For the CEO's of the group, do you ever find yourself struggling to fall asleep because your mind is constantly on overdrive?

[amp0193]

Only if I attempt to do work immediately prior to sleeping. Especially email. One bad customer email can keep me up for a couple hours as I mull it over.

Rule I made for myself: No electronics at least 30min before going to sleep. An hour is even better.

I'll typically read a book, and they get me feeling drowsy.

Waking up at 5am every day helps me be tired at the end of the day as well.

There are days I dream about the business though, so I'm essentially am thinking about it and working out problems 24/7. You can't shut it off completely.

 

[Harry Waywell]

It's so easy to let all the responsibilities and pressures get on top of you, what is your experience?

 

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[Phikey]

CEO here of digital marketing agency for eCommerce clients. Managing a team of 10 team members. Sleep is massive for productivity and getting shit done. I recommend all spend some energy optimising their sleep because it pays off exponentially in the long run. I used to have trouble sleeping until I did this:

• Kept work at work and home at home. I have a private office in a coworking space. I leave my computer at the office and never bring it home. I leave work at work. This makes it very easy to switch off and relax when I get home. You may think your clients, customers, team need you but no one even notices.
• Got rid of my dopamine addiction with phones/screens/social media. I deleted instagram, bought a cheap android phone and just have 3 apps (google maps, whatsapp, uber). I also leave this at home so when I go to work I just work, no screwing around messaging people. Maybe this is drastic for you but this not only improved my sleep but my attention and deep work ability. I can sit down for hours and hours now without distraction. It's like a superpower that very few people in this age have access to. Happy to talk about this more if you'd like.
• Read before bed. IMPORTANT: make sure it's fiction. You don't want to be working your brain up with business ideas when you're trying to wind down. I've been working my way through the lord of the rings trilogy and it's been amazing. 20-30 mins and I'm out like a light.
• Changing diet. I went keto just because gluten and dairy made me bloated and I've seen other massive benefits like way better and consistent energy, sleep improved a lot. I stopped eating shit food - also linked with my dopamine addiction.
• Bought a good eye mask (I use this one)
• Bought good ear plugs (I use these ones)
• Do wim hof breathing method - this calms all the voices in your head and puts you in a deep medatative state. Video I recommend to getting started
• Wake up at the same time each day. I used to sleep in to 9 or 10am but I changed to waking up at 6am. It sucked for the first week but after that my sleep was way better.
• Stop looking at any screens 1 hour before bed. I dont look at screens at all after work. I notice that if I ever use a screen in bed then I wont be able to sleep well at all.
• Stop drinking coffee. For so long caffeine was really screwing with my sleep but I had no idea. I thought I just always needed coffee to work well. I now drink green tea which has caffeine but not at the same level. I also dont drink it after 3pm.

You have to find what works for you. All these things were discovered by me over time. Particularly last year from Oct-December when I went deep monk mode and tripled the size of my agency.