avatarBenny Lim

Summary

This article discusses the importance of a positive nightly routine for productivity and shares tips from Dr Benjamin Hardy on how to optimize it.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the significance of a good nightly routine for enhancing productivity the next day, according to Dr Benjamin Hardy. It suggests that how we end our day is as important as how we start it, as our body and mind process the day's events and prepare for the next. The article recommends several nightly habits to improve productivity, including journaling, breathing exercises, and visualization. Journaling helps clear the mind of stress and anxiety, while breathing exercises promote relaxation and better sleep. Visualization allows the subconscious mind to work on achieving the things we want. The article concludes that a good night's sleep is crucial for starting the day right and that a positive nightly routine is key to achieving this.

Bullet points

  • The importance of a positive nightly routine for productivity
  • The significance of ending the day on a high note for better sleep and productivity
  • The benefits of journaling before bed to clear the mind of stress and anxiety
  • The use of breathing exercises to promote relaxation and better sleep
  • The role of visualization in allowing the subconscious mind to work on achieving our goals
  • The importance of a good night's sleep for starting the day right
  • The suggestion that a positive nightly routine is key to achieving better productivity.

POSITIVE NIGHTLY ROUTINE

A Good Nightly Routine Will Help 10x Your Productivity For The Next Day — According To Dr Benjamin Hardy

Are you ready to get ahead of 90% of people?

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

How you start your day is undoubtedly one of the most important things you can do as it will determine if your overall day goes good, great, bad, or terrible.

But just as important (or some would even say that it’s more important) is actually the way you end your day.

In other words, your nightly routine is just as important as your morning routine.

This is because when we’re sleeping, our body not only rests and resets, but our mind also processes everything that we did throughout the day and prepares us for what is to come the following day.

If you end your day on a high, chances are you’ll have a good night’s sleep, and when you wake up the next day, you’ll still feel that high and go on to tackle the day with full enthusiasm.

The opposite will happen though, if you were to end your day on a bad note.

In an article (and a few books) that Dr Benjamin Hardy wrote, he talks about some really good nightly habits to have if you want to 10x your productivity the following day.

That’s why your nightly routine is so important and in this article, I’ll share what you can do so that you finish your day well, and set you up for a great day ahead.

Journaling

The best thing you can do is to make sure you don’t go to bed with a head full of thoughts that stresses you out, make you worry, or give you anxiety.

That’s why it’s important that you get it all out before you go to bed, and the best way to do that is through journaling.

I find it so useful to just put my thoughts down on paper and feel my head get lighter and lighter as I write.

It doesn’t take long — about 15 mins and I like to structure it as so:

  • I start out with writing down things I’m thankful for that happened throughout the day — a minimum of at least 3 things.
  • I then reflect on everything else that happened, the good, the bad, the ugly, just everything, and how all of that made me feel.
  • I finally end it with again being thankful for the opportunity to have experienced everything that I did, and I list down 3 things that I want to do the next day.

By getting all of it out, I’m clearing my head of clutter and giving it the best opportunity to rest as I sleep. It also allows my sub-conscious mind to work on the 3 things that I want to do the next day.

Because as you sleep, your sub-conscious mind continues to work, and it will work on the things that you focus on just before you sleep. It’s the reason why some people wake up still feeling tired, or stressed out because they went to bed still worrying about a lot of things.

So, every night before you sleep, get all your thoughts out on paper and let your mind be as empty as possible so that you can rest.

Breathing

I’ve talked about this in another article before where we tend to take for granted the things that we do effortlessly — such as breathing.

We don’t think about it, we just do it.

But what we don’t realise is that there are different ways to breathe and some of these other ways are so beneficial to us.

Breathing can help with relieving stress, increase our metabolism rate by increasing our heart rate, and ease the feeling of fear and anxiety.

In the above video, Dr Peter Levine talks about this and shows you how to do the breathing exercise (you can go ahead and skip to 2:16 of the video where he demonstrates the exercise).

Doing this before you sleep will help you to feel more relaxed and calmed, which will lead you to having a much better sleep.

Visualising

I mentioned that when I do my night journal, I end it with writing down 3 things I want to do for the next day because this will allow my sub-conscious mind to formulate the best ways to go about achieving these 3 things.

Dr Benjamin Hardy (and many other leading psychologists) has said before that the sub-conscious mind doesn’t discriminate. It works with whatever you give it to work on.

That’s why it can either work for you or against you.

Another thing that I find really useful to do before I sleep is visualising — and this can be about anything at all.

What I usually visualise about before I sleep (and I do this just before I rest my head on my pillow to actually go to sleep — completely in the dark) are things that I want to happen — both short term and long term.

I’d visualise getting a really good sleep, fully rested, amazing dreams, etc.

I’d then visualise the 3 things I want to do the next day, the ones that I’d write down when I journal. I’d think about how I’ll be doing them, and what I’d like to achieve.

I’d then end my visualisation exercise by seeing me as my future-self, doing the things that I want to do in life, living the life that I want, and most importantly, being happy and contented.

Again, this will allow my sub-conscious mind to work on making all that I visualise to happen while I’m sleeping.

Many people underestimated the importance of getting a good night’s sleep. It’s not just about getting rest, but it’s also an important component to how you’re going to start your day.

If you don’t get a good night’s sleep, chances are your day isn’t going to go as well as you’d like it to.

But if you do get a good night’s sleep, you’re already starting your day right.

And the way to ensure you get a good night’s sleep is your nightly routine, all that you do before you sleep.

So, do the above as much as you can every single night (as suggested by experts and our very own Medium superstar, Dr Benjamin Hardy), and watch yourself 10x your productivity and get ahead of 90% of people who do not have a good nightly routine.

Start 2024 like you mean it.

Routine
Success
Positivity
Entrepreneurship
Habits For Success
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