- [Narrator] Thanks to brilliant
for sponsoring this video
and supporting my channel.
You've probably already
heard about the magical
life-changing powers of morning routine.
It's a phenomenon that
scientists don't quite
understand yet, but
when you wake up early,
brew a cup of coffee using the
most hipster method possible
and copy the morning routine
of a powerful CEO or YouTuber,
then you're virtually guaranteed
just as successful as they are.
Why else would morning
routine videos be so popular?
But if you've already created
a morning routine for yourself
and you haven't yet gained
your guaranteed fame,
success and superpowers,
it might be because you skipped out
on the most important step.
A good night's sleep.
Many animals have evolved to be nocturnal,
but humans are not among them.
Still that hasn't stopped
us from covering our cities
and homes with a blanket
of artificial light
and concocting an ever
expanding number of reasons
to remain awake long after
the sun has gone down.
And so often we do this at our detriment.
Delaying the onset of sleep,
even as tomorrow's work
keeps our wake up time,
stubbornly fixed in place.
So many of us can't seem
to break this habit,
our good intentions being overwhelmed
by short term desires and pleasures.
If you're anything like me,
then you probably find yourself dealing
with this problem on a
fairly regular basis.
You should be going to bed,
but there's just so many
more interesting things
to do at night.
So what can we do about this problem?
Well, one simple solution is
to create a night routine.
A night routine is just
like a morning routine,
but in reverse.
Instead of helping you wake
up and get ready for the day,
it helps you to smoothly end your day
and also make sure that you get to bed
in time to get enough sleep.
But there is a another benefit
to having a good night routine.
In addition to helping
you wind down today,
it also helps you prepare
for the next day as well.
So just like we did with my
one hour morning routine video,
today, we are constructing a
one hour nighttime routine.
And with this routine,
we've got three different goals in mind.
Number one, wind down the
day so you feel relaxed
when it's time to go to bed.
Number two, actually get
yourself in bed on time.
So you're getting enough sleep.
And number three, do a few things
to help you prepare for the next day.
And to achieve all those goals,
we first have to go through a
couple of preparatory steps.
Number one, you need
to figure out what time
you should go to bed.
Everyone has a specific
and unique amount of time
where they're getting the
optimal amount of sleep.
We're all unique in that way.
But according to the
national sleep foundation,
there are some generally
recommended times for each age group.
So if you have a specific
wake up time in mind,
you can use the information on this charts
to figure out when in general
you should be heading to bed.
Beyond that it's also worth knowing
a little bit about the sleep cycle.
When we sleep, we go
through a cycle of stages.
A couple of lighter stages at first,
and then moving into
a stage of deep sleep.
Finally, moving into that
REM stage where you dream
and you also consolidate memories.
And the main thing you
wanna know about this
sleep cycle now, is that on average,
it takes about 90 minutes to complete.
And ideally you want to be waking up
near the end of one of those cycles.
If you have an alarm that forces you awake
during one of the deep stages,
then you are not gonna have a good time.
Anyway, armed with this knowledge,
you can now start to hone in on
an ideal bedtime for yourself.
And once you know that,
it is time for the other preparatory step,
which is to create a wind down
alarm or as my friend Martin,
who wrote the first draft
for this video called it,
a "start winding down ya doofus" alarm.
And personally, I think
I'm gonna use that name
for my own wind down alarm.
So you wanna set this for about an hour
before your bedtime, and when it goes off,
give yourself about 10 minutes to wind up
whatever it was that you were doing.
At this point, it's also
a good time to be done
with screens for the night
because the artificial
light emitted by screens
can mess with your circadian rhythm
and sometimes even harm
the quality of your sleep.
And while features like
the iPhone's night shift
can help somewhat, simply just being done
with screens near bedtime
is gonna help a lot more,
especially if you're someone
who finds it hard to fall asleep.
If you're one of those people
who just is out like a light,
the moment your head hits the pillow,
well, number one, lucky you,
and number two, maybe this
isn't gonna matter that much,
but it's at least good to know.
So like I mentioned earlier,
one of the qualities of
a good nighttime routine
is that it prepares you for the next day.
And that is what this next
15 minute chunk is all about.
I think this starts with
cleaning up your workspace
and in general, resetting
your environment.
This book is a concept
called Mise-en-place,
which roughly translates
to everything in its place
and is a huge concept in the
world of professional cooking.
Chefs and professional cooks
know that to work clean,
to constantly reset the environment,
to make sure everything is in its place
before work starts is going to number one,
cut down on friction,
number two, reduce accidents
and number three,
just make everything
work more efficiently.
And this is a concept that is not limited
to just professional kitchens.
Everyone can use this to their advantage.
So I think it's a great
idea to take some time
before you go to bed to
clean up a little bit,
tidy up your desk, do the dishes,
basically reset your living space,
so it's not stressing you out next day.
You can also get ahead a little bit
and cut down on the number of decisions
you have to make in the morning
by number one, laying out
your clothes for the next day.
And number two, if you
need to go somewhere,
packing up your bag, though, personally,
I work from home now
and I think a lot of you
are working from home or
doing school from home.
So maybe that one doesn't apply right now,
but hey, one can dream, right?
The next 15 minutes segment
should be dedicated to
reviewing how your day went.
So if you track your habits
with maybe a habit tracking app
or maybe a pen and paper system,
like the Martin system that I made a video
about earlier this year, now
is a great time to make sure
that everything has been
checked off for the day.
Additionally, this is also
a good time to ask yourself
if there's anything that you
could improve going forward.
For example, if something
popped up today unexpected
that prevented you from
getting everything done
on your plan, you can
make a note about it,
and hopefully it's not gonna
derail you in the future.
After that take five minutes to do
whatever it is you gotta
do to get ready for bed.
Like as Del "the funky" Homo
sapien once said in that song,
that was, I think in Tony
Hawk's pro skater three,
"you got to brush your teeth."
So, you know, at least do that.
And then finally take 15
minutes to just relax,
do some light stretches, do
some yoga, read a fiction book,
whatever it is, just do
something that relaxes you
and puts you in a state where
it's easy to fall asleep.
This nighttime routine
isn't some hardcore regiment
with a ton of habits, but it
really doesn't have to be.
For me, all it needs to do
is help me get to bed on time
and allow me to start the next day
with a plan and a clean workspace.
And as I mentioned to my
last morning routine video,
when I do start that new day,
one of the best parts
of that morning routine
is the time that I spend on
independent learning projects.
I never wanna rest on my laurels.
I always wanna be learning something new
for the rest of my entire life.
And if you're the same
way, that one resource
that you might wanna
check out is Brilliant.
Brilliant has a library
of more than 60 courses
that can help you gain
a deeper understanding
of the complex topics within math, science
and computer science, and
in a way that's different
from most traditional methods.
All of Brilliant's courses are based
on active learning principles,
quickly throwing you into smartly,
laid out sequences of problems
and interactive challenges
that let you actually
use what you're learning,
basically right away.
And this is one of the most
effective ways to learn.
By getting your hands dirty right away,
instead of passively intaking material,
you learn more quickly, you
stay interested for longer,
and you even develop this
universally applicable
problem solving skillset along the way.
And this month, I wanna recommend
one of their newest courses,
which is all about the
mathematics behind uncertainty.
I've always been fascinated
with how people make decisions
and how our decision making process
is often guided by irrational thinking.
And this course, especially the
section on Bayesian thinking
will help you to start
taking a more scientific
and probability driven look,
at the decisions that you
make in your everyday life.
And if you wanna start taking that course
or any of the other courses
in Brilliant's library,
you can start by signing up over
at brilliant.org/thomasfrank.
And if you're one of the
first 200 people to sign up
with that link, you're gonna get 20% off
your annual premium subscription.
Thanks so much for watching this video.
If you found it useful,
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so that's always appreciated.
But again, thank you just for watching
and paying attention to the stuff
that I throw up on the internet,
seriously, you guys are awesome.
If you haven't subscribed already
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Also on my Instagram, over at Tom Frankly,
I'm doing question and answer
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But of course, if you don't wanna do that,
then I don't know, go skateboard
an empty pool or something
because I'm not your dad.
