7 things high achievers never do at night

Do you have big dreams?

You’re not alone. And as anyone who has achieved a lot in life will tell you, dreams aren’t just something you have at night in bed. Instead, they are something you can chase and achieve every day.

But often, success is a matter of the habits you cultivate. And you can learn a lot from others who have gone before you.

If your nighttime routine needs work, you’re in luck. Here is a list of things high achievers never do at night. Get rid of these habits and say hello to greater success in your life.

1) Miss out on sleep

It’s not hard to find lists of high achievers who seem to get by on very little sleep, including Elon Musk, Simon Cowell, Howard Schultz, and Marissa Mayer.

But the temptation to cram more work into your waking hours by skipping on sleep can often backfire.

You see, getting a good amount of high-quality sleep is key to functioning at your best. And you won’t be able to achieve anything worthwhile if you spend your days wandering around like a zombie because of lack of sleep.

We all need different amounts of sleep to be at our best. Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, Jack Dorsey, and Tim Cook all sleep for a solid seven hours each night, and still find time to be incredibly successful.

Whether you need four hours or eight hours of high-quality sleep to be at your best, make sure you get it.

And it doesn’t matter whether you are an early bird or a night owl. It just matters that you get the sleep you need to function at your best.

2) Waste time on unnecessary decisions

You may have heard that people like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs would wear the same thing every day to avoid making a decision they didn’t have to.

There’s some real logic to this idea.

You see, often, success is about the decisions we make. And successful people with a lot going on have to make thousands of decisions every day, some of which can affect hundreds or thousands of lives.

This can contribute to a phenomenon called decision fatigue.

This study found that the more decisions consumers had to make, the less happy they were with the decisions they came to. This study found that judges tend to hang down harsher sentences when they’ve gone too long without a break.

Tons of scientific literature demonstrates that the more decisions you have to make, the worse your decisions will be.

What does this mean for you? Well, it means you should try to reduce unnecessary decisions throughout the day, but especially when it’s time to get some sleep.

That’s why routine is so important. Establishing a bedtime routine takes away some unnecessary decisions and allows your brain to take a break even before you get to sleep.

3) Skip their nighttime routine

Decision fatigue is just one reason why a routine is so important.

Establishing a nighttime routine and sticking to it can:

• help you sleep better
• reduce the decisions you have to make
• help you feel refreshed and ready to be productive the next morning
• help you make sure you do everything you need to do without forgetting anything

What your nighttime routine will look like is totally up to you. While there are general guidelines you should probably stick to, like avoiding caffeine and alcohol and staying hydrated, we all have different needs and different preferences for what we do before going to sleep.

The important thing is establishing your routine and sticking to it. Just by having a routine, you will train your body to understand that it’s time to sleep, which can make it easier to fall asleep in the first place.

4) Miss an opportunity to learn

Getting good quality rest is crucially important. At the same time, high achievers know that there is always time to learn. And even relaxation can help you improve your knowledge and keep your brain sharp.

Lots of people spend the time before they go to sleep watching TV or scrolling on their phone. But high achievers are more likely to do something relaxing yet productive like reading.

The thing is, screens, whether TV or cell phone screens, reduce the amount of melatonin your body produces, which helps you sleep. Reading a book allows your body to produce this important hormone more naturally.

Reading can also reduce your stress up to 68%. And as high achievers like Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, and Mark Cuban point out, reading is the key to extraordinary success.

5) Get sucked into social media

If reading is the perfect way to unwind after a stressful day and learn more while preparing your brain for sleep, social media might be the opposite.

As I mentioned earlier, the blue light screens emit can slow down the production of the melatonin we need to get to sleep.

But social media can also have other damaging effects. The famous FOMO, or fear of missing out, can keep you scrolling and interacting long past your bedtime as you get sucked into the infinite feed of the Internet.

It’s even worse if you have your notifications on.

There’s always something happening on social media, and if your phone buzzes or lights up to let you know you have a notification, it can disturb your sleep, dragging you out of your normal sleep cycle and making you feel tired the next day no matter how long you try to stay in bed.

It’s a good idea to limit your social media usage, and don’t use it at all for at least an hour before going to sleep.

Personally, I have created a sleep profile on my phone that shuts off all my notifications at a certain time so that my sleep won’t be disturbed.

6) Forget about their day

Another great habit to cultivate at bedtime is to look back over your day and reflect on what went well, what went poorly, and what can be improved.

Journaling has been practiced by people like Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, and Lady Gaga. And although many people swear by journaling in the morning, there’s no reason you can’t do it at night as you review the day you’ve had.

Your journal doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece. It can be as simple as a list of the things that went well and the things that will need a little more work.

But writing things down is a great way to organize your thoughts and reduce the stresses of the day so that you can get some sleep and be ready for whatever the next day brings.

On the other hand, if you’re not the writing type, you don’t need to keep a journal.

Even just taking 10 or 15 minutes to reflect on the day you’ve had can have a positive effect on your mood and stress level and help you get the rest you need to improve on yourself tomorrow.

7) Leave the next day to chance

While you’re thinking about the day you’ve had, don’t forget to think about the day ahead.

Planning for the future is one of the most powerful habits of successful people, and it can help you be your most productive self.

On the other hand, it’s important not to worry excessively about the tasks ahead of you. The biggest goal you should have every night is getting restful, high-quality sleep, and stressing about tomorrow won’t help you do that.

But it’s not a bad idea to think about the challenges you may face tomorrow and the tasks you want to accomplish. Keep them in your mind for a few moments while you plan out your day.

Then, let them go.

Having a plan for each day means you can start working on your success from the moment you wake up.

What not to do at night

As any successful person will tell you, high achievement is as much a matter of habit as it is of hard work and preparation.

And what you don’t do can be just as important as what you do when it comes to shaping your future success.

Avoid these destructive behaviors and instead build healthy and productive habits. Once your nights are taken care of, you’ll find your days can be far more productive.