Gentle Refinement Month 2—A Nightly Routine

Habits are like the entrance ramp to a highway. They lead you down a path and, before you know it, you’re speeding toward the next behavior.James Clear

February has arrived, and with it, it is time for me to look at my next gentle refinement for the year. But first, I want to reflect on how January's refinement went. I wrote about it in detail here, so I won't go into much detail, just a reflection of how it went.

Exercise Recap

The Minimum Effective Dose plan was a success. I would even go so far as to call it a huge success.

Red days are the days I didn’t log either strength training or cardio. But I met the goal of getting at least two of each every week. That was the target, and it was both met and, in many cases, exceeded.

The real power of this was having that minimum established. There were a few days when I simply did not want to get a workout in, but I was able to tell myself I just had to do that minimum. That was a low enough activation energy that it never completely prevented me from heading downstairs, or outside, to workout.

And in every case, I ended up doing quite a bit more than the plan.

I found this very encouraging. I had recognized the real problem: just getting changed and started. Once I began working out, I found it much easier to not only finish but to push harder than planned.

That is a win.

I can’t say any of this is “automatic” yet, but I have good momentum, and I plan to continue with this plan, adjusting the dose for this second month.

Month 2

That brings us to this month. Time to make another gentle refinement, and one that has been on my mind for a while.

I knew I needed to make exercise my first priority. I’m glad it did. It had numerous positive knock-on effects. But it certainly isn’t the only place in my life I want refinement.

Not that long ago, the “what didn’t work” for the week was my sleep. This time, it was due to my poor habits before bed. The time has arrived to address that head-on.

This month, my refinement is to establish, and then refine as needed, a nightly routine before bed.

There are multiple actions I want to turn into habits before I lie down, each with its own purpose. Together, they will all serve the purpose of helping my mind wind down and be ready to sleep once I lie down.

The first key is this: Reduce my desire/ability to use my phone.

I’m not able (due to work) or willing to abandon it completely. I have curated a playlist of music specifically for this time of the day and want to be able to use that during this wind-down time. But I have created a focus mode that blocks all but the most essential interruptions, and has one Home Screen with just icons for a trio of apps I may use during this wind-down time, one of which will automatically begin playing that playlist.

At this moment, I envision the routine being as follows, beginning at 8:45 pm:

1. Take my magnesium (has become a key part of sleeping as well as possible)
2. Take 5-10 minutes to plan the next day
3. Spend some time journaling
4. Read a physical book or an e-ink device with what time I have left until 9:30 pm
5. Most importantly, I commit to not using my phone while I am in bed

That’s it. Yes, you read that correctly. I try to be in bed around 9:30 pm, since I wake up between 4-5 am at the very latest every day.

Over the course of the month of February, I plan to stick to this routine. At the same time, given the nature of my theme as well as my desire to experiment, I am free to adjust this as I see fit during the month to make it more effective.

I’m curious to see what establishing a set routine does to help my mind be ready to sleep. In 4 weeks, I will report back, and we will see if it made a difference.