Building your evening routine

Why a routine

Falling asleep is not a switch, it is a landing. Going from a state of high activation to sleep in five minutes is physiologically impossible.

The routine also works as a conditioned signal: repeated, the sequence itself triggers sleepiness, exactly as the start-up ritual triggers concentration in the Instant Focus module.

Phase 1: closing down, from T minus 90 to T minus 60

Aim: close the day's open loops.

1. A five-minute brain dump. Everything still rattling around goes on paper. This is the direct treatment of the Zeigarnik effect covered in the Organisation module.
2. Tomorrow's plan: the three priorities, written down. Masicampo and Baumeister's work shows it: it is the planning, not the finishing, that frees the mind.
3. An explicit end to work. Computer off, not asleep. A closing sentence said quietly.
4. A last look at messages, then the phone leaves the bedroom.