Math, push-ups or a photo: which wake-up mission should you pick?

With a mission alarm, one choice decides whether the whole thing works: which mission you pick. Too easy and you finish it half asleep and go back to bed. Too hard for the room you actually sleep in and you'll start dodging it by Thursday.

Two questions get you most of the way there.

Does your brain need switching on, or does your body need moving? Some people are awake the moment they think about something. Others are only really up once they're standing.

Where do you sleep? Push-ups are a fine idea until you're in a shared room, a hotel, or someone else's flat. A mission you can't do in your own bedroom isn't a commitment, it's an excuse waiting to happen.

The quiet ones: math and typing

Math gives you equations to solve, in easy, medium or hard. Hard is genuinely awkward at 6am, which is the point.

Typing shows you a code and you type it back, exactly. You choose how long the code is.

Both are silent, both work anywhere, and both are honest about their weakness: you can do them lying down. If you're the kind of sleeper who is fine once your mind is engaged, they're enough. If you're the kind who can solve equations and still drift off, use them as a second mission rather than your main one.

The in-between one: shake

Shake asks you to shake the phone until the alarm gives up. It gets the phone in your hand and your arms moving, it doesn't need the camera, and it won't wake anyone else.

It's the middle option: more physical than math, less demanding than getting on the floor. A good default for a shared bedroom.

The ones that get you up: push-ups and squats

Push-ups and squats are counted by the camera, so you can't fake them. You set how many.

• Prop the phone to your side for push-ups; it only needs to see your arm.

• Step back for squats, so your legs are in frame.

• Strict mode requires a full range of motion on every rep, all the way down and all the way up, if you want to make sure a sleepy half-rep doesn't count.

These are the missions that end the argument, because you're on the floor before you've decided anything. Just be honest about the room you're in.

The ones that move you across the room: the photo missions

Three missions ask for a photograph, and the alarm checks what's in it.

• Make your bed, then photograph it. You can't make the bed you're lying in, so it gets you out of it and leaves the room tidier.

• Picture of the sky: step outside, or at least to a window or balcony, and point the camera up.

• Item search: the alarm names something, and you have to go find it — a kettle, a toothbrush, a tap, a shoe. You can pick which things it's allowed to ask for, so it never sends you looking for something you don't own.

The photo missions need an internet connection, since the check doesn't happen on your phone. If the check can't run, Waky gives you a math problem instead, so a dead Wi-Fi router never means a free pass.

What if you genuinely can't do it this morning?

This is the part most mission alarms get wrong. You picked push-ups last week, and today you're on a train, in a hostel bunk, or on someone's sofa. Any app that makes you look ridiculous in public is teaching you to turn it off.

Waky has a way out that costs something. Tap "I can't do this here" and you type a longer code instead. Your streak survives. You get two of those a week, on a rolling seven days, so it works when you need it but can't become your new normal.

A few practical notes

• Camera off? If the camera permission is denied, the push-up, squat and photo missions fall back to math when the alarm rings. Better to allow the camera, or pick a mission that doesn't need it.

• Math, typing and shake are free. Push-ups, squats and the three photo missions come with Waky Pro.

• You can change your mission any time. It's not a vow. If you picked squats and you've swapped out of them twice, that's information: pick something you'll actually do.

So which one?

• Sharing a room: typing or shake, with math as the harder option.

• Sleeping alone and struggling to get vertical: push-ups or squats.

• You wake up fine but get back into bed: make your bed, or item search. Both put distance between you and the mattress.

• Travelling a lot: math or typing, so the room never changes the deal.

The best mission is the hardest one you'll still do on a bad morning. Start one notch easier than you think you need. Getting up every day with a mission you'll do beats a heroic one you quietly stop using.