How To Squeeze More Out of your Day
Find an extra 15 minutes to focus on your health.
POSITIVE AFFIRMATION
"Today I’ll make the minutes add up."
Let’s start with a riddle…
If you do this one thing, then you could live longer, lose weight, improve memory, and have better overall performance. All it takes is a few minutes and, literally, requires zero effort.
But it will cost you something. It’ll cost you to reprioritize the numerous demands on you.
Back in college, I slept less than 6 hours. I carried that sleeping habit when I entered the workforce until I started falling asleep and realized I had to change. So I drank Red Bull and Starbucks’ Doubleshot Expressos. Problem solved.
In my 30s, I became more health conscious, so I dropped the sugar drinks and guaranteed myself at least 7 hours of sleep - no compromises. And it worked. I couldn’t believe how much more clarity I had and I could actually remember things! It was wild.
But now in my 40s and with a baby on the way, this past year I’ve become aware of this slow creep of sluggishness. Time to reinvent.
Eight hours is a bit of a myth; it's really between seven and nine hours, and that's generally going to shift over a lifetime. You might need more sleep at some point in your life, and less at other points in your life.
- Eve Lewis Prieto, Headspace Director of Meditation
In fact, people in preindustrial Europe used to get up and do chores or socialize for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, splitting their night into “first sleep” and “second sleep.” Waking up during the night isn’t bad for your sleep quality–it’s like taking a break during a meal. It only becomes a problem when it happens very frequently (many times per hour).
If you hold a pretty consistent rise time in the mornings, your body will tell you how much sleep it needs by making you sleepy at the appropriate time at night.
- Dr. Jade Wu, Hello Sleep: The Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications
A major thrust of my 2023 personal goals is to injury and stress-proof myself. Among the litany of micro-goals, here is what I’m doing:
Sleep: Increase by 15 min on average = 3.8 days of sleep in a year = 1%
We've all been struggling in varying degrees with what's happening. In the day we might be busy, occupied working, juggling homeschooling, trying to get some boundaries within our work and our home environment. Then we get to bed and the mind is still very much active. We're still very much in a 'doing' mode.
- Eve Lewis Prieto, Headspace
Family, work, errands & chores, exercising and meal preps, commuting, etc. Life is nonstop. And at the end of the day, don’t we deserve a few minutes of chill time to destress? So where do we find even 15 minutes?!
You have to sacrifice something.
Here’s your call-to-action - less screen time.
Delete FB (they’re evil anyways). Tweet less (it’s trending evil anyways). Bury your news app (spoiler: it’s full of bad news).
Don’t take your phone or tablet into the water closet, aka the toilet.
iPhones -> Settings -> Screen Time -> Downtime, where you can schedule blocks of time where you only receive phone calls and select apps.
YOUR TAKEAWAY
Boom. The real answer to the question I posed at the beginning isn’t just sleeping. It’s to modify your digital habits. Keep those that truly add value to your life, and delete or restrict all others. Be brutal and earn more time back.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
➕ My 2023 Goals and What You Can Learn From Them.
➕ Forbes’ How to Turn Your Brain Off According to a Sleep Psychologist.
➕ Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I thought his world-changing Deep Work book was better, but there are def nuggets of wisdom in his latest too.
➕ “This trial found that sleep extension reduced energy intake (i.e. eat less) and resulted in a negative energy balance (i.e. lose weight) in real-life settings among adults with overweight who habitually curtailed their sleep duration.”
(have you heard about)
➩ Netflix’s Physique: 100. A ridic reality show and Koreans are so polite.
➩ Michael B. Jordan’s skit as Jake from State Farm on SNL. Hilarious.
…AND SOME HUMOR
