My experience with shortcuts is a bit frustrating. I started to use iPhone as a trigger, but I move as much logic outside of the phone.
Beemind charging time
- Go to https://spreadsheets.new
- Put in A1, A2, A3: timestamp, type, delta
- Extensions → Apps Script
- Put this code with proper values
- Deploy (make sure anyone can access, authorise new app)
- Copy URL. Add
?token=AUTH_TOKEN&action=start or stop
- This URL should fire when you use your iOS Shortcut for start/stop charging the battery
const CONFIG = {
AUTH_TOKEN: 'REPLACE_WITH_SECRET_TOKEN',
SPREADSHEET_ID: 'REPLACE_WITH_SPREADSHEET_ID',
SHEET_NAME: 'charging',
BEEMINDER_USER: 'REPLACE_WITH_USERNAME',
BEEMINDER_GOAL: 'REPLACE_WITH_GOAL_SLUG',
BEEMINDER_TOKEN: 'REPLACE_WITH_BEEMINDER_TOKEN',
MIN_SESSION_MIN: 30,
MAX_SESSION_MIN: 120
};
function doGet(e) {
try {
const token = e.parameter.token;
const action = e.parameter.action; // start | stop
if (token !== CONFIG.AUTH_TOKEN) {
return error('Invalid token');
}
if (!['start', 'stop'].includes(action)) {
return error('Invalid action');
}
const sheet = SpreadsheetApp
.openById(CONFIG.SPREADSHEET_ID)
.getSheetByName(CONFIG.SHEET_NAME);
if (!sheet) {
return error('Sheet not found');
}
const now = new Date();
if (action === 'start') {
writeRow(sheet, now, 'start', '');
return ok('Start logged');
}
if (action === 'stop') {
return handleStop(sheet, now);
}
} catch (err) {
return error(err.message);
}
}
function handleStop(sheet, stopTime) {
const lastStart = findLastStart(sheet);
if (!lastStart) {
return error('No matching start event');
}
const startTime = new Date(lastStart.timestamp);
const diffMs = stopTime - startTime;
const diffMin = Math.floor(diffMs / 60000);
// Save raw stop
writeRow(sheet, stopTime, 'stop', diffMin);
if (diffMin < CONFIG.MIN_SESSION_MIN) {
return ok('Session too short – ignored');
}
const capped = Math.min(diffMin, CONFIG.MAX_SESSION_MIN);
sendToBeeminder(capped);
return ok(`Stop logged, ${capped} min sent to Beeminder`);
}
function findLastStart(sheet) {
const data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
for (let i = data.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
if (data[i][1] === 'start') {
return {
timestamp: data[i][0]
};
}
}
return null;
}
function writeRow(sheet, timestamp, type, delta) {
sheet.appendRow([
timestamp,
type,
delta
]);
}
function sendToBeeminder(minutes) {
const url = `https://www.beeminder.com/api/v1/users/${CONFIG.BEEMINDER_USER}/goals/${CONFIG.BEEMINDER_GOAL}/datapoints.json`;
const payload = {
value: minutes,
comment: 'Charging session',
auth_token: CONFIG.BEEMINDER_TOKEN
};
const options = {
method: 'post',
payload: payload,
muteHttpExceptions: true
};
UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, options);
}
function ok(msg) {
return ContentService
.createTextOutput(JSON.stringify({ status: 'ok', message: msg }))
.setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.JSON);
}
function error(msg) {
return ContentService
.createTextOutput(JSON.stringify({ status: 'error', message: msg }))
.setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.JSON);
}
Log iOS screen time
Similar for Jomo:
- Automation at 23:45 daily
- Get screentime from Jomo
- Ask GPT to generate
.gs file you can use to store the data
Tracking update
I lost a few days in a box, because the automation was not logging it, because my iCloud is full and it can’t reliably store things on iCloud when you use mobile data. I don’t want to dive into details, but I think decoupling a trigger and a function or a controller and a model is always a good idea.
On Jomo screen time. It’s different to what iOS reports by sometimes 20%, so I sort of lost continuity of screen time data. This is okay for me, as pick ups become the new north star.
I want to have the awareness of the screen time, but measure pick ups. I’ll leave my phone-in-the-box goal though. I removed all other goals, I find little value in them overall, it’s too much.
More than beeminder goals, I’d like to have a log of my life - did I drink coffee within 1 hour of waking up, did I drink enough water etc. I think this will totally happen before 2030s via some wearable, neuralink or something like that. Oura is close to achieve this dream.
. I bought a really annoying old style alarm clock with the metal bells, but so far it hasn’t made a huge difference. Maybe I just need to add more points of friction than alarm clock + phone away from bed. I’ve noticed that lots of little frictions is significantly better for dissuading behaviors since they won’t clear the bar for “energy required to submit to the friction > energy required to DISABLE the friction” and will, in the long term, actually stick around. That and setting up a todo in my weekly review to go through and re-enable all the little frictions I disabled during the week 
