Sleep Better: My Evening Routine

Hey, all, it's Brendan. And I'm in the studio in Portland and I just. Man, I've been on the road like crazy. And since my last vlog to you all on YouTube where I talked about my event routines and how I recover from such difficult events, you know, where I'm going four or five days on stage, I got tons of questions about something I left out, which was how do you manage your sleep while you're traveling? Like, what are your evening routines? So I'm talking about that in this vlog, but I'm also in the studio to shoot some live casts. So I thought I'd give you a little behind the scenes. This is what it looks like. For those who have not seen it before, it's pretty simple setup. We've got the big boom up here. We've got. Oh, that's cool. It's kind of awkward, weird. But you can see me right there. We got the two C100 beasts, which I've shot, like, I think 28 online courses on this thing. And anyway, basically stand here. So if you've ever seen one of my live casts before that I used to shoot in Portland, it was basically standing kind of like right here. And then I would put the flip chart, which is now over there. I would put it right here, and then I would teach. And for those who don't know, I go live and I do teaching and training every month for literally hours and hours. I think I do like 2, 3, 4, 5 hours every once a month on a Friday. So this is kind of the setup. And that's why I'm in town to shoot something for the peeps, which is awesome. But I thought I'd take this question on. Let me see. I got my notes over here somewhere for you guys. So how do I manage my sleep when I'm on the road? I'm always asked about that and I thought I would sit with you guys and chat about that. I got my notes here. So how do I do it? You know, first, if you have not watched that video of how I manage my energy at our events, I think that would be really instructive to see what my daily routine looks like in terms of performance, to be able to do 40 plus hours on stage in events. But the number one question we got was like, okay, how are you managing sleep at your events? But also, how do you just have a better evening routine? So I want to talk. I know not everybody here. You're on stage for 40 hours in a week. So instead, let me just share what my basic evening routine and philosophy is. And I hope that will serve you the first thing. Gosh, it's so nice to be back in the studio, guys. The first thing that I always think about is your evening routine is completely dictated by the quality of your daily structure. And what I mean by that is, you know, often our evening is completely destroyed because we didn't organize our day. And so now our day is encroaching into our evening and we become exhausted, we don't get enough sleep or we carry our stress into bed with which ruins our sleep. So I think one of the most important things you have to learn to do is better structure your day. That's my first tip for you. Structure and organize your day so you are so clear about what you are doing, when you are doing it, how long you are doing it for, and most importantly, what are your major outputs and major intentions for the day. So this is why many of you guys know I use what I got. I got the high performance planner. Somewhere around here you should get one. I got the high performance planner. I use this every single morning. And it just keeps my intentions clear, it keeps my tasks clear, it keeps my mind on my own performance so that I can't make a lot of excuses. It just gets me in a good morning mindset, sets the day up right and makes me win week over week, month over month. And I hope you'll get one this time of year. It's awesome. We also, I think outside of just structuring your day well, is having that intention in your mind to enjoy the day. So yeah, structure and organize the day, but like enjoy it. Like find moments of peace and gratitude or love or creativity or passion. Because if you enjoy the day, if you love the day, if you have positive energy during the day, it's so much easier to go rest easily at night because you feel fulfilled, you feel grateful, you feel in a positive mindset. So I would say, you know my first big idea about evening routines? Structure the day and fill it with enrichment and joy and gratitude and you'll sleep better. Then my real evening routine begins, which is what I call my three, two, one pattern. And what this means is three hours before bed. And yes, I set a time every night that that is when I'm going to bed. So if I say, okay, it's going to be midnight or it's going to be 11, or it's going to be 10, whatever, I always know what time I'm going to bed and I work backwards from that. So the three, two, One, three, three hours before bed. I never eat any food. That's really critical. Honestly, for me, it's probably usually four to four and a half hours, but minimum expectations, I will not eat three hours before bed. I just think your digestion system needs a little bit of processing time before you go horizontal, you know, so that's the three. The two is I don't do any work two hours before bed. For me, that means no email, no social media, no DMs, no looking at anything on my phone or screen that is work or social media related in the two hour block of time before bed. And this really sets me apart because I know most people, they're still scrolling in bed and they're wondering and they're getting that light from their phone, they're getting that dopamine drop. The more they scroll, the more their brain gets excited and they don't realize that's ruining their sleep. Four or five hours later, that comes back to haunt you. So just put the phone away. Or if you have to look at it, look at it for your messages or something real fast before, you know, maybe 30 minutes before going to bed. But my rule is two hours before bed, no work, no email, no social media, no news. And that is letting my mind wind down. The 1 in 3, 2, 1, is that the hour before bed, I have no screen time. That includes television, that includes looking at the phone at all. Like nothing. So two hours before, no work activities, one hour before, zero screen time. Ideally, that means Netflix turns off. It means I'm not looking at the phone. It means maybe I'm journaling. It means maybe I'm just chatting with my wife, maybe I'm just doing the dishes. Maybe I am, you know, making the bed or laying out the clothes for the next day or, you know, journaling or something like that. But in general, I'm not doing much screen time or work or any other activities in that last hour going into bed. And that's really key. The third big idea I have for you is the room is so critical. Your environment matters. I mean, look at, look at, I'm going to come back to you guys. Look how cool our studio is. Yeah. I spent a lot of my life trying to figure out how to set up ideal environments to allow my creativity and my joy to flow. Whatever I'm doing, whether it's work or it's some type of creative endeavor, or it's even sleep. And sleep is important. And so what do I do for sleep? For me, I make sure that the room that I'M sleeping in is set at 65 degrees. And I know you're going to be like, oh, my God, that's so cold. And yes, because people sleep better when it's cold and your body goes, oh, it's nighttime. I should sleep here. This is important. So I set the room very cold, 65 to 68 degrees, depending on where I'm at and how humid it is. Then what I do is I make sure every bit of light is blocked out. I travel with a little electrical tape. My friend Arianna Huffington taught me this. I travel with electrical tape. So when I'm in a hotel, you know, they got all the fire things and the alarms and the little red lights with the TV and, you know, you know, all these little dials around. I shut off everything, and I block every little piece of light. So it's completely pitch dark where I sleep, which is totally critical to me being able to sleep well. So the room is now set. Okay, now, before I get into bed, I do about 10 minutes, sometimes five, but let's call it five to 10 minutes of stretching and mobility work. Just like stretching out my body. So it's kind of like yoga or calisthenic or, you know, just stretching. And I'll lay on the ground, I'll open up my hips. I'll do runner's lunge. I'll do Happy Baby. I'll do all these things to stretch out my body. Then I'll lie on my back just flat and allow my vertebrae kind of fall into place. And I'll lay there for maybe two or three minutes and just focusing on my breath. That's all I'm doing. So I'll stretch. And while I'm stretching, I'm not thinking of anything. I'm just being in the stretch, focusing on my breath. Then I end it with about two minutes to three minutes of just laying there flat on the ground, letting my vertebrae fall into place, just focusing on my breath. Then I go in and get in bed. Is this totally tmi? I feel like this is super TMI today, but I haven't been. Guys, I'm using a new camera here. I've got the Lumix GH5, Panasonic GH5 for those who love this kind of stuff. And. And I'm experimenting. We spent all day. Well, not all day, but probably the last 30, 40 minutes with Ben just playing with the lighting for the live cast tomorrow. And I was like, I'm going to bust out that GH5 because you all have been asking me so much about the sleep stuff. So my last big idea, and this is important before I go to bed, is what I call my peace offering. And that is I'll lay in bed, I'll consider the questions that I consider every night of my life. Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter today? And as I always say, the answer isn't always yes. But if I felt like I lived a little bit today, I tried something. I was spontaneous, I was vibrant, I was happy. I had a positive mood. If I loved today, I led with my heart. I was vulnerable. I was sharing and caring. If I mattered, if I stayed on path to helping you guys, because this is all I do. I'm coming up on my 20th year as a writer. My first book was published in 2001, but I wrote it in 2000. And so, you know, I'm coming up on 20 years as a writer and as a creator. And I've had lots of different jobs and businesses and brands throughout the time, but it's always been for you all. And I just wanted to teach and write. And so if I did some of that during that day, I feel good. So I asked, did I live? Did I love? Did I matter? And just think about them very softly. But then my peace offering. My peace offering is to the day and to God. And it's very simple. It just says, thank you so much for this beautiful day. I hope that I served well. I want to release all of the energy and all the emotions of this day. I would love to sleep tonight peacefully all through the evening. I want to say thank you for a great day. There's nothing from this day that's going to come into tomorrow. I have done all that I can. The day is over. The emotions are over. The work is complete. There is nothing for me to do until I wake up well rested and excited for the day the day is over. I appreciate the opportunity to live today. God, thank you for the opportunity to serve my audience. Thank you for this work I get to do. Thank you for Denise, my wife. Thank you for the health of my family who are still here. Thank you for all of our fans and our friends and people around the world who support us and believe in us and allow us to serve this important mission. Lord, please allow me to rest tonight. And that's about it. It's just like a. It's. It's just getting into peace. It's talking myself to sleep. It's just like this, like releasing all the energy from the day. And I tell you, I just. I've Always been at that moment, there's nothing left in my brain. I'm done. Because listen, think about how all that lined up. I won the day, right? Because I organized it, I followed my high performance planner. I got things done. Then three, two, one. By the time of the night. So I've spent three hours winding down, right? Three hours, no food, that's the three, two. I did not do any work in that last two hours ideally. And one, no screen time in that last hour. Then I made sure the environment was set up for a minute. It's dark, it's cold. Then what I do, I stretch out my body to open it up, to release it, to align my vertebrae, to just to get comfortable that I got into bed. I thought about my life. I gave my gratitude, I released the day. There's nothing else to do. Let's go to bed, babe. That's it. That's kind of how I wind down. I hope that serves you all. For those who have been more active with me in social media recently, I appreciate it. My big 2020 goal is to talk to more of you like this vlog style. I haven't been able to do that in this big crazy move we had this year to Puerto Rico. But I'm learning how to use the cameras down there. I'm learning how do you shoot in a breeze, how do you shoot outside when there's, you know, ocean and sun and light. It's very different than shooting in here where we can control the whole environment with these LEDs and all this light that we've set up here, you guys have seen us use over the years. So, you know, we're kind of setting everything up as we head into the holidays. I hope that you will focus on your sleep and take care of yourself. What else? For those who would love a high performance planner or you're digging the new hat, the Live Love Matter hat, which we have never ever sold before. We have a holiday promotion going on I'm announcing tomorrow, but you guys will know it earlier where we are doing our very first bundle that we have ever done. Hold on, it'll be in the link to this poster. I'm trying to find all this stuff here. It's these things. Sorry, y'. All. Okay, here's what we got for our holiday bundle. We've got our subscription to HPX Optimize. This is the supplement I take every day to have my great positive mood, my mental clarity and energy. It's basically a brain optimizing supplement. It's called HPX Optimize it's what allows me to stay focused, y'. All. Anyway, when you subscribe to this for our holiday bundle, which means we'll auto ship it to you every single month. It's the world's best nootropic by the way. I spent so much time and energy and money on developing this, but when you order this today, you get the hat free. You get a full year of High Performance Planners. So it kind of looks like this, like all of them, your whole 2020 planners. And you also get the Live Love Matter water bottle. By the way, fill this full of water, have it next to your bed when you wake up in the morning, drink it and start the day super hydrated. So basically you get the bottle, you get the full year of the High Performance Planner pack and your optimized subscription to stay Focused, Mentally clear and positive all of 2022 020, baby. So I hope this served you. I hope to see you out on the road. You guys will hear more from me as we are doing this. Until next time, please go out there every single day and as I always used to say, make sure you live fully, you love openly, and you go make a difference today. Thanks everybody. Hey y'. All. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, would you please smash that subscribe button and also post any questions you have down below? Because it's these questions that you're all asking that inspires these episodes. I'd love to hear what you think about it. Also, if you would love to join us on our next upcoming live training. We call it our High Performance Experience Coaching Program. If you like some coaching and have some perspective and get some two hours of live with me every single month, then click the link in the post down below so you can join us in HPX Coaching. I'd love to give you some more strategies, more insight and more more interaction to help you reach your next level of success. Until next time. Again, please subscribe, share this video with anybody who could be inspired by it today. And thanks one more time for being part of my community.