Habit Tracking: Hitting the snooze button in the morning
For the next two days, I am choosing to tackle my habit of hitting snooze on my alarm in the morning. My starting assumption was that I hit the snooze button because I’m being lazy or I didn’t sleep enough. I measured this behaviour every morning.
Definition of hitting snooze:
- Hitting the snooze button on my alarm
- Turning off the alarm and going back to sleep
Duration: 2 days
Data frequency: Every morning
Log:
Day 1: Was out late night before
- 11am: Alarm goes off and I hit snooze
- 11:10am: I get up and turn off the alarm
Day 2: Felt tired and needed to catch up on sleep
- 10am: Alarm goes off and snooze is used
- 10:10am: snooze is hit again
- 10:20am: I turn the alarm off and try to go back to sleep
- 11:00am: I wake up
Models:
Main learnings:
Accessibility and convenience matters a lot: Having my phone next to me in the mornings makes it really easy to just hit snooze when I’m still half-asleep. Moving the phone somewhere further in the room could be a difference maker.
Evening habits are critical. This cycle is greatly fueled by my evening procrastination which causes me to sleep later and wake up more tired.
What I will do differently:
- Record the events of the previous day and how I’m feeling in more detail (antecedent context matters)
- Try to separate snooze from shutting the alarm off. Although the results are the same, the reason for hitting snooze vs. turning off my alarm is usually different.
