I tried and failed to automate my life

The problem with scheduled tasks is that it assumes that every week, you'll have the same time and energy, and that the task will have the same priority.

In reality one week you slept poorly, the floor is spotless because you were not home, and you've got much bigger fires to fight.

I try to do things according to need.

It never quite worked for me either though.

Things that do work: I am in the habit of using a push notification when I am at a shop to receive my shopping list. Same for stopping for fuel for more than a few minutes - notifications to check tires, oil, etc.

When you can make the task or chore context sensitive, and based on either a measurement so something really being low = call to action, that helps.

Basically, "pull notifications", not push.

This line stood out to me. Do people really get this many? A few months ago I started an experiment to put my phone in permanent Do Not Disturb mode - only letting immediate family members in the whitelist. It's done wonders for my mental health.

How the hell do people manage even a fraction of hundreds of notifications a day? It sounds like literal torture to me.

i've tried every kind of app or system under the sun but ultimately it works great for a week, then i inevitably start seeing the notifications and thinking "right yeah i'll do that soon when i've finished doing x" and then instantly my brain totally discards the information and it's just gone. a week after that, i stop seeing the notifications entirely and my eyes just skip right past them, and then before i know it the notifications (and ignoring them) is just part of my daily routine until i see money coming out of my bank because the trial period of whatever bullshit app i was using has finished and i forgot to cancel the subscription because i forgot the app existed at all.