Better Sleep Without Willpower: Part 1 Subtraction

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

So the very first step is to disconnect yourself from all screens and all work related activities. You don’t have to worry because no willpower will be required for this. It’s just like how if you want to eat healthy you’ll make more progress by removing all the junk food from your house than by fighting your way through willpower even with the most regimented exercise routine- while you are still having something in the fridge for those late night munchies. So, here’s how to go about things the easy way rather than fighting your way through willpower.

1. When it comes to eliminating screens and work during bedtime, one option is to leave your phone in the car. As you can see, this makes the wrong thing the hard thing to do. Plus, it also gives you the opportunity to be present with your family if you have one. In this way, presence is outsourced to a well-thought environment.
2. You should also leave your laptop in the office. This way you won’t get the urge to check your email every other minute, unless you are willing to drive to your office which you won’t be- after a day of hard work. Bonus points as you get to detach from work and not just from being awake.
3. You can leave your phone or laptop with someone in another room. This also works great because if now you have to distract yourself you’re going to have to wake them up.
4. And this again is something people do wrong by default, and in fact we have a whole society that has agreed to doing it wrong. So, we have a TV in every hotel room accessible from a comfortable viewing angle from the bed. But if you want to avoid excitement- which is the opposite of relaxation and blue light coming from such a large surface area- then it’s actually better to have the TV in the bathroom or even the kitchen, but you can probably find a placement in the common area so you won’t have to take things to this height.

But since it is the magic rectangle that can be fitted into our pockets that is the greatest source of distraction of all, I’ve discovered an additional layer of environmental design and this is applicable especially if you cannot leave your phone in the car or with someone in another room. And this strategy exists on a hierarchy so you can try progressively more powerful items on the list if the current one is not working.

1. So the first step to try is to block all notifications on your phone.
2. And if this doesn’t suffice which it probably won’t then please consider uninstalling apps. Now this is an emotionally hard choice to make but also equally powerful for precisely the same reason. In fact, this is the cardinal rule of environmental design if you call it- the harder a choice is emotionally, the more willpower it leverages by freeing up the need for the same in the future.
3. And occasionally consider doing a regular factory reset on your phone and now it is again something that works really well for me so far. You might as well give it a try.
4. And finally and this is a general one that you can make work regardless of whether you follow the other steps or not- you can use some combination of Do Not Disturb mode, flight mode, or even switched-off mode to avoid unwelcome distractions on the cheap.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this 5-part series on sleep optimization through environmental design. Design once and sleep better for a lifetime.