[manibatra]

The main thing that has really impacted my productivity and happiness is following a set routine for an hour whenever I get up. So I do the following :

  1. Brush
  2. Meditate - 15 minutes
  3. Write - I usually write "3 things that I am grateful for" and "3 things to focus on that particular day"
  4. Exercise - 15 minute run

I do this whenever I get up. So it's not like I get up at 6 in the morning everyday. I just get up 6 hours after sleeping. The advice was given one one of Tim Ferris' podcast and has done wonders for me. I would highly recommend trying it out.

Start small. If 15 minutes of anything is too much start with 5 minutes. That's what I did.

[epalmer]

We do 3 good things at the dinner table.

What is good? 1) Why is it good? 2) Why did it happen?

Some of them are a result of direct or indirect action. I studied more. Some are a result of external events. The sunset was fantastic because God decided we needed a great sunset.

This has done wonders for my kids (now mostly grown) in relating their action to positive outcomes. We don't practice this much anymore but should get back to it.

My wife and I exercise for 45 to 60 minutes 5 days a week, most weeks. We rise at 4:30 AM and are done and home by 6:30. We go to bed really early.

We are 62 (myself) and 57 and the exercise is helping us a lot with health, vitality and positive outlook. Somedays it is hard to get up and go. It is always a good thing when we are done and we are grateful we went to the gym.

I strive for 7+ hours of sleep.

I mediate some, mostly at lunch time.

[manibatra]

That is really great! Being grateful everyday does increase general level of happiness over time I guess.

[Devthrowaway80]

Interestingly enough, this is the same routine I've had recommended in AA (minus the exercise, it's an old program).

Wake up, immediate meditation/prayer and a gratitude list.

Only things missing is contemplating what you need to do today to be a better person at the beginning of the day and reflecting on what you did well and could've done better when you go to sleep.

An excerpt from the portion referred to as "On Awakening":

"When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken."

[dsugarman]

6 hours is not enough sleep

[pavel_lishin]

It is for some people, and it isn't for others, which is why this kind of generic advice is amazing if it fits you exactly, and awful if it doesn't.

I can function on six hours, but not well. I also can't easily take 15 minutes to meditate in the morning, because I have a two month old baby I have to help care for in the mornings. This somewhat limits my ability to meditate and exercise.

[manibatra]

I second that! I have tried sleeping for 8 hours and I just end up feeling sluggish all day. Less than 6 hours has the same effect. 6 hours just happens to hit the sweet spot.

I would suggest meditating anytime in the day. I dont believe that it specifically has to be in the morning. It could be a placebo but just sitting still for a bit does some to help.

[gooseus]

I don't know how true this is, but it's something I've found true for myself... I've read (or heard) that your sleep cycle is 90 minutes down to deep sleep and back, so it's best to get up after some multiple of 90 minutes because that's when you'll have cycled back to the lightest sleep.

So typically I either get 6 hours or 7.5 hours of sleep a night, though if I ended up getting 3 or 4.5 one night I'll sometimes try to get 9 the next night. If I can't get at least 3 hours of sleep, I just stay up.

So it's possible the problem with 8 hours is that you're trying to wake up in the middle of a cycle and thus the sluggishness. Or maybe I'm just spreading pseudo-science.

[melvinmt]

> I've read (or heard) that your sleep cycle is 90 minutes down to deep sleep and back, so it's best to get up after some multiple of 90 minutes because that's when you'll have cycled back to the lightest sleep.

That's basically how http://sleepyti.me works.

[manibatra]

I have heard that too but never really got down to testing it out. In fact I have resigned to the fact that when it comes to sleep to each their own.

For eg I have experienced better quality of sleep after taking ZMA ( I weight train ). But I have heard anecdotes where people have said that its just a placebo.

[visarga]

I take Magnesium every day, it has helped my sleep tremendously. I am more relaxed and less stressed during the day, too. It's like I am 10 years younger.

[duaneb]

Six hours feels like you can function, until you can't. I think i remember seeing that people who could reliably function with just six hours exist but are vanishingly rare.

Juat be honest with yourself.

[barry-cotter]

It depends on the person. Need for sleep follows a normal distribution in terms of what you require.

Natural short sleepers who only need 4.5 hours exist. Most people who sleep that much are chronically sleep deprived but there are people who just genuinely don't need that much sleep.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000804.htm

I'm not a short sleeper but I need closer to seven hours sleep a night than eight.

[akovaski]

I don't really understand how your baby makes it difficult to take 15 minutes to meditate, because I would imagine you were sleeping in increments longer than 15 minutes. So why is this? Is the baby waking up when you wake up?

[pavel_lishin]

> Is the baby waking up when you wake up?

It's more accurate to say that I wake up when the baby wakes up - I hear her start to stir because she's hungry/awake, and that rouses me.

But yeah, she also tends to wake up when one of us does in the morning, unless we're very quiet, since she's just about slept out at those times.

I tend to also let my wife sleep in and take care of the kid in the morning, since she takes care of her all day, and half of the night. It seems unfair to dump the kid on her in the morning, too, while I exercise and meditate.

> I would imagine you were sleeping in increments longer than 15 minutes

Some bad nights, you'd be surprised.

[kevinskii]

I would have wondered the same thing 3 years ago: Can it really be that hard to find 15 minutes to meditate when you have a young kid? It turns out that, yes, it can.

[jamiepenney]

I've been getting up earlier so I have some time before my kid wakes up. He's adjusted to my earlier schedule now so all that's happened is I'm doing his breakfast at 6:30 instead of 7. Hard to keep quiet in a 2 bedroom house where the shower is right next to his room unfortunately.

[wiredfool]

Between three kids 2.5 yrs apart each, I think I went more than eight years never getting a reliable night sleep at home. Maybe once or twice a month did I manage to fall asleep and not get woken up for some reason.

[marcusgarvey]

This is off topic, but while we are on the subject: does anyone regret having children because of issues like lack of sleep, etc? Did that feeling change after the baby stage?

[khedoros]

My first couple months having a son are a blur, and it's difficult to overstate just how disruptive having a young infant is to every aspect of your life. Imagine a fire alarm going off every 1-3 hours, 24/7, for a period of several months. It wakes you up every time, but since you share duty with your significant other, you only have to get up every second time to turn it off (which will require you to be semi-awake for at least half an hour, because mumble mumble fire alarm analogy breaking down).

Waking up 15 minutes early to meditate (let alone do the exercise, etc) is perhaps possible, but since you're so far below a baseline of sleep quality and duration, you're far better off with the extra 15 minutes.

[furyofantares]

A newborn eats every 2-3 hours -- doesn't have a stomach large enough to eat less frequently than this and is used to getting its nutrition continuously.

That's measured from start-to-start of sequential feedings, not end-to-start. Baby might be slow to eat, especially if breastfeeding -- baby is learning how and gaining strength to suck, mother's milk is coming it but may not be quite there yet -- so feeding could easily be 45 mins. If mother is really having trouble with milk she may use a pump afterward to try to get her milk to come in better, and baby may be supplemented via bottle, another 15 mins if you can overlap these things. We're down to an hour left to hit that two hour window, in which to get baby back asleep, maybe have to burp baby, maybe change diaper, maybe wash bottles.

It's very possible to have 0 minutes of downtime between feedings for multiple feedings in a row and it is relentless. I fell asleep standing up multiple times, not only did I not have time to meditate, I can't imagine I could have done it without falling asleep.

I hear some newborns are easier, so maybe you actually get 1-2 hours at a time, but that still must be brutal. Having a low total amount of sleep is one thing but never getting longer stints adds a whole other dimension to the problem.

That's all newborn stuff of course, it should get easier by two months. But that's what the parent of a two month old may be emerging from and is a starting point you might wish to consider if you seek to understand what some parents go through.

[coldtea]

At that point (with the baby etc), you want to use ALL the time you get the chance to sleep.

You are not gonna waste 15 minutes meditating, nor do you have the courage to...

It's like asking why one can't go surfing/running/whatever after a 14 hour work shift. Yeah, you still have 10 hours left in the day, but you hardly have the power at that point...

[akovaski]

I would also recommend sleeping for the sleep deprived (I don't even meditate), but I just wanted a clarification on the idea that GGP couldn't find 15 minutes in a day to do something.

[pavel_lishin]

I could, and there are many 15 minute intervals in my day where I don't have to do something - but not so many that I don't treasure them. Meditation isn't the same as relaxation when you start off, as I understand it - it takes some concentration and effort, and my reserves of both are usually running pretty empty all day.

Like others have said, I'd rather have an extra 15 minutes of sleep, or an extra 15 minutes in the shower, or 15 minutes to just sit and eat breakfast.

[pavel_lishin]

To be fair, meditating would probably really help with the stress of having a newborn. I just can't imagine doing it right after she wakes up and is hungry and possibly covered in whatever came out of her at night. The idea of a stable, repeatable routine largely goes out the window when you've got a young kid, because they can and will interrupt it.

[paulsutter]

You ignored his central point (that a morning routine helps set his focus for the day), and latched on to perhaps the least important piece of information in his post (the specific amount of sleep that works for him).

If you really feel the need to disagree, you might suggest better activities or make a compelling case that focus is considered harmful.

[squeaky-clean]

Everyone needs different amounts of sleep, and 6 hours is right for some. Try telling Elon Musk that he doesn't get enough sleep.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk...

[restalis]

AFAIK, it's more about the amount of complete REM cycles. The sleep gets more and more "shallow" in a continuous session. Six-hour night sleep session and a nap at noon may be more efficient than an eight-hour night sleep.

[dominotw]

Would you mind sharing how long you have done this for.

[manibatra]

5 months. I started with meditating and running for 5 minutes each and increased it every two weeks or more whenever I felt like it. As mentioned doing 15 minutes of each now.

Got my dad to do the same. I actually made him start with just 1 minute of each. He is upto 10 minutes after a month. Plus has started weight training. He is 60.

I guess the main takeaway is do the smallest possible interval you can ( have no excuses to not do) and don't beat yourself about it. Build it up gradually

[meric]

    2. Meditate - 15 minutes
    3. Write - I usually write "3 things that I am grateful for" and "3 things to focus on that particular day"

Muslims pray when they wake up, pray in a meditative mood, and when praying, think about the things they're grateful for, and what they hope Allah will let them achieve.

I find what you do and what they do sound similar to some degree.

[chris11]

Is this from the tinyhabits program? It sounds like BJ Fogg's method for creating new habits.

[manibatra]

Not sure where I read it and I have not heard of the tinyhabits program. Will surely have a look.

[chris11]

You should, I went through it and found it really useful. The main ideas in the program is to start extremely small then celebrate and consciously practice doing that habit for a few days. The tiny part is literal, he suggests taking the smallest possible unit and making sure it's less than 30 seconds. For instance if the habit was brushing your teeth you would just need to consciously practice brushing one tooth. And then the celebration is equally tiny, such as just saying "awesome" when you consciously do something.

It sounds kind of corny, but it's effective. The idea is to get your brain to automatically associate a new habit with a really tiny action that will instantly give you a reward. So if you wanted to create a habit of brushing your teeth after getting up, you'll do it without much though even thought you only consciously brushed one tooth when you were trying to create the habit.

[Scarbutt]

What do you brush?

[manibatra]

My teeth haha! I just listed it down as it is sort of a trigger to follow up with other things.