When you think of an alarm clock, you simply compare it to sleep and awake. Still the bells of a school bell rings, it tells us the call period is over, at noon time, the city hall bells may ring. More to realize, there is a buzzer or bell to let you know “time is up” for so many activities in your day than just simply telling you the sleep period has concluded. Strangely enough, much of those bells and buzzers were designed for a product or schedule period we are all familiar with, and less is thought of about using it for much more. But you can and simply don’t. The idea of a set time is not to take away from other activities or events in life, and still we seek completion before retiring from a specific project and moving on to another activity.

      I have met many who have either was late for spending time on a personal computer, or simply fell asleep. If a timing alarm was used to set a segment of time to achieve as much as you could in that period, both issues would be a better remedy. This is right up there with not being imprisoned in front of a computer while it is stalled and processing. Having smaller activities and multitasking has been something to present to those who think a computer period is a “chore”, when they were designed to merge with our lifestyle, and not be a set appointment. Still many, and a majority invest time to have coffee and snacks ready and in hand, before sitting in front of the computer, rather than start it up from its power on button, and attend to another chore while it goes through a series of functions, before it needs you to interact again. When planning a project and investing time in front of a computer to work on finances and pay bills, correspond, surf for sales, or any other interests, the coffee and snack is at hand, but where is the alarm clock?

      Of course, a trip to the library or a friends house, you rarely want to bring a ticking “Big Ben” with you to set a period to end with a bell that no one else is expecting. Even empty handed, there is a timing device or program around that is much more appropriate, should you not wear watches with alarms, like me. Besides actual clock devices, you can use an outlook program, in the calendar, and setup the alarm to let you know time is up, simply by making it an appointment, and setting the alarm feature there. You really should “pencil” in the time you plan to spend on a project, and plan on going no further, when the alarm goes off. Set it fifteen minutes earlier so you can make notes about where you left off and plan to continue the next time you “pencil in” more time for the project. Now, you have a little less pressure if you plan to go as far as you can in the set time frame, leaving notes when you return to it, and that pressure is never on making up for lost time for sitting in front of it in the first place. Plus, it also puts the pressure on utilizing your time set; preventing the opportunity to fall asleep.

      Making time for the computer, should be just like when you feel hungry, or plan to do laundry. It was not to become an appointment setting device to plan on, but something included in your daily activities, and the appointment concept is to make sure it cuts you short of becoming involved in the computer, and losing your objectives you planned on in the rest of the day. A computer laptop can be put into a standby state if you need to take the laundry from the washer and put it in the dryer, and even chose to put the laptop into hibernation, while you return to the laundry to fold it. You return to the computer, and remember, set the alarm again. Whether for fifteen minutes, a half hour period, or a two hour project, the alarm set is putting the pressure on the moment, and if you still feel tired…go take a nap.

      A laptop or desktop can sit and wait for you, and not the other way around. You can even leave it on and you outlook opened, and simply check your email from time to time. Plus, if it is running (and plugged into the outlet receptacle, so not to run down your batteries), you don’t have to plan on starting it up, and any notes to take, to do list to add to, appointment to set, contact to lookup or add, and anything you might need to research, can be done as it comes to mind, and not after the computer is ready to be used. Any program can be left on. You can now setup the screen saver to save electricity for a certain period, like 45 minutes (it will go into screen saver mode when the mouse or keyboard don’t be used for that set time). You can also go into the control panel, and power setting configuration, and set the computer to go to standby or even shutdown, if not used for another set period, such as 6 hours. The computer saves the work, and closes out the program, and will shutdown. Tomorrow, you can start it up again, sign in, open your outlook, and do it all over again.

      If a little thought is put into it, an alarm ( or “cutoff” period) can be setup for you, and the computer, and should you and the computer not get together, or interact, there is always tomorrow. When planned on that way, the computer is no longer another chore, and can become part of your everyday activities.