Sleep - it's magic....when you get it...
But such a pain in the butt when you have to sleep instead of hustling in your business right?
Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to just keep going like the Energizer Bunny until your whole To Do List was complete and you'd grown your Empire?
Alas - we are human and it's not how we are designed.
So many Masterminds I have been in I've come across woman up all night and day hustling away to grow their businesses. Touting 15 to 16 hour days wearing a droopy eyed badge of honour. Sure their businesses were growing and doing well.
BUT
and this is the BIG BUT...(and not the booty big butt kind)
...they ALL got burnt out, despondent, spent more than they were making in pursuit of growth, lost connection with their family and started to have health issues arise.
They were forced to scale back or worse - quit.
Interestingly we actually get MORE done when we sleep. Counterintuitive right?
The lovely side effects of great sleep in business are -
- you show up more enthusiastic to your clients
- you have great creative ideas and power
- you're bubblier on sales calls resulting in people buying from you more
- you look alive in your social media (important for people wanting to be like you and therefore buy from you)
- you have greater resilience when the preverbal hits the fan meaning you don't lash out on socials and regret it in the morning - you're gracious
- you have energy once you've finished work to spend with your family and friends
How you drop tools and switch off to get sleep is important in the quality of sleep you get too. It's not just about the hours in the sack.
Having had a baby a year ago (party this weekend - so check out Instagram for the story!) I did extensive research in to how to get the deep restorative sleep I needed.
You see I was getting in bed and getting 8 hours, yet wasn't feeling rested. Once I did the following #sleephacks my deep sleep extended each night and I started to wake up feeling fresh again.
Excitedly Sales started to pick up again and managing a business and a baby seemed much more tolerable. (my husband would say that I stopped moaning too....!)
Here are my #sleephacks to make you a better biz owner...
1. Work out what time you time you need to get up the next day. Then count back 9 hours. This is your go to bed time. Knowing that you'll muck around for a bit and then when you finally get in bed it will take you a bit to fall asleep, especially if you've been hustling all day. This will then give you a full 8 hours.
2. Set you phone to turn off ALL apps at 9pm. This will force you to put your phone down. It's incredible when you do this. My phone usage time went down by an hour a day, with this one simple move. Did my community miss me - um no. Did I miss out on anything on FB or IG? Um no. DO IT - cut the cord!
3. Get yourself a pair of rad Swanny's like the cool kids. Pop them on an hour (or more) before bed and block out the bright white and blue light. This helps your brain wind down and allows you to get in to deeper sleep - where the magic happens in both body and mind.
4. Pop a CBT or Copbia tablet before bed. This was one of the magic ingredients for me. I was sceptical, yet after a few nights my restorative sleep went from 20mins to an hour! Massive improvement.
5. GET IN TO BED. Stop fannying around and GET IN. So many people are doing 'one last thing' when really it can wait and your sleep is so much more important.
So how many hours a night do entrepreneurs get?
Successful ones, like multiple 6 and 7 figure ones that are crushing it every day - a religious 8 hours of deep sleep a night. It is the cheapest and easiest way to emulate your hero's in the entrepreneurial world.
If you want to know more, I am obsessed by sleep, I have a whole chapter coming up in my book. So stay tuned for the release date.
Big love,
Penny x