10 Smart Things to Do Before Bed Each Night

The best ways to wind down so you’re rested and ready for whatever the next day throws your way.

A few months ago, I wrote about the morning rituals that successful entrepreneurs use in setting the tone for their days. Now let’s fast-forward 12 to 14 hours to explore best practices for evening excellence. You might be considering ways to work more efficiently into the night, but the reality is that many of us could benefit from more shut-eye.

For years I told myself, Nothing gets accomplished when I sleep, so who needs it? I had read profiles of accomplished people who claimed they operated perfectly on little sleep, a badge of honor, so I inferred that working more and snoozing less were keys to success.

Workaholic Arianna Huffington, who suffered facial injuries when she collapsed from exhaustion, now preaches about the virtues of healthy sleep, and I’m a convert. Since hearing her online TED Talk on the subject, I’ve been going to bed much earlier. Getting my ideal eight hours means I wake up feeling well-rested, which results in more energy that helps me work better. Here are general nighttime actions that my peers recommend for getting enough sleep:

1. No caffeine after 7 p.m.

2. Review your calendar for the next day early in the evening; identify two must-do tasks or goals.

3. Shower before bed instead of the next morning.

4. Get the kids’ backpacks and lunchboxes ready.

5. Choose the next day’s wardrobe to expedite morning preparation.

6. Shut down all electronic devices an hour before bedtime.

7. Take 10 minutes to tidy up so you wake up to a neat space.

8. Spritz pillows and sheets with lavender spray, a scent associated with calm.

9. Read before sleep.

10. Dim all lights an hour before lights out.

In addition, three achievers disclose the nightly rituals that allow them to end the day so they’re set up for successful tomorrows:

• Rosie Battista, founder of lifestyle brand Sleeping Naked After 40, prepares her breakfast—a jar with a custom-blended oat mix—at night so it’s ready the next morning. “I don’t have to think about starting my day in a healthy way. This meal sets me up with energy.”

• Aprille Franks-Hunt, CEO of Women Recharged, which produces business conferences, ends all phone calls at least 30 minutes before bedtime since she realized that late-night chats were often filled with complaints from family, friends and clients who were unloading their drama and problems on her. “It’s too much negativity at that hour.” So now she watches something mindless and funny before bed. “Laughter melts away a stressful day and allows me to sleep so much more soundly.”

• Leadership coach Emily Bennington asks herself, What do I need to let go? “This closure practice has not only allowed me to defuse the brain’s attachment to victim-y ‘poor me’ stories, but it also creates a sense of calm compassion that segues into deeper sleep.”

I end each night by reflecting on what went right that day. This is a marked change from years of falling asleep focused on what I forgot and where I fell short, which didn’t make for a restful night. By deliberately opting to pay attention to big and small things that deserve recognition and celebration, I go to sleep with a sense of satisfaction instead of inadequacy. That helps me wake up excited to build on each new day.

http://www.success.com/article/10-smart-things-to-do-before-bed-each-night

5 Almost Effortless Ways to Become a Morning Person

Do you have a "love-hate" relationship with the morning? Yeah, yeah, you already know that getting up early can make you more productive, focused and motivated -- which is why successful entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson and CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies like Tory Burch and Indra Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo) wake up before the sun rises.

The only problem is . . . you absolutely hate getting out of bed any earlier than you have to. Sound familiar?

If you love the idea of creating a success-propelling morning routine but hate the thought of facing the day once your alarm clock sounds, don’t worry. Here are simple strategies you can follow that will make climbing out from under the covers and starting your morning much easier . . . and even somewhat fun.

1. Start the night before.

Many studies have linked motivation levels with REM sleep (which stands for rapid eye movement and is the part of sleep when you dream). If you’re not getting high-quality rest, with several REM cycles, your motivation and energy will lag when it’s time to get up in the morning.

One way to overcome this is to develop a pre-sleep routine that sets you up for quality rest. Here are some strategies entrepreneurs use to fall (and stay) asleep:

• Limit your caffeine intake. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, admits that he used to drink caffeine all day long, but he now limits consumption to one-to-two drinks, max, so he'll feel less “wired” and sleep better.
• Step away from the electronics. The brightness of your phone, tablet or laptop screen right before bedtime can negatively affect your body’s sleep patterns, which is why Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Huffington Post, keeps her cellphone in another room . . . a habit she started after “passing out from exhaustion.”
• Read a book. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reads an hour nightly (mainly biographies, historical books and intellectual periodicals) to help him fall asleep easier.

It’s also beneficial to create a sleep-inducing environment. Make your bedroom as dark as possible, turn the face of the alarm clock away from you and use a white noise machine or fan if you live in a loud neighborhood.

2: Figure out why becoming a morning person is important to you.

It’s difficult to make any type of change without first knowing why that particular change is important to you. Why is getting up early important to you? Why do you want to be more productive in the morning? Do you believe that establishing the perfect morning routine will finally help you lose weight and get into shape, giving you more confidence and energy throughout the day?

Or, maybe you view getting out of bed before the crack of dawn as the way to find time for things that make you feel good, like reading, writing, or meditating?

Once you know why you want to get up early, you'll find that that change is easier to do. 

3: Don’t hit the snooze button.

How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning? Once? Twice? Five times? More?

Although it might seem that getting a few additional minutes of sleep every time the alarm goes off is a good thing, the opposite is actually true. Hitting the snooze button makes you feel more tired. It screws up your sleep cycles, so you wind up dragging your feet all day long.

On top of that, when hitting the button is the first action you take in the morning, you are starting your day off by procrastinating. This sends a message to your subconscious mind that you don’t even have the self-discipline to get out of bed in the morning. Not a great way to start your day. 

So, how do you get out of the snooze button habit? Consider placing your clock (or phone) away from the bed so you actually have to get up to turn it off. Another suggestion from the Sleep Junkies is to glue your snooze button so it no longer works. That will certainly stop you from using it!

4: Change your morning routine slowly.

Trying to completely overhaul your mornings, by (for example) getting out of bed at 4 a.m. when you normally sleep until noon, can make it difficult if not impossible to stick to your new routine.

Instead, work at making small changes that you can build upon. Taking this route makes you more mindful and gives you higher levels of enthusiasm. It also increases your focus, makes you feel calmer and helps you learn the right way to go about making changes that stick.

For instance, if you normally wake up at 7 a.m., then aim to get up at 6:45 tomorrow. Once you master that, get up at 6:30. Move your getting-up time back only 15 minutes at a time, and before you know it, you’ll be an early morning person…almost effortlessly.

5: Choose morning activities you enjoy so you'll stick with it.

It’s hard enough to get out of bed at the crack of dawn and when you wake up to do activities you don’t enjoy . . . your new regimen can feel like torture.

That’s why you should create a morning routine that is filled with activities you actually like, those things that make you feel better about yourself and improve your direction in life.

A few of the activities that I get the most out of in the early morning hours include stretching, meditation, writing Morning Pages and gratitude lists and spending quality time with my family. Create your own list of things that you look forward to when you pop out of bed to make it easier for you to get up and face the day.

There you have it: five ways to make your mornings easier and more productive. Now, all you have to do is try one (or all) of them. Who knows? Your love-hate relationship may turn out to be 100 percent true love, as you realize that you’ve finally found “the one” . . . the perfect morning routine for you!

To learn more ways to make your mornings productive, check out The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Powerful Morning Routine. 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251008

Success Can Come at Any Age. Just Look at These 6 Successful Entrepreneurs.

Based on the way startups are covered in the media today, it’s easy to feel like all founders are in their teens or 20s. Stories abound of young millionaires and entrepreneur teenagers, but that’s only part of the picture. There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there who found their “big ideas” later in life, founding companies that, in some instances, last well beyond their years.

Here are six entrepreneurs who got their start later in life and prove that success is a possibility at any age:

1. Leo Goodwin, GEICO

GEICO, or the Government Employee’s Insurance Company, is now a well-known car insurance brand with well-known advertising figures. But before the Gecko, the Caveman or Maxwell, GEICO was the idea of Leo Goodwin. Working as an accountant in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1930’s, Goodwin realized that insurance needed an overhaul. Why weren’t companies just dealing with customers directly, saving all the money that traditionally went to brokers?

In 1936, at the age of 50, Leo founded GEICO in Washington, D.C. In a departure from most businessmen of the day, he worked closely with his wife Lillian in running the company. By the end of the year, GEICO had 12 people on staff and 3,700 policies in force. Today, GEICO employs over 27,000 people and has over 14 million policyholders.

2. Harland David Sanders, Kentucky Fried Chicken

Col. Sanders did not start out as anyone’s idea of a successful businessman. He lost his father at an early age, quarreled extensively with his stepfather, and was fired from multiple jobs, even losing his job as a lawyer after a courtroom brawl with his own client. However, he was determined to never give up, and this trait led to his eventual success.

While working at a service station in Corbin, Ky., Sanders gained local popularity for his delicious chicken recipe. After the Corbin station was destroyed by a fire, Sanders had the location rebuilt as a motel and 140-seat restaurant. In 1952, at the age of 62, Sanders franchised his “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for the first time. Today, KFC has over 18,800 outlets in 118 different countries and territories.

3. Robert Noyce, Intel

After earning his doctorate in physics from MIT, Robert Noyce found work as a research engineer, eventually ending up at Beckman Instruments. In 1957, he and seven others left Beckman and founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. While he enjoyed some success there, he eventually left with Gordon Moore. Together, they founded Intel when Noyce was 41.

Noyce was considered the visionary of the company and treated staff like family. He declined the lavish benefits that most CEOs received, and kept the company less structured and more relaxed. While at Intel, he oversaw the invention of the microprocessor, an innovation that revolutionized computer technology and forms the foundation of the machines we still use today.

4. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn

Surely a company like LinkedIn, a major social network, was founded by a youngster, right? Not at all! Reid Hoffman struggled with what to do after he graduated from Stanford. He decided to work, but to do so strategically, mapping out a plan of what he would need to learn before he started his own company.

When he first started on his own, he founded a networking site called Socialnet, believing that having a great matching algorithm would guarantee success. He tried advertising his new site through magazines and newspapers, but never found traction with the idea. In the end, he left and joined PayPal before leaving his position with the company in 2002 to co-found LinkedIn. Hoffman was 35 when he founded the company and 43 when it went public.

5. Wally Blume, Denali Flavors

If the thought of tomato-flavored ice cream turns your stomach, you’re not alone. Wally Blume had a successful 20-year career, but knew he had to move on when his boss decided to move forward with that crazy idea. In 1995, in his mid-50s, he started his own ice cream company,Denali Flavors, where he created the famous Moose Tracks flavor.

Today, this dairy treat brings in $80 million a year alone through licensing agreements. Denali now has over 40 flavors, and Blume is still going strong at the age of 70.

6. Carol Gardner, Zelda Wisdom

When you’re 52, newly divorced, broke and depressed, you’d think that the last thing on your mind would be starting a company. Then again, it might be just what the doctor ordered.

After getting a dog at her therapist’s recommendation, Carol Gardner won a local Christmas card contest with a picture of the dog and a funny quip. The win inspired Gardner to start a greeting card company, which she named after her dog, Zelda. In 2010, Zelda Wisdom was valued at roughly $50 million, showing that you truly never know where your next great idea might come from.

Running a business isn’t easy -- it takes hard work and discipline to reach success. As a result, it should be unsurprising that, many times, it’s the older and wiser among us who are better at navigating that road. So don’t count yourself out, no matter what your age. Success can come to anyone at any time.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241346