less goal (non-public) so it is not a bee blitz day.

2 Likes

04/20/2023 Day 38
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
No used a buffer day

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Even though I used a buffer day I was maybe on Reddit for like 15 minutes? I also watched one tv episode. Besides that I spent two hours gaming with friends.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Screen Time Goal

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Trying a new diet called the sardine diet. Basically for lunches I can only eat sardines or vegetables or fruit. That’s the only rules. It’s a weird diet I came up with something nothing else has worked thus far. Why not try this?

1 Like

04/21/2023 Day 39
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
Yes

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Well I got confused I thought I had another buffer day today. But I was wrong so goanna derail but that’s okay. Though honestly haven’t went crazy with phone usage. Currently under 2 hours still at the current time. I feel like this really shows how much I have improved when I have the option to browse reddit or whatever but dont go crazy shows an actual behavior change.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Screen Time Goal

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Not much else to say things going pretty good.

1 Like

04/22/2023 Day 40
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
no got confused thought I had buffer day. To be clear not a Beeminder glitch or anything I just was not paying attention.

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Worked out for over two hours. Got a ton of yard work done.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Screen Time Goal

Above is where you can see latest screen time stats.

Rule Changes:
N/A

Other Items:
Super tired :sleeping: almost forgot to post.

1 Like

04/23/2023 Day 41
Greetings, busy bees

Did I follow rules yesterday?:
I would say yes. I watched and listened to a lot of YNAB videos. However that was to better use my budget so I would count it as a how to thing. I also dramatically altered my budget with new categories and category groups. I now have a category for every birthday and major holiday sorted my date. So learned a lot so again I would say it falls under how too making it allowed. But let me know if you think differently.

What I did instead or plan on doing:
Bought plants with wife and cooked dinner for tomorrow.

Did I do what I planned yesterday?:
N/A did not have anything planned

Loopholes Found:
None to report

Screen Time Report Prior Day:

Screen Time Goal

Other Items:
I have created some goals to force me to stick with YNAB rules. I am now only budgeting my current money and not putting expected income. That’s actually a goal now that must be marked nearly every day. Also I added a goal to require me to make sure a budget category is funded enough before purchasing and if not that I find where to pull it from first. Though to help enforce I created a shortcut tied to a focus mode.

The focus mode (called shopping mode) auto activates at stores I designated in the settings based on location. It auto turns off when I leave. it reminds me to check my dedicated category checking accounts and that if they don’t have enough I can’t just transfer from main and call it a day. I MUST FIGURE OUT WHAT CATEGORY I AM GOING TO PULL FROM. As I had developed a habit of pulling from my main checking and worrying about where it would come from later (far as category).

Below is the background that is at once activated along with notifications. Also what apps show up on home screen in the focus mode. I have odd colors chosen to make sure there is no possible way I won’t notice/remember.

3 Likes