Because of the current state of affairs in the world, we all got a bunch of free time on our hands. Even if you are lucky enough to still be working you are likely saving those few hours on the commute.
And if you’ve been laid off, well, that’s sad although don’t be too quick with any conclusions because you never know how your life will turn out in a year or two. As tough as it may be, it’s very much possible that you’ll be grateful for losing your job because you’ll end up in a much better place. That pretty much summarizes my own story after the big crisis in 2008. I ended up moving to the US and never really looked back.
But let me circle back right now. As I was saying we all have a bunch of time on our hands these days and instead of dreading this forced vacation and viewing it as solitary confinement, let’s take advantage of this situation and turn lemons into lemonade.
I am announcing the birth of The Monthly Challenge.
Hooray!
You can keep reading this blog post for more details or watch the video. They contain the same information.
My aim is to not merely help you stay sane during these uncertain times but to make the most of this situation. I’ve been doing these challenges – on and off – for years now. I’d usually turn to them when I want to spice things up or try on a habit that seems really beneficial. As a result, I’ve learned more about myself, particularly about the patterns of my behavior, I was able to establish some healthy habits and enrich life in general with a sense of novelty and curiosity.
Here is what I have in mind for the very first challenge that will run through the month of April.
I want to go big right away and attack the root of all evil. That’s right. Can you guess what that is? It starts with E. And I’m not talking extasy 😉
It’s two words actually. The first one starts with E, the second one starts with D. So, it’s ED. Any clues?
Oh, and it’s not erectile dysfunction 🙂
Jokes aside, I’m talking about electronic devices (EDs).
They can be a source of real trouble, particularly during these times. It’s hard enough to go to bed at a decent hour when you need to wake up and leave for work the next morning, it’s a whole other level of willpower and discipline required when u work from home or don’t work at all.
But before I issue the challenge, let me challenge my own assumptions and look at what the science has to say on this matter.
The research tells us that one major problem with EDs is the blue light they emanate.
Here’s what an article called “Blue light has a dark side” from the Harvard Medical School website tells us.
“Blue light can affect your sleep and potentially cause disease. Some studies suggest a link between exposure to light at night, such as working the night shift, to some types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity… we do know that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that influences circadian rhythms”.
Here’s an excerpt from an article called “The 9 new sleep rules” published in Time magazine.
“The science is clear: the night shift is bad for your health. A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine followed nearly 75,000 nurses and found that those who worked rotating night shifts had an 11% higher risk of early death than those who did not. If they worked that schedule for more than 15 years, their risk of dying from heart disease was 38% higher than their peers’. They also had heightened risks for several types of cancer. So far, researchers don’t know how to counteract the havoc wreaked by uncommon sleep cycles”.
Duh! Because there’s no good way to counteract it! It’s like fighting an uphill battle: you can do everything in your power but at the end of the day if you don’t normalize your daily regimen you are bound to end up with those heightened health risks.
Just like with every research, if you keep digging you’ll always find contradicting information.
Let’s look at another article from Time magazine. This time the Time shares a study from the University of Manchester.
“Yellow light actually seems to disturb sleep more than blue. Warm-toned light could trick the body into thinking it’s daytime, while cooler blue light more closely mimics twilight. The study was surprising, given the widespread thinking around blue light. While electronics can keep you up because of their bright lights and ability to time-suck, blue light isn’t necessarily the problem”.
I should say that the study was performed on mice and later the writers say
“Since rodents are nocturnal, they may respond differently to light than humans do”.
What do we do with all of this information? It just goes to show that there’s a lot of contradicting information.
But an important takeaway can be found in the last passage of the article.
“Research is pretty definitive on the fact that a dark room is the best environment for sleep, so it’s smart to block out light sources when it’s actually time for bed. Wyatt suggests keeping your room at a cool 65° to 68° Fahrenheit, limiting intermittent noise and sticking to roughly the same sleep and wake times each day to get quality rest”.
And the last study that I’m going to mention was published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports. The data came from more than 40,000 kids. Roughly 20% of kids ages 14 to 17 years of age spent 7 hours of time on screens each day (that’s not including schoolwork). As a result, they were more easily distracted, less emotionally stable and had more problems finishing tasks and making friends compared to those who spent just an hour a day on screens (in addition to schoolwork).
Hopefully, that was persuasive. We can keep digging and finding more and more studies but that would mean missing the whole point.
Look, I’m not a “sleep scientist” and I don’t need to be. I am here to admit that the daily regimen is extremely important and the moment I mess it up I feel the consequences.
I also know it’s not just me. So many of my friends admitted that their regimen, especially these days, has gotten totally out-of-whack.
The most common issue is the inability to fall asleep at a decent hour. Or even to fall asleep in the first place. Because guess what? Sound sleep and a brain that’s been over-stimulated with news and social media throughout the day do not go together very well.
Some people work on a computer or a laptop all day whilst texting, sexting, liking, commenting and sharing staff on their phone. Multitasking of sorts, or as I call it, double trouble. Heck, many of us even go to bed with our EDs.
I know, on the one hand, it’s a great way to wind down after a long day, on the other, it’s the most insidious habit one may have. What seems like a good use of time is actually destroying your well-being.
And by that, I mean your sleep, your health, your productivity and so on. It all adds up and you can wave goodbye to success and your ambitious goals.
Even if we manage to wake up at an early hour, we’ll likely find ourselves groggy, sluggish and unmotivated. What kind of productivity and enthusiasm shall we expect then? The question becomes redundant.
Here’s a better question to ask: am I addicted to EDs?
Just think about how your relationship with your phone, tablet, and laptop affects your life.
As I said, in my case and in the case of many of my friends, it pretty much is the number one killer of productivity.
Hence, the challenge.
We want to address all of the issues that I’ve mentioned previously and then some.
A good place to start is to get down to the numbers. You can perform your own reality check and see how much time you are actually spending on your phone. It might be very different from how much time you think you spend on it.
Here’s a fun idea: why don’t you come up with the best guess in your mind, and then check the stats. On an iPhone, it’s under Settings – Screen Time. You can see the number of hours every day. Then you can see all the activity and even a breakdown by the categories and the apps.
If you don’t mind, please, share this information in the comments below. I mean the number of hours that you had in mind and the actual number according to your phone. I’m really curious to know.
Moving on.
The presumption of this challenge is that by going through it I’ll be able to reclaim my good night sleep, my exuberant morning and take charge of my life as a whole.
So, starting tonight, I’ll be putting my phone into a flight mode from 10 PM to 12 PM. In fact, I’ll be turning off all of my EDs at 10 PM. I am allowing the use of the laptop for work purposes before noon, however. But the phone, as I said, will be off overnight plus the next morning. I’m hoping that one month of following this new schedule will be enough to do the trick.
Now, there’s a common myth stating that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. I’ll tell you where it came from.
There was a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz. In the 1950s he began noticing a strange pattern: when his patient had an arm or a leg amputated, Dr. Maltz noticed that the patient would sense a phantom limb for about 21 days before adjusting to the new situation. Maltz wrote about these experiences in his best selling book Psycho-Cybernetics where he said
“These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell”.
He sold a whopping 30 million copies and that’s when the myth began.
There was no study, no focus group, no nothing. Just his observations.
So, am I expecting complete freedom from electronic devices after just one month? Heck, no!
I do have certain expectations (which we’ll discuss shortly) but I cannot foresee every consequence, that’s why I’m very curious to go through this experience. I’m sure there’ll be some unexpected discoveries.
You know how in goal setting there’s a push goal. It’s that one goal – if achieved – will exponentially increase the achievability of all other goals.
Well, in our case I view this as a push challenge. I’m expecting it to be multi-beneficial.
First, I think I’ll start going to bed earlier.
Second, I’m expecting better sleep.
Third, because I’ll fall asleep earlier I’ll wake up earlier too.
Voila! I won’t need to do the challenge of waking up early because I’m doing this no EDs challenge now.
Sounds a little too good to be true but I really do believe it’s gonna be this powerful, the potential is certainly there.
That being said, I invite you to join me on this journey and see for yourself if you can find anything of real value here.
Things to be aware of
When we are faced with change – any kind of change – our mind may and likely will try to compensate. Beware of that! Watch if your ED-deprivation (let’s just call it edeprivation at this point) closely. Watch if it causes you to do something funny. As simple as using your phone more actively throughout the day, or eating more Oreos or discovering the next level of passion for making love to yourself…
We all have our “gateways” and if you have some basic understanding of your own character – which I’m sure you do – you know what to watch for.
The tactics
You’ve got to approach it with the right mindset to ensure you stick till the end. I’m going to give you a few pointers.
1. Play along
Approach it as a game that you are choosing to play. It’s not a real edeprivation, after all, if there’s an emergency you can always pick up your phone and make the necessary calls. Or if you have an interview at 9 am then go ahead. You are just choosing to limit ED interactions for your own good.
2. This too shall pass
Tell yourself that it’s not forever, it’s only 30 days and then you’ll get back to normal. We are just hoping that your new normal will be better than your current one.
3. Create a calendar
The paper works best. Every evening when you turn off the phone, check it off as done. Those little dopamine injections will add up and after 30 days you are guaranteed to have a sense of accomplishment and a boost of self-esteem.
4. Spread the word
Let people who might be affected know what you are up to and ask them to adjust their accordingly. If you have that friend who likes texting first thing in the morning, hopefully, they’ll be understanding. Of course, it’s best if they support you but don’t put yourself into dependence from outside support. Recognize that first and foremost you are doing it for yourself.
5. Reflect on the journey
Every weekend find 10-15 minutes to look back and note what’s changed. In terms of your daily regimen, your sleep, your mood, your productivity and so on. I suggest you come up with at least 7-10 parameters so you can document your progress. Because whatever gets measured, gets improved.
I’ll be sharing my parameters and progress on Instagram so if you aren’t following me yet, go ahead and do it now. I’ll also publish a separate post here on my blog with takeaways and conclusions once the challenge is over.
That’s about it for today.
If you can think of somebody – anybody – who could benefit from this information, then go ahead and share it with them. They might thank you.
Just like I’m thanking you for reading this blog post all the way till the end, you’ve taken the first step to address the issue. Now, make sure to follow through with the challenge and let me know how it goes for you.
XO,
Peter
