- [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.
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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 videos every single week.
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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.