We all are living in a world where everybody has to go to work to make some money. But before going to work you have to do one thing: wake up. Of course it is in our best interest to wake up in the morning and start doing something immediately. But what does your body normally tell you in the morning? Right – “Snooze“. So you sleep 10 more minutes. And you snooze again. And again…
Eventually you reach this certain point in time where you simply can’t allow yourself to sleep anymore. You have already slept through the time you normally reserve for having breakfast and taking a shower. So you come to work hungry, smelling and looking like shit. Obviously – you don’t want that.
This is what used to happen to me all the time. I am one of those people who simply can’t convince their body to stand up in the morning while the brain is still asleep. Only something really urgent can make me stand up in the morning after the smartphone alarm goes off.
I’m sure that you also have experience something like this in life. And now you ask me: “Is there maybe something that can help me to wake up in the morning and immediately stand up out of bed?”
Well. I’m glad you asked. The answer is – YES! There is!
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NFC Tags Will Get You Out Of Bed
Just a few days ago I have ordered a set of NFC tags and wondered what I could do with them. I already have tried everything from our post about creative uses for NFC tags, but something was still missing. I though why not try to use NFC tags to get out of bed? And this is where I found an app that can do exactly that – Puzzle Alarm Clock.
Puzzle Alarm is an Android app that allows you to set alarms on your smartphone. Not only regular ones, but with puzzles (and with a beautiful UI).
When setting your alarm you can choose how you want to challenge yourself in the morning to wake up. There are 5 different alarm options:
1. Touch
This is basically a “regular” alarm clock mode, where you hear the alarm and have the option to either stop it or snooze for 5, 10 or 15 minutes
2. Shake
Pretty much self-explanatory. An interesting thing, though: you can set the required shake strength and number of shakes which you will need to stop the alarm. A nice aggressive start in the morning.
3. Puzzle
This is where it gets tricky. You can choose from 4 modes here, in 3 different difficulty levels: Colors and shapes (you have to repeat a sequence of different ones), memory cards, math equations or “Write Code” (which is something like a capcha).
4. NFC
This one is my absolute favorite. When your alarm goes off you will actually need to stand up and scan an NFC tag with your phone. I have placed an NFC tag in my bathroom. So if I want to turn off my alarm I have to stand up, go to the bathroom and scan the tag. If you use this method, try placing the NFC tag somewhere outside of your bedroom, as far as possible away from your bed. It works. Really.
If you don’t have NFC tags, I recommend these.
5. QR Code
The QR code “puzzle” does more or less the same thing as the NFC mode, but instead of scanning an NFC tag you have to scan a QR code. Especially handy if your Android phone isn’t NFC enabled.
And There Is More
Some people are very clever though. They solve the puzzle or scan the NFC tag and go back to bed. For these people Puzzle Alarm Clock added a function, which sends you a notification to check if you’re actually awake. If you don’t tap on the notification the alarm will go off again. Genius.
And it doesn’t end there. In addition to one of the above mentioned morning-challenges you can add another “layer of motivation”. Puzzle Alarm Clock has a function called Facebook motivation. Quoting the app:
“When you snooze an alarm, fail to turn it off in time or miss the notification reminder, we’ll write about this on Facebook, and ask your friends to suggest a punishment. Harsh but works”
If this doesn’t wake you up – I don’t know what will. I really recommend you to give this app a shot. Puzzle Alarm Clock is the only app that makes me stand up on time in the morning. I’m sure you will like it.
Please check out the app and tell us about your experience in the comments.
I really want this app to work for me, but every time I set an alarm, I can’t change it from the default settings (normal alarm, default ringtone, puzzle) :/
Hey Ian! Just to make sure: do you have Puzzle Alarm Clock version 1.3.0? And which version of Android are you running?
Yeah, I do have that version, and I’m running 4.2.2 Jellybean on my Galaxy Nexus
I’ve done some cache clears, reboots, reinstalls, just about everything except reflashing my rom, because I really want this to work for the NFC tags I purchased today
Well, that’s strange.
Try creating a new alarm. You will see the section where it sais “TURN OFF MODE”. Tap on the blue arrow on the right. This works for me.
If it doesn’t for you I would suggest contacting the developers. They normally respond pretty quickly when it comes to bugs.
Thank you for the advice 🙂
You are more than welcome, Ian 🙂
You know how I said I had tried everything but reflashing my rom?
Well that was exactly what I had to do to get it to work, haha
I feel silly
I’m glad it helped 😀
Wow i use to attached with my smartphone whole day. Now this app sounds amazing. I am a
also from those who started their day without having breakfast and shower most of those days.
This app is truly great.
I am using it now for 10 days and I haven’t overslept a single time.
I have the problem where you can bypass all this by simply restarting the phone. Does it stay on after restarting the phone ?
I am not sure about this one, never tried it. One thing I have tried though is uninstalling the app while the alarm was still on. Snoozing is losing 🙂