Overwatcher

Problem Statement / Motivation

When I have unplanned free time, I tend to engage in very low value activities. Therefore I need to:

1. Reducing super low value activities with medium value ones

   • Examples of low value activities: Random video game session, youtube session, Movie/TV summary session

   • Example of medium value activities: Reading session, exercising session, project session

   • Wasting 10 hours a week, assumed hourly wages 30,
     It is same as wasting: 10 * 4 (a month) * 30 = 1200 a month

2. track if every hour I am pushing my limits and beyond.

   所以如果你真心想要修行提高效率的法门，很简单，从明天起，不，从现在起，从这一秒起，同等时间内，让自己思考学习双倍的工作量。
   注意我加粗的关键词，不许增加时间，一个小时还是那一个小时，时间不变，内容翻番。
   一开始一定有些疲劳感，但只要不生病，那说明你的大脑就能够适应。
   坚持半个月，习惯它。再加倍。再坚持半个月，习惯它。
   一直加倍加倍，加倍到你感觉要生病了为止，把速度降下来，降低20%。
   以这个效率维持终身。

Approach

I created a service Overwatcher that checks if I have plans for any given hour, by checking if the corresponding google spreadsheet cell is empty.

If I don’t make a plan, it will send me a text message reminder.
See below image, the green means the hour I made plan, red means I don’t have plan for the hour. I also need to record the productivity of each hour, from 1 to 5.

1. time completely wasted
2. most of the hour is wasted
3. I tried to work but being distracted
4. mostly focused
5. push the limit of my productivityW

At the beginning of the next day, I will also get a text message reporting:
1. # of hours that I recorded productivity
2. # of hours have less than sub-standard (< 3) productivities