1.) Take periodic 5-10 minute breaks throughout the day.
This is where people might differ from one person to the next. Some days, you’ll need a couple of these, but chances are you’ll need at least one each day. I happen to believe this is actually very beneficial, as discussed in this book here.
You’ll notice that on those days after a night where you don’t get much sleep, you’ll feel like you need more of these little breaks. You’ll also have much less patience, willpower, more anxiety, less focus, and will be more irritable (so don’t forgo sleep, its a very necessary evil).
2.) End on a relaxed, but productive note.
Being productive does not necessarily mean that you’re hunched over, grinding away doing debilitating work or tasks all the time. I’ve recently learned that you can be almost blissfully relaxed, and still get a lot of stuff done in the evenings.
I’ll use myself as an example again here, and then you can think of ways you can apply this to your own day to day schedule: I stop working at 7pm (on my business), I drive 5-7 minutes down the street home, grab my mail, and cook a delicious dinner of protein, potatoes, and green vegetables usually.
I do intermittent fasting, but even with IF, I don’t eat a big lunch. Dinner for me is my big meal of the day, but that’s OK because my evenings are only lightly productive. I’d rather go hard early in the morning and early in the day (with the day’s to-do’s) as I discussed here, and then slow it down in the evenings. This DOES NOT mean you go home and sit on your ass to watch TV.
After I eat I’ll burn 4-5 grams of Kratom (AKA ”God’s Plant”).
After I eat, I either work more on this blog (writing is very therapeutic and relaxing almost, especially after drinking kratom), or listen to a podcast that teaches me valuable things, or I’ll read more, or watch Youtube videos from the guys running my favorite blogs.
Another good thing you could do is go back to gym and this time just sit in sauna while you listen to an audible book, or podcast.
Consuming content via an audiobook (audible), a podcast, or even YouTube does not mean you aren’t being productive. If you’re learning things, and advancing your knowledge and wisdom, there is no better way of winding down for the day (in my opinion). Just make damn sure that consuming content is not the only thing you’re doing. Make sure you are just as much of a content creator, as you are a content consumer (at least in total daily minutes or hours spent).
3.) Don’t eat dinner too late.
If you’re gonna go to bed at 9pm, make sure you don’t eat later than 6pm. Am I telling you what to do? YES, I am. Don’t want to listen? Fine, I’ll see you in few years once you’re FAT.
OK, maybe I’m being mean here, but I’ll tell you something: Eating too close to bed, consistently, is surefire why to at least prevent you from looking how you want to look.
Optional: Have a glass of wine, a drink, or take 4.5 grams of Kratom.
4.) Relax and enjoy yourself a little bit each night.
I really don’t do enough of this myself actually, but I do think its beneficial to have 1 night each week (in addition to Sunday), where you really relax. Maybe that means you watch a few of your favorite shows. For me, this night is Friday night. I used to go out on Friday nights, but that’s changed here in the last year or so. Even though I’m still single, going out more than 1 night per week is just not conducive to my life mission (or my energy levels).
Right now the most important thing in my life is growing this blog, and maintaining daily high energy levels and focus.
At 31 years old, that’s hard to do if you’re going out to the bars all the time.
5.) Don’t spend more than 15 minutes of your night on social media (or YouTube).
I don’t know about you guys, but I can sure as hell get sucked in to watching YouTube videos. Next thing you know, and hour has gone by and now I’m cutting into minutes that should have been spent sleeping. It’s especially easy to do this when you’re laying in bed at night after turning out the lights, so be very careful.
Its danger is in its abilty to subtly affect you. Those late evening minute that should be spent sleeping are crucially important, so dont cut into them.
This brings me right in to my next point:
6.) Go to bed around 8pm or 9pm.
Nothing productive happens after 9:00pm at night. You know it, and I know it. Stop kidding yourself here. If you’re to be an early riser (and you should be), you’re going to have to learn to start hitting the hey at 8 or 9pm.
I have a new experiment I’m going to be trying after the New Year, I’m going to alternate between getting 6 hours of sleep one night, and 7 hours of sleep the next night. The reason for this is because restricting myself to only 6 hours of sleep each night is just not working for me (as much as I wish it would).
But I do know that I’m OK if I go a couple nights at 6 hours, just not more than that. So the only logical thing to try is alternating it. I’ll let you guys know this works out. It is of utmost importance to me that I getting out of bed each morning by 4am. I cannot and will not do this if I’m not going to bed early enough, and you likely wont either.
Remember: being an riser will help on your path to completing your life mission, which is something you should be working on every single day.
”What’s worth doing is worth doing every day.” – Grant Cardone
You dont have to get up at 4:00, but at least by 5:00am. This is what ass-kickers do. You simply WILL get more done every day when you start hours before the rest of the world does.
Give these 6 suggestions a try, and then let me know below how they work out for you.
-Matt Mitchell
