5 routines for better rest to set you up for a great day the next morning
Or the 5 easiest things you can do to achieve all your goals tomorrow.
Happy Thursday, and welcome to another edition of Smarter Engineers.
This is part 3 of a 5-part series on habits and science-based protocols for energy, better focus, and getting things done.
This is what we’ll cover throughout the week:
5 protocols to never stare at a blank page again as a tech writer.
5 routines for better rest to set you up for a great day the next morning (this post).
5 exercises to become a healthier knowledge worker.
5 systems to sustain work without burnout forever.
This is a paid post, and here’s the agenda for today:
Why the success of today starts the day before.
5 daily routines to ensure you wake up ready to tackle your most important task the next morning.
A custom chatGPT prompt to tailor these routines to your specific needs.
Let’s dive in!
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To get things done today, you must set yourself up for success yesterday.
Most people think that high achievers just woke up one day and accomplished something great.
But you should know by now that success is never an overnight story. It’s the result of the compound effect of your actions over time. The more time you spend doing the right things, the more results you’ll see.
It is that simple, yet many people struggle to stay consistent enough for long enough.
So, today I’ve come to present you with the ultimate strategy to help you get things done today.
You start setting yourself up for success the day before.
Adopting certain daily practices can make a significant impact on how you perform the next day.
You want to:
Be sufficiently rested to do what you need to do.
Have enough clarity of mind to know how you are going to do it.
These are the five routines I have adopted to allow me to be rested and clear enough to:
Work out 5 days a week.
Work my 9-to-5 job as a software engineer.
Write this newsletter and make an extra income.
Spend enough time with my family and friends every day.
Adopt these 5 daily routines to ensure you get proper rest and wake up ready to tackle your most important task the next morning.
1. Practice digital shutdowns.
No digital devices after 9 pm.
No tv. No phone. No internet.
Retrain your brain to find purely analogical time.
Practice journaling.
Read a book on a topic you are interested in.
Do some type of art: write, draw, play an instrument.
Engage in meaningful conversation with your family.
We live attached to our screens the whole day.
It’s time we reclaim back our quality time.
2. Sleep between 7 and 9 hours every day.
Sleep is a fundamental pillar of health.
It affects how well you perform the next day. It helps you solidify the knowledge you try to acquire during the day. It regulates your mood and stress levels.
Getting a good night’s sleep is such a no-brainer that it makes you wonder why many people adopt the I’ll-sleep-when-I-die mentality.
So, aim to sleep between 7 and 9 hours every day and see yourself become a new person after just 3 days of getting proper sleep.
I know there are parents out there — I have no tips for you since I’m not a parent myself.
I know there are morning persons and night owls — they all need to sleep the same total time but just need to adapt their sleeping schedule to match their chronotype.
Stop wasting the zero-cost investment with the highest ROI possible on your health and performance.
Start sleeping more.
3. View sunlight early in the morning and late in the evening.
As soon as you wake up go out and get some sunlight in your eyes.
The top of your eyes has special cells whose only function is to detect overhead light.
Blue length-wave light signals your brain that is time to wake up and go pursue that goal.
Early morning sunlight anchors your waking time and adjusts your circadian rhythm.
Similarly, in the evening try to watch the sunset.
Red and orange length-wave light signals your brain that is time to go to sleep.
If you do not get enough sunlight in the morning, this helps offset some of the negative effects of an off-sync circadian rhythm.
Once again, easy and free routine with infinite value.
4. Use temperature as a sleep regulator.
In order to fall asleep, we need our body temperature to drop a few degrees.
In order to wake up and stay alert, we need our body temperature to rise a few degrees.
This presents an opportunity to use protocols and routines that purposely affect your body temperature depending on whether you want to be more or less alert.
For example:
Taking a cold shower in the morning will temporarily lower your body temperature but will cause it to rise back up as your body is trying to generate energy to get back to its baseline temperature.
The opposite happens when you take a hot shower: your body temperature rises momentarily but starts to drop as a result of your body trying to regulate and get back to homeostasis.
A protocol I like to follow is to take a hot shower before going to bed and keep the bedroom a bit cooler than the rest of the house.
The quality of my sleep has improved greatly ever since I started doing this.
Try to think of similar examples where you could use temperature as an advantage for your specific needs and goals.
5. No caffeine 8 hours before your usual bedtime.
This one should be a no-brainer but as a coffee lover, I feel in need to remind you.
Caffeine is a wonderful substance. It makes you feel more alert and can be a performance enhancer. Yet, you should be strategic about how you use it.
Most advice out there tells you to cut off caffeine intake at least 8 hours before your usual bedtime.
So, if your typical bedtime is 10 pm, then you should aim to get your last caffeine of the day latest at around 2 pm.
It is that simple (I’m kidding, I know how difficult it is to say no to that cappuccino from your barista friend).
A custom ChatGPT prompt to make this stick
You don’t need to adopt all 5 routines overnight.
But you do need to tailor them to your schedule, goals, and lifestyle.
Here’s a prompt you can use with ChatGPT to create a custom nighttime routine based on your unique situation:
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