Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?
I automated waking up at 5:30 AM without feeling miserable when I had a remote work job[0]<p>It&#x27;s not terribly sexy and was really simple to get working.  I purchased the highest wattage LIFX RGBA bulbs and a high wattage (350W Incandescent equivalent) to replace all of the lighting in my bedroom, where I worked most days[1] and replaced the lighting in my bedroom with them.<p>I then used IFTTT to do the following:<p>(1) Over a period of 45 minutes ending at 5:30 AM, all of the LIFX bulbs gradually go from 0% to 100% in a cool blue-white hue. At 5:30, the 350W equivalent turns on (using a Belkin WeMo switch).  The 350W turns off at 8:00 AM.<p>(2) At sunset, but no later than 7:30 PM (northern summers can be much later than this), the lights eliminate the blue hues and shift to warmer colors over a period of 45 minutes<p>(3) Over a period of 45 minutes ending at 11:15 PM, the LIFX bulbs go from 100% to 0%.<p>It took me a few weeks to arrive at the exact times and timings for each of these steps, as well as color.  I kept a daily log of when I started feeling tired at night and a (very subjective) log of how tired I felt in the morning and what time I actually got out of bed (I had an alarm set, but only as a failsafe which was set for 8:00 AM while &quot;testing&quot; the settings).  The 45 minute time frame was landed at after trying as low as 15 minutes.  45 minutes is the longest duration that&#x27;s allowed or I would have tried longer, but it is <i>just about</i> right.  It&#x27;s <i>really</i> difficult to detect the brightening&#x2F;dimming while it&#x27;s happening and impossible for me to tell the color is changing during the day.<p>Unrelated, but as an aside -- quality of sleep and waking up early is something I struggled with all of my life until I started doing this a few years ago.  In my 20s, I was jealous of my friends who regularly went out until 2:00 AM and somehow functioned the following day at 8-9AM when they had to be at work.  I could <i>never</i> do that -- I&#x27;d literally fall asleep every time my eyes closed if I made that mistake.  And worse, I could go to bed at 6:00 PM and 7:00 AM would still feel awful.  I followed a few other techniques: Whenever possible (most of the time), I&#x27;d follow the rule to &quot;go to bed when I am tired&quot;.  If it was the afternoon and I started feeling exhausted, I&#x27;d go to bed -- sometimes just a nap, on rare occasion, a full afternoon-night&#x27;s sleep.  If I woke up in the middle of the night, I&#x27;d get up and do something until I was tired again, but for the first several months, regardless of the day or how tired I felt, I woke up at 5:30 AM.  If I awoke within 45 minutes of that time, I&#x27;d stop trying to sleep and just &quot;get up&quot;[2].  I&#x27;d tried all of these techniques in the past and failed horribly, but after setting my lighting up, I noticed I was waking a <i>lot</i> easier and with a lot less effort.  I added back in these techniques and the result was perfect.  It&#x27;s now just &quot;habit&quot; - I am up early, I&#x27;m in bed between 9:00 and 11:30 every night and I rarely wake fully in the middle of the night.  I&#x27;m rarely tired.  All of that said, if life and job circumstances would allow it, I&#x27;d prefer doing 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM over a day-job, but doing the day-job shift doesn&#x27;t bug me a bit anymore.<p>[0] I&#x27;m in an office job, now, so some of what I did doesn&#x27;t affect me like it used to.  I was waking this early, originally, because my team was in the UK and I wanted to maximize the amount of time I spent with them despite the 5-hour time skew.<p>[1] For whatever reason, working from bed turned out to be very relaxing and helped me to put in longer hours without feeling like I was putting in long hours.<p>[2] One observation I made was that if I awoke and there was less than an hour before I <i>had</i> to be up -- even if I was still very tired and could fall back asleep within a few minutes -- falling back asleep resulted in me feeling substantially <i>worse</i> when that alarm sounded (and it would stick with me most of the morning).  If I get up when my brain wakes up the first time, that tiredness wears off within a half-hour.  I ditched the &quot;snooze&quot; habit.  I <i>don&#x27;t</i> get right out of bed, but gradually work myself out every morning (I have the time, after all, since I&#x27;m getting up so early).