Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

How has your week been? Mine is summed up by the reel I posted on Friday – things have got away from me. My day job has been busier than usual and I’ve been out of the house for three full days, which is unusual. It makes me realise how much commuting can be dead time. Although I took the train and could do some work on the outward journey, coming home the train was so busy I couldn’t get a seat and typing on my laptop whilst standing up isn’t something I’ve mastered yet. Fortunately next week it’s back to normal.

Another feature of this week is that I haven’t slept too well and it reminded me of the first rule in Laura Vanderkam’s most recent book Tranquility by Tuesday, which is ‘give yourself a bedtime’. I find that having the time to do something is not always about finding the minutes and hours in my week, but it’s also about having the energy to do something and if I haven’t slept well I often struggle. I’m definitely an eight hours a night person and like to be in bed by 9.30pm and lights out by 10pm. In this way I can then get up at 6am and have three hours before I start work, which allows an hour for working on my side hustle between 8am and 9am.

Laura says that you need to decide what time you want or need to get up and count back from there by the amount of hours you want to sleep, which for most people I think is eight hours – that’s the time that you need to be in bed. She also recommends a bed time routine, to help you wind down. It’s just like you did for the kids, bath time then reading a book before bedtime. As adults we benefit from the same thing, we just seem to have forgotten it along the way. If you struggle to drag yourself off of the sofa to get ready for bed brush your teeth and put your pj’s on earlier in the evening. Then when bedtime arrives all you need to do is slip yourself under the covers.

So if you’re struggling to find the energy to work on your side hustle maybe you need to look at the amount of sleep that you’re getting. Try increasing it over the next few weeks and see how you feel.

If you want to hear Laura talking about her book you can do so here on the Afford Anything podcast.