My digital detachment journey (Part 2) GET AN ALARM CLOCK
Here we go again! If you had noticed how many times you have checked your mobile between the posts. You should have noticed that the mobile on bed is a pretty common thing, at least it was for me! I'd never realized how much this habit contributed to my mental and physical health, which was all broken one fine day when I went to a watchmaker to get my analog watch repaired to stop me from constantly checking my mobile for the current time.
In there, not only I had gotten my watch fixed, I saw an assortment of clocks in the shelf; specifically alarm clocks. I wondered if I am about to try replacing my mobile with a watch for time, why not try an alarm clock as well! I ended up getting a Seiko alarm clock, this one to be precise 
Boy oh boy! Little did I know my life would change in an unimaginable scale after this moment. Maybe, my analog watch broke for a reason. The first thing I did was to test the alarm, and realized that the clock had a metal bell inside it, I thought it would be a digital beep, but they did not cheap out on the quality, the price was worth the pay. This clock is not precise whatsoever, and it is this non-precision that makes it an excellent wake me up device.
The annoying bell
The bell, not to put lightly, is trauma inducing (no joke); I realized my transit system uses a metal bell for door closure interruptions and every time it triggers my heart rate spikes for a moment. But on the bright side, this annoyance will ensure that you will wake up at the right time, as you would not want to hear this annoying abomination again ever. This ability to have to wake up or else, has made me plan my nights and my sleep.
The art of setting a time
I did not realize how convenient the mobile phone has made us to move things aside, it is becoming more and more evident to me that the major role of a modern mobile phone is not to function as it is supposed to, rather its adaptability on how you want it to function. I am not a good judge when it comes to sleep, I tend to take the easy route with gradually increasing volumes, multiple snooze lengths, and 25 alarms before my actual wake-up time! I am sure most of us have been there at some point. I have realized that there is no use in setting the alarm 30 mins early when I can sleep peacefully for the same time after purchasing the clock! With a smartphone, snoozing was not as painful as the alarm clock; the alarm always starts gradually and gives me enough time to not break my sleep, yet postpone the waking. I am more mindful of myself as a person who will be waking up to the alarm, it took an alarm clock to finally made me care for my future self. I am thinking about me more than I would with a smartphone. But fret not, there is one more caveat with this clock! The freaking alarm hand!!!
The all mighty alarm hand
This thing is so perfectly imperfect; which is a common sentiment I have with the alarm clock as a whole. If you are unaware of analog clocks, the alarm hand triggers when your hour hand is close to it. My wording here is deliberate! It is not the exact time you set, it has a tolerance of ±5 min. Which adds another layer of giving myself a little bit more time to sleep intentionally the previous night. Finally, where this clock shines is its absolute ability to "just snooze".
Gamble your snooze
I love the snooze button, it feels like I am showing all my anger of this device by forcefully snoozing it, a slap on its head as I would imagine. The snooze function is... let's say finicky. Every time I snooze it is anywhere between 5 and 10 mins which is pretty awesome. It makes me use the snooze a lot less as I don't want to either gamble my waking or realizing a 5 min of snooze is not worth the pain of hearing the alarm again; and that's how I learnt how to wake up on time.
Still not perfect
I need to address the issue here, turning off the alarm is as easy as flipping a switch and my lazy mind has adapted to it. Recently I found a fix by having the clock in walking distance, forcing me to wake up to turn it off. I think having an alarm clock is a unique experience, and I did see an improvement in my mornings after not bringing my phone to my bed every night. If you have never tried an alarm clock as an adult, I would ask you to highly consider trying one. Don't shy on an annoying clock as this one, because as I previously mentioned these devices are perfectly imperfect!
Changed my life
This one purchase has made me dive into this interesting rabbit hole where I am trying to replace my smartphone with purpose built devices. Which is a primary motivation for this journey. Hope you will be able to fight for your attention, just like I did. The story has just started, I will be back with more experiments I have carried out!
And as always, thanks for your time and attention. You are losing more by being on the internet than I could gain from it; thanks for reading the article despite this.