Good nagging software for Mac OS X?

October 30, 2008 6:12 AM

Is there any Mac software that can naggingly "encourage" me to fall asleep earlier?

I'm thinking some kind of severe nagging, e.g. I tell it I want to go to bed at midnight, and every 10 minutes after that it nags me with some sort of "go to bed!" window or the equivalent. Then the window of time between nags would get smaller and smaller. Perhaps it could even take over my computer and forcibly move me to bed.... OK, maybe that's a bit much to hope for. :-)

I already use Aurora as an alarm clock (for waking up in the morning), but launching iTunes and playing music isn't very naggy.

Thanks!

posted by monkey85 to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Do you stay up because you are on the computer? How about a cron job to shut the computer down, or put it to sleep at a specific time?
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:22 AM on October 30, 2008

Under the "Energy Saver" System Preference settings, there is a "Schedule" button. Set your computer to go off at the time you want. You can override it, but it will be a reminder.
posted by procrastination at 6:45 AM on October 30, 2008 [3 favorites]

Use a power timer and plug your Mac into it. Suddenly depowering your Mac could cause problems, so you'll be heartily encouraged to shut off whatever you were doing by then :) Means you can't use hibernate / sleep, alas.
posted by wackybrit at 6:49 AM on October 30, 2008

You can use cron to make a scheduled command line action like "say hey you go to bed"
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:06 AM on October 30, 2008

iCal will do this, either by email, alert, or even firing off a script (if you want to do something fancy).

Just set up an event that repeats daly, set the alert (you can set multiple alarms), and prepare to be annoyed.
posted by jpburns at 7:21 AM on October 30, 2008

Alternatively, you could use cron to slowly turn down the brightness / contrast settings on your monitor. (I'm on BSD but not OS X, so I don't know the exact command offhand.)
posted by silentbicycle at 7:31 AM on October 30, 2008

Setting alarms in iCal should work as a "low tech" solution.
posted by schwa at 7:43 AM on October 30, 2008

I'm a veteran sysadmin, and I've been an OSX power user for years, but I NEVER noticed the "Schedule" button under Energy Saver! I'm a dolt! Thanks, procrastination!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:16 AM on October 30, 2008

I had a problem like this a while ago, and modified my wireless router to switch off from 11pm until 5am.
posted by SNACKeR at 8:29 AM on October 30, 2008

You could configure Time Out (server appears to be down at posting time, but check back later) to take a break at the interval that you want. It's great for enforcing micro-breaks throughout the day as well. Free.
posted by al_fresco at 8:34 AM on October 30, 2008 [1 favorite]