One of the most important things that people need to survive and thrive in life is sleep. I realized this when I started Ascend Finance a couple years ago. This can also help when you are thinking of staff managment. This is specifically important if you’re a leader as chances are high that you’ll always be tasking your mind about ensuring that everything works perfectly and correcting the things that can potentially go wrong. As such, you should ensure that you get the right amount of sleep so that you can rest well and function effectively.
Don’t overstimulate before going to bed
There are numerous scientific reasons why reducing the time you spend in front of the screen before going to bed is important. And the majority of this reason emphasizes on the fact that it makes it difficult to sleep. Numerous studies have shown that you’ll find it difficult to sleep if you stay on your phone or do something intense on your brain.
Of course, it’ll be difficult to avoid tasking your brain when you have pressing needs. But rather than focus entirely on those needs, you should try out an activity that will distract your mind from those thoughts.
– What are some things I should do before bed?
A very effective method is light reading a fictional book. This helps your brain to focus on things that won’t keep you up at night. However, you should keep away from reading an intense fictional book as that can fill your mind with anxiety and prevent you from having a peaceful sleep. Easy fictional books on the other hand allow you to cast your mind off the busy day you had and focus on other important activities.
– What are some things that you shouldn’t do before going to bed?
You should keep off from activities that can stimulate your mind, e.g. watching a TV program, or solving logical problems. You should also avoid exercising before going to hitting the bed, as exercising prevents you from being calm.
Do a Calming Activity
To further elucidate the point made on reading a book before bed, it is important that any activity you’re engaging in before bed is a calm one. Some examples of calming exercises to try are meditating, stretching, self-care routine, journaling, reading, or even a self-care routine. A lot of influential individuals have an impressive self-care routine before going to bed. It could be taking a long shower and then applying a relaxing facemask, or just meditating on the bed.[adsense]
Avoid Thinking About Work Close to Bedtime
This is one thing that’s common to leaders when they’re trying to sleep well. Your sleep can suffer immensely when you think about work and the stress of the day. Your goal should always include starting the day smoothly and ending it well—there is no way that’s possible if you don’t have enough sleep or you constantly wake up at night. The exercises listed above can immensely help you to combat all that.
– How to prevent thinking about work before bed
You can avoid thinking about work before going to bed by doing a lot of things, but here are some tools you can use. Writing or reading your journal can help a lot. I write down my thought in a journal every morning and night, and this has helped me immensely.
Writing in my journal at night helps me jot down my concerns and it offloads it from my mind. A more effective method is by journaling about interesting things that happened in the day that is not related to work—it works like magic.
Conclusion
Having a good night’s sleep is an important thing if you’d like to be an effective leader for long. As a leader, I am saddled with the task of making decisions that will affect the lives of others whether that means writing for my blog Saved By the Cents By the Cents or reviewing material for a presentation. Which means that you need to be in the right frame of mind.
Follow the advice in this article as it’ll help you have a good night’s sleep. Which will help you think straight and become a more effective leader.
