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We often blame technology for distracting us and wasting our time. But maybe we can use the same gadgets to bring a little discipline into our daily lives.
We spend so much time complaining about technology.
Some time ago, my Guru advised me to start waking up at Brahma Muhurta, which begins 96 minutes before sunrise. Now, sunrise doesn’t happen at exactly the same time every day, so setting a fixed alarm wasn’t really going to work.
Being the gadget enthusiast that I am, I decided to put my iPhone to work. I created a Shortcut that checks the next morning’s sunrise time and automatically sets an alarm 96 minutes earlier. No need to calculate anything or change the alarm every evening.
It works rather well. Whether I actually get out of bed when the alarm rings is another story. And yes, Sundays are my official cheat days!
That little experiment got me thinking about something. We spend so much time complaining about technology. Our phones distract us, social media eats into our time, and we spend far too many hours staring at screens. But what if we started using these same gadgets to bring a little discipline into our lives?
Take our smartphones. We use them for practically everything, from calls and messages to photographs, music, videos, shopping and banking. But how many of us actually explore the features that can help us organise our day?
Simple things like recurring reminders, calendar alerts, scheduled alarms and Focus modes can be quite useful. You can set your phone to silence unnecessary notifications during work, remind you about an appointment or automatically switch to a quieter mode at bedtime. Most of these features are already built into our phones. We don’t need to download another app or pay for a subscription.
Notifications are something I think we should all pay a little more attention to. Almost every app wants permission to send them. Shopping apps, news apps, social media, games and sometimes apps we haven’t opened in months. The phone keeps lighting up, and we keep checking it.
I’m sure many of us have picked up the phone to check one notification and ended up doing something completely different for the next fifteen minutes. I certainly have.
Maybe we should start by deciding which notifications are actually important. Calls and messages from family? Certainly. Work-related alerts? Depending on the time. A shopping app announcing another sale? That can probably wait.
Then there are smartwatches and fitness trackers. One feature I find useful is the reminder to stand up and move after sitting for too long. When you’re busy working, it’s quite easy to spend a couple of hours at your desk without realising it.
The watch gives you a gentle reminder. You can get up, stretch, walk around for a few minutes and get back to work. Nothing complicated.
Of course, you can also ignore it. I’ve done that plenty of times.
The same applies to activity goals. You don’t have to walk ten thousand steps simply because that’s a popular number. Set a target that makes sense for you and try to follow it regularly. And if you don’t own a smartwatch, your phone can already help with basic activity tracking and reminders.
Sleep is another interesting example. We use our phones late into the night, then expect those same phones to help us sleep better. Rather funny when you think about it.
Most phones have bedtime schedules, Do Not Disturb settings and options to reduce notifications at night. Some smart lights can even dim automatically at a chosen time. These features won’t put us to sleep, but they can help us follow a routine.
The difficult part, of course, is convincing ourselves that the next video, message or episode can wait until tomorrow.
There are many other small things we can do with the gadgets we already own. Reminders to drink water, take a break or leave for an appointment. Calendar alerts for bill payments. Shared shopping lists for the family. Timers while cooking. Even a simple reminder to carry something important before leaving home.
None of this is new technology. Most of these features have been available for years. We probably just haven’t bothered to use them properly.
I also don’t think we need to make our lives unnecessarily complicated by tracking every little activity. I certainly don’t want my smartwatch telling me how long I should enjoy my morning tea or whether I’ve spent enough time relaxing.
That would become irritating very quickly.
The idea is to identify a few things we regularly struggle with and see whether technology can help. If you keep forgetting something, set a reminder. If notifications disturb your work, use Focus mode. If you’re sitting for too long, set an alert to move around. If you’re spending too much time on social media, try the screen-time limits already available on your phone.
Start with one or two things rather than trying to change your entire routine overnight. If something works, keep it. If it becomes another annoyance, change it or switch it off.
And there’s one thing worth remembering. Gadgets can remind us, keep track of things and sometimes do repetitive tasks automatically. But they cannot make us disciplined.
My iPhone can calculate Brahma Muhurta and set the alarm at precisely the right time. What it cannot do is make me get out of bed when I’d rather sleep for another fifteen minutes.
That’s still entirely up to me.
I think we spend enough money buying gadgets. Perhaps we should spend a little more time learning how to use the ones we already have.
Who knows? They might actually help us develop a few good habits.
Quick Answers
Ask News18You can create a Shortcut on your iPhone that checks the next morning’s sunrise time and automatically schedules an alarm 96 minutes earlier, matching the start of Brahma Muhurta.
Ask News18About the Author
Anjan N Ghosh is AVP, Technology and Operations, Network18. Anjan is a technology enthusiast with a deep curiosity about gadgets and the technology we live with every day. He writes from real-world ex…Read More
Delhi, India, India
October 17, 2026, 10:00 IST
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