Sleep

I’ve successfully filled my life up with a long todo list. Last night I got to bed at 10:30pm for the first time in god knows how long. It’s not really a complaint that I\’m too busy,but an observation that I have been skipping out on sleep that I need.

When I woke up this morning I felt like a new person. I have been more productive and felt better about the product of my work today. Ironically, I had been delivered this article from Zen Habits just days prior.  He makes two points about sleep that I found to be completely true.

1. If you don’t get enough sleep, you will fail at changing habits; and
2. If you have a lack of sleep, your motivation will drop tremendously.

Yes. Yes I do, and yes it does.

The same is true of exercise. As soon as I sacrifice exercise and sleep for what I believe is in exchange for increased productivity in both my technical career and my creative one, I lose. I’ve already lost the moment I go home instead of to the gym or decide to keep working once the clock strikes 10.

The biggest struggle in my life is not knowing what the right thing to do is. I almost always know what to do to improve my situation. My biggest struggle is to simply do those things. Whenever I hear the verse “the truth shall set you free” I think it’s not a universal truth. Shedding the shackles of laziness, habit, and stubbornness would really help set me free. The truth is, I need sleep. The truth is also that I will browse tumblr for an additional 45 minutes after bedtime. I use Any.Do to keep track of my tasks but I think I will attempt to implement the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to help me do a better job of choosing important over urgent when working and scheduling rest. I never thought I’d see the day I had to schedule in rest but here I am. Is this part of getting old and approaching your thirties?

As for sleep, I need 8-9 hours a night to feel good the next morning. At least 7 of them need to be uninterrupted. I\’m going to try to get ample sleep again, this week. I don’t have any weddings, just smaller gigs like engagements and parties, for another two months and I only have one major development project outside of my 9-5 this week. I can focus on improving my sleep health, without too many distractions.

Wish me luck (and perseverance).