This past Sunday, I had a nice breakfast with friends. When we were wrapping up, I said the real reason I wanted to bring the group together. I was putting together a weekly group to work towards goals and hold each other accountable. In the course of our first meeting I’ve made a few observations, the type and size fo the goal will vary greatly from person to person, stakes are often the missing ingredient, and I needed this group for more than the purpose of accountability.

The Goal Doesn’t Matter

In our small group of four, we have a range of goals. We have a physical/health goal of running every day this week. We have a business/professional goal of making 25 sales calls. Lastly, we have project goals of online streaming and writing. My goal is to finally make progress on a short guide tied to this blog.

The book has been started and changed on and off for months now, and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to make the long-needed progress. My goal for the week was 1,000 words written. The size of the goal wasn’t important, but the way I looked at it was to shoot for something that would take two or three hours of effort.

But Stakes Do

Completing this guide is something I’ve tried to make progress on multiple times in the past. Using my newsletter subscribers as my accountability group. Making announcements on progress was supposed to get me over the hump of personal distractions and excuses, but I struggled to stay on point each time. What was missing were real tangible consequences.

Saying I’m going to do something is easy, but being truly accountable is a bit more difficult. WIthout consequences, what is the point of having a group? I wanted to keep this simple for now, and so not completing a week’s goal results in having to buy everyone’s meal the following week.

There are a number of apps and services that can assist with this if working alone – BeeMinder and Stikk to name a few. In both examples, monetary loss is the consequence, but in slightly different ways. I’ve considered using both services for different reasons, but haven’t yet. Let me know if you’ve used these and your thoughts on them in the comments below!

Two Birds

For a few weekends in a row, I felt anti-social and unfocused. I didn’t feel like I was making any progress in anything from projects to health to professional goals. Staying in and binging a TV show or playing some video games probably wasn’t the best solution. Putting this group together is not only a good boost for motivation and progress, but also serves as a regular social event to meet with friends.

The coming weeks will prove to see if this is a useful approach or not, for both myself and my group of friends. We’ll be meeting again this weekend. I’m looking forward to both sharing my progress and hearing how everyone else is doing.

 

My most recent trial of shutting down screens was good overall but had some missteps along the way. Successful days were on and off. One I would close us and be in bed well before 11 PM, while others were spent up past midnight. I believe part of what made this so difficult is that I feel more energized as the night passes on. What I need to do now is find better ways to spend that energy in some form of outlet.

Time to Turn In

Throughout the trial, I’ve had to stop gaming with friends early or cut off videos in the middle of watching in order to start winding down at 10 PM. While I definitely was disciplined most nights, some were a struggle. I just needed to fill my brain with the last 5 minutes of that video, or I would use the excuse that it  was a weekend so I could stay up until 1 AM playing games.

Many days, I struggled to fall asleep as early as planned, and so I tried to replace time that was often spent watching videos with a variety of other tasks. I tried puzzles which seemed to only keep me up later. Reading seemed to help, but I often would try to get one last chapter in.

Optimal Working Time

I’ve always felt I’ve been more of a night owl than a morning bird. My peak times to get work done has seemed to be late in the evening.

My hypothesis for my increased energy comes from a second wind after decompressing after a long day. In my high school and college years, this was winding down after class, cross country/track practice, and homework. While my activities have been consolidated into one eight hour block of work I think the results still apply.

Conclusion

Though I struggled to make 10 PM work, I think trying this out, with a range of successful nights, has helped me to realize a better solution long term. I’m going to play around with the no screens after X o’clock format a bit more and see if I can find something that works. Maybe it’s 11, maybe it’s midnight. 10 just seemed too early. By the time I was supposed to be winding down, I’d finished decompressing from work and my brain was ready for more.

With loosened expectations on time, I do think having a stricter daily habit will be the most beneficial. In other words, no more weekend binges. Consistent sleep is more critical than hours slept.

I may not have enjoyed this trial, but it did force me to recognize a few issues with habits I’ve formed. I believe playing with the formula for my sleep habits will help and this was a good launch point.

For the next four weeks, I’ll be trying a tip I learned in the memoir of Felicia Day, a weekly accountability group to focus on actually accomplishing goals. Details to be worked out, but I’ll probably follow the same framework Felicia’s group was, a gathering over brunch. Why fix what isn’t broken?

Not much has happened this week, so I’ll keep this post relatively short. One thing I have observed though seems to be a second wind I tend to get around 8:30-9 PM.

Most days after work, I’ll decompress and wind down by watching some videos or playing some games. Usually, shortly after dinner I’ll get a second wind and start whatever remaining tasks for the night, this post for example.

I’m not sure if it’s just been a particularly heavy work week, in which my mind needs much longer to rest. Recharged around what has lately become bedtime. Or if this is more of a regular experience.

I’ve always felt I was more of a night owl. I feel like I have been far more motivated to do things before bed. Perhaps it’s the idea of finishing certain tasks before a day closes helps push me to get working. Perhaps moving a bedtime farther back than 10 can allow me to leverage this sudden motivation.

Next week, I’ll be wrapping up and moving on to the next trial. If you have any ideas, drop them below in the comments!

Throughout our day we have different jobs and tasks to perform. One of the most critical, yet often neglected, of these is sleep.

Over the past week, I’ve attempted to use my current habit of shutting down screens at 10 PM to get to bed earlier. While this has helped me get to sleep earlier, I still seem to struggle to get my morning started. Part of the wrench in that gear is the impact weekends and the holiday – Happy Independence Day – has had on my sleep cycle.

How to Deal with Distractions

Every night I’ve found myself struggling to juggle the distractions available at any moment and doing what I’m supposed to, most often going to bed. I can watch a video, play a game, talk with someone, read articles or books, and the list goes on and on. The last thing I want to do when it’s time for bed is sleep.

I have been good at getting to bed as needed on a typical workday, but days off I have tended to slack. I feel I am on a tightrope of duty and decompressing. I’ve been able to step away from time with friends online once the clock turned 10 on a Monday, but on Friday or Saturday, that discipline just isn’t there. I found myself up until nearly midnight, something I haven’t done since starting this past weekend. The midweek holiday hasn’t been as bad as the weekend, but I have let myself get distracted far too much during the day and now I will barely finish this post in time.

While my weekday habits might be better than those of my off-days, I still have some struggles to work through. I’m trying to find ways to wind down, and I think getting away from computers or my phone around 10 PM is helpful, but I think I need to continue cultivating a routine to get my mind and body ready for sleep.

New Routines

A trial I pursued a couple months ago was trying out different morning routines to see what worked out. During it, I thought a lot about the impact of the evening ritual.

Recently, I’ve found getting out of bed difficult due to stiffness and pains in my joints. To try and prevent this, I am going to try and add a few minutes of stretching to a nightly routine. Just like brushing my teeth and flossing, I’m sure it will eventually become natural.

I might start experimenting with a few other habits to make not only my evening nicer but for the rest of my day as well. If you have any recommendations, let me know if the comments below!!

If like me you have had trouble getting to bed on time and waking up in the morning, I can’t recommend putting away the distraction devices we carry around 24/7 for at least an hour before bed. In my experience, there is seldom something critical enough that it can’t wait until tomorrow.