Hi all!
Someone asked me today about a cheat-proof (probably autodata) way to enforce getting up by a certain time, and I couldn’t think of one off the top of my head. I have the other side of this problem (if I could enforce staying the heck in bed so I actually get a decent amount of sleep, I would) so I’ve never created a goal like this before for myself.
Any ideas from the hive-mind?
You can set up a Flic button in your bathroom or use IFTTT to tell beeminder when you turn your phone screen on. Then you just have to press the button or turn on your phone by that time.
Or just set a deadline for the time you want to get up, with a rate of 1/day, and enter data as soon as you get up.
Is this Android only? Can’t find something on iOS
Fitbit can send an “Awoke at” data point to IFTTT and the Beeminder, but it won’t be a number. Not sure how Beeminder would handle a “08:00” value
@dreev?
Seems like in the past people have talked about creating a qr code that points to a URL that triggers adding a data point to IFTTT. You could print it out and put it in the bathroom. Then you’d have to get out of bed and take a picture of the code. Not sure how you’d set it up to log the time you hit the URL, tho.
Beeminder can handle numbers formatted as times just fine. It’s interpreted as a duration, though, so you have to structure your goal accordingly. (Probably a do-less goal in this instance.)
This good suggestion somehow got deleted:
You are right , I actually have time-based goals that I manually enter in hours and minutes format. Not sure how I forgot this when writing the comment 
Does this qualify as cheat-proof? 
Just beemind making one of these and Bob’s your auntie!
So i’ve actually put a lot of thought into this lately as one of my goals is to be more productive and that’s hard to do when I keep sleeping in. It requires some upfront costs but no subscription necessarily since it’s a do more type goal. I got the idea from someone else on this forum and then probably took it a step further since I am a self professed weasel and my willpower is at an all time low first thing in the morning. I’ve been using this method for a little over a month now and so far it’s working for me. Basically you get a withings sleep pad and set up multiple IFTTT rules based on the time you get out of bed. You assign positive points for when you hit your target or more if you wake up earlier and negative points if you miss it or more if you sleep in further past it. So I have a target of 7 points per week, if I wanted to sleep in on the weekends I would have to subtract some points or schedule breaks ahead of time. When I wake up on time one point is added automatically and if I then decide to go back to bed because I’m a lazy POS a point (or more) is subtracted after I get up the second time. This worked for awhile till I started to cheat by simply unpluging the sleep pad from the wall. After doing that a couple times I installed a weatherproof outlet protecter, the kind you can lock, and put the keys in my car. So if i’m riding the line and I want to sleep in my choices are to sleep on the floor or just get in the shower and start my day. Might seem a little extreme but considering we’re all putting money at stake to reach our goals I suppose it kinda makes sense if you’re really serious about it.
Oh wow and I thought I was bad! Here, have a like and this gif:
I love this! Can you elaborate on how the sleep pad works and how the outlet protector prevents you from cheating? I’m not sure I understand - is it like an alarm that you can’t turn off?
Sure thing. The withings sleep pad sits under your mattress and tracks your sleeping cycles, heart rate and patterns over time. Once you connect it to your WiFi it can automatically send triggers to IFTTT. Mine is setup for when I get out of bed, so IFTTT adds data points to my Beeminder graph whether I want it to or not. Because I can’t just unplug it anymore, at this point it’s harder for me to be lazy than to just get up on time which is kind of the point. And for me it doesn’t really matter when I go to bed, although I aim to be consistent there too, because if I wake up early without getting a full nights sleep my body will naturally fall asleep on time the following night putting my circadian rhythm back on track. Hope this helps
Sounds cool!
Is the pad effective at distinguishing sleep from being in bed while awake?
How does the locking system work? How did you mount it to your outlet to make it impossible to unplug?
It’s definitely not perfect but it does a good job at figuring out when you actually fell asleep. Besides lack of movement, I think it’s based on a change in your heart rate but i’m not positive.
The outlet case replaces your outlet cover. The screws are inside the case and a small padlock keeps it shut so unless you manage to rip the entire socket out of the wall or smash the case open with a hammer, you’re not unplugging it.
Can it tell when you’re awake or when you wake up?
Like Mae West, I do all my best work in bed:
Can it tell heart rate when you’re sitting up or moving around?
Can you link to the outlet case? Sounds awesome.
I used to have an NFC tag in another room and a Tasker profile that would log tapping the NFC tag to Beeminder but only during a specific time window. Outside of that it wouldn’t send. That was super cheap and worked well.