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“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”.
I learned that when I was a kid. Back then, it sounded more of a nice rhyme rather than a lesson. I would sleep early anyway, and wake up early enough to be on time to school. The results of success showed in the years ahead.
Then, at some point over the last few years, 24 hours in a day seemed to be just not sufficient. What’s more, I crossed the bar and encroached onto my sleep time. “What’s the point of sleeping so much anyway if you can do with much less of it and make time for other stuff instead?” was the thought process. But I was wrong. Very wrong! The ill effects showed up gradually, like slow poison. And that brings me to this point where I take this challenge head-on, to get into a proper sleep routine once again and enjoy its benefits towards a more successful life.
In case you missed my earlier post, this is the first in a series of challenges that we will be taking on right here at Secrets of Success. For complete details, read the post announcing this series.
Okay, those who have no issues in having a proper sleep pattern will find this first challenge too trivial. If you are one of them, feel free to ignore this and click here to suggest a challenge that is of interest to you.
For those of you who can relate to me with regard to irregular sleeping habits, here’s welcoming you to take on the challenge with me. Though early to bed and early to rise may be better, for the time being we’ll settle for on-time to bed and on-time to rise. Let’s jump straight into it.
As announced earlier, we would be applying the Logical Goals™ method in setting up the challenges. If you are not aware of Logical Goals, read this article first. Below is how I’ve defined the Logical Goal for this challenge:
Triggers:
I’m having a strong realization that almost all of my vital sectors in life are getting impacted due to reduced and irregular amount of sleep on a regular basis. Here are some observations that triggered this Challenge:
1) Deterioration of health, leading to
1.1) Loss of weight (not a positive thing, as I’m not overweight)
1.2) Reduced inner physical strength.
2) Physical and mental exhaustion during the day, leading to
2.1) Reduced productivity
2.2) Negligence of physical workout routine
3) Irritability, stress, and reduced overall peace of mind
(Boy! That does seem to be a really huge problem! It indeed is one of my biggest concerns now, and deserves to be the first challenge for me to take up)
Target (The Challenge):
Just for the next 21 days, I will:
1. Go to bed at 23:30 O’clock local time
2. Sleep (or at least be in bed, eyes closed) for 7.5 continuous hours
3. Wake up and get out of bed at 07:00 hrs
(If you join this challenge with me, you can set the start and end times for sleep to what suits you routine best, but let the duration be no less than 7 hours)
Foreseen Risks and Planned Measures:
| # | Risk | Action/Response |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Increased responsibilities in personal life | Dedicate the planned amount of time, but not more than that. |
| 2 | Working extra hours at the “9 to 6” job (though less frequently than before) | Strongly avoid, unless critical. If not avoidable, the lost time is to be stolen from what’s allocated to personal goals (which I’d hate doing) and not from sleep time |
| 3 | Increased personal goals and targets (springing from a vision of my dream life) | Dedicate the planned amount of time, but not more than that. If I leave office early, time gained can be used as a bonus here. |
| 4 | My workaholic nature (I can cheat sleep and continue working the whole night) | Control. No excuses/exceptions should be entertained towards “doing just a little bit more”. Let the main purpose of this challenge be to tame this beast. |
| 5 | Unplanned/unforeseen personal work/problems that must be addressed on priority | Take a day off from work and/or, if unavoidable, steal away time from personal goals |
Conditions:
1) Responsibilities in personal life, especially those towards family members, must in no way be compromised
2) This site must remain active while the challenge is on. Even though personal goals may get compromised for want of time (due to the risks outlined above), the development of this site should not be amongst those that may potentially be impacted.
Timeline:
Daily, from July 11, 2010 to July 31, 2010
Vision:
(There’s a reason why this is written in the present tense. I’ll talk about that in another post)
As a result of having a fixed and healthy sleep routine…
1) I am feeling physically healthy, and can see the difference as
1.1) My weight has stabilized and is showing signs of increasing
1.2) I am feeling the inner sense of strength once again
2) I remain full of energy throughout the day, with more to spare, and I can see it in the
2.1) Increased productivity
2.2) Motivation to diligently follow my physical workout routine
3) I feel calm and collected at all times, and experience deeper overall peace of mind
That’s the Logical Goal for this challenge. It starts tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to delivering on it. I know I should have given more advance notice about this, and that’s something I will keep in mind for upcoming challenges.
I’ll be posting comments on this post to update you all on my progress on this challenge, and would be most glad to see you join in on this challenge and post your comments too.
Let’s Snore Away to Success!
Copyright Mark @ Secrets of Success. All rights reserved. This material may not be replicated or rewritten in any form without prior permission.
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Steve’s Sunday Selections – Jul 18th, 2010 | Steve Scott Site Pingback on Jul 18th, 2010 at 20:01
[...] Want to develop a more *normal* sleep schedule? If so, take a look at a challenge that Mark is doing about getting a proper amount of sleep. [...]
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Steve (3)
Aaron (1)
July 11, 2010
First day, first show! It’s 23:10 local time, July 11, and just another 20 minutes before I must hit bed.
I feel so odd, the workaholic inside me can’t believe I’m actually doing this. Can you believe it actually hurts?
On another note, I’m going to have to miss the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final! History is going to be created tonight with the winner being (just) the 8th country to ever win the world cup. A bit sad that I’ll miss the live telecast of the match, but I guess it’s going to be this history that I make tonight right here on this site that’s going to matter to me long after the world cup fever dies down.
So here’s me signing off for the day. The first challenge is just around the corner, and I’m glad I am getting off on the right foot!
July 12, 2010
If you’re wondering whether I managed to wake up and get out of bed at 7am… Yes, I did! And I’m very happy about it!
So that’s one day (rather, night) down. Still 20 more to go.
Now that I sleep for 7.5 hours, I can feel the pinch from decreased availability of time as compared to otherwise. But there is certainly something special about the feelings arising from taking this up as an open challenge.
I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing some benefits from this change. One thing is that I’ll have to somehow make up for the decrease in time available at hand. Will the expected increase in productivity make up for this difference? Too early to draw any conclusions, so I’ll have to wait and watch. At least I’m sure this will help towards better health and increased energy levels.
Alright, it’s about time for night #2. Just another few minutes, and I’m off to bed!
July 13, 2010
My wife says she’s impressed by my diligence to this challenge.
She has seen that sleeping early (or on-time) has been one of the toughest things for me to do. Over the years, my late-night working habit even influenced (in a negative way) her good old habit of being early to bed and early to rise.
It does feel good to be at this turning point!
Oops! Time for bed, night #3. Ciao!
July 14, 2010
You’re conducting an impressive experiment! It’s pretty hard to get on a set schedule when you’re used to staying up til all hours of the night, but you’re right. Lack of sleep can cause a lot of health problems. I notice that I have to revise a lot of things that I write late at night when I’m half asleep. Let us know how it all works out.
July 14, 2010
Steve, it’s always a pleasure to see you around. Yes, it’s kind of hard because now it seems that there’s less time available to take care of personal goals. But in the bigger picture, it’s health that matters more. With that taken care of, I trust that I’ll find new ways of making time for my goals, and the sharpened tools (body & mind) will work more effectively to make up for it in better ways.
Alright, now for a quick update on night #3. This morning I was woken up from my sleep 15 minutes too early. My ears, nose and hair were being pulled apart, and my eyes were being poked at. It was my little boy who then jumped on me and was as happy as he could be at his success in waking me up. So that meant the end of my sleep, but do you think I was disappointed? A little bit, but three nights of sound sleep helped in keeping my nerve. Realizing that some things are just beyond my control, I just spent the remaining 15 minutes in bed playing happily with my kid.
Here comes night #4, and I hope my son doesn’t wake up before 7am
July 15, 2010
Today was an achievement in itself. Circumstances were such that I would have had to stay late in office this evening. However, I’m glad I was able to place my personal priorities ahead of the demands of the situation at work, and leave on time. Today I managed to overcome the Three Difficult Factors and strike the work life balance right! And, in a sense, I “made” extra time for myself and my personal goals. Certainly a reason to feel happy as I jump to bed on night #5 of this challenge.
July 17, 2010
Yesterday I took time for my physical workout, and was pleasantly surprised at the noticeable increase in my strength. After a rigorous session of 1 hour, instead of feeling tired I was feeling all pumped up!
Night #6 was Friday night - when I usually sleep extremely late, knowing I can wake up equally late as well. But with this challenge on, it being a weekend made no difference… I had to, and so I did - I hit bed on time, that’s it!
This morning, irrespective of it being a Saturday, I woke up on time. And what a wonderful day I spent out with my family!
Time for night #7, and I’m still going strong. Off to bed!
July 17, 2010
I used to oversleep a lot. Not only on weekends. Actually, I could sleep for 14 hours straight. It’s been a few years since then. These days I wake up at 5:00 AM (by choice), even on SAT. Keep it up!
July 18, 2010
Thanks, Rotem! Yes, even I can sleep a lot, and I can actually enjoy doing so. However, the problem that I had been having in the recent past was just the opposite, which is lack of sleep (by choice)
It’s good that you are an early bird. I admire that! Even I’d like to get there someday. But for now it’s getting things to “normalcy” that is the priority for me, and this challenge is already proving to be the best step I could have ever taken in that direction.
I’m one week through, and… oops! it’s time for week #2. Signing off, and straight to bed!
July 21, 2010
Tonight, I’m crossing the half-way mark on this challenge.
It’s been such a delightful experience, I’m not finding the right words to describe the amount of satisfaction I’ve derived from this challenge this far. I haven’t felt this healthy and energetic in a long time.
I can see some sweet changes in my daily routine, with more coming up, all springing from the benefits of regular and good night’s sleep.
There’s lots more to express, but I’m not getting the right words as my eyes have started drooping from the habitual pattern of going to bed at this time. It’s time, so I’m off to bed.