The behavior that I wanted to change was waking up at an earlier time with one alarm instead of waking up later after three or four alarms. Transitioning from break to the beginning of the quarter caused this behavior, likely because the alarms I set during break (if any) are much later in the morning with no real obligation to follow them. For a more consistent schedule during the quarter, waking up more easily would be optimal.
I tracked this behavior for four days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) and documented how long after my initial alarm it took me to wake up and how many additional alarms went off in that interval. On Saturday, I woke up 45 minutes after my initial alarm, with three additional alarms. This was also the case on Monday. On Sunday, I woke up 15 minutes after my initial alarms, with one additional alarm. On Tuesday, I woke up after my first alarm, with zero additional alarms.
I noticed that for the two days with the least amount of additional alarms, I had some sort of engagement that I scheduled ahead of time. On Sunday, I wanted to do laundry early-ish to avoid the afternoon crowd and on Tuesday, I planned to go to the gym with a friend. Both events increased my sense of productivity, which isn’t the case when my mornings are free. Additionally, there was more accountability on Tuesday because I didn’t want my friend to have to wait for me. This exercise made me realize how important establishing a schedule for myself early on in the day is to waking up on time. Even events with low stakes can provide enough motivation for me to follow a schedule and feel productive. Interestingly, after days were I felt particularly productive, I try to have a free morning, which leads to me waking up after more alarms and feeling unproductive.
The below connection circle represents the habit ecosystem for my behavior.
The causal loop diagram below also shows this behavior.
Factors like what time I went to bed and major commitments may impact the behavior I want to change. Next time, to more accurately measure the behavior, I would 1) record the amount of sleep that correlates to each alarm time and 2) try to track the behavior on days with stricter commitments.
