Now there is no shame for you coffee lovers out there. I truly love it too and would definitely be addicted to it if I didn’t have such a strong reaction to it. But I really want you to know you can get enough sleep. The cute trend of being addicted to coffee and running on caffeine is not ok. We are going to break that all down into today’s episode. So let’s get into this so you can get your stuff done and get enough sleep.

Before you leave your kitchen when dinner is finished first make sure it is cleaned up. If you leave your kitchen a mess after dinner it sets off a whole domino of events that ends up affecting your day tomorrow and the amount of sleep you will get tonight.

Now for this post, we are talking about getting you to bed on time so for the bare minimum, you need to get your food put away and pans rinsed out. If you are so far away from this like you are scraping plates and putting food in Tupperware way after the kids and even your husband is in bed, that needs to change.

I really want you to find a way that after all your kids are in bed you don’t have to go into your kitchen and touch anything. This is a time when you should be done with your day and focus on yourself. This is a really good place to start and to look at when you are trying to figure out what is keeping you up.  Right along with that, we have number two.

Having tidy cues throughout your day is a way for you to reset your house or room you were just in. 

That means that if you were doing crafts at your kitchen table for an hour and a half you don’t have to stay up late and clean up so it’s not in the way for breakfast the following day.

It could be the kid’s play area and all their toys. It could be anywhere you feel pressured that you have to clean up. 

So just like your kitchen, you want to leave enough transition time in your day to get these places cleaned up. Tidy cues, where you routinely reset your house, are absolutely necessary if you don’t want to be stuck up late cleaning up the messes.

When your kids get to bed late, you get to bed late. You want to make sure your kids are in their bed 30 minutes before their lights out because you will be late every time. So many great things come from that. Time to connect, prep for the next day, and tidy up, even the wellness of your kids will improve when you establish this. I dive into this a little more here.

You should have a hard fast rule of when you should not be picking up your phone until the next day. It should have the same type of bedtime and waketime as your kids. I’m talking 10-12 hours of time away every night.

Make sure it has a docking station away from your bed. This helps you not to lay in bed and look at your phone in the morning and has some other health benefits as well.

What I mean by that is have the nights planned when you watch TV. We do this because it got to the point where we were watching TV every night and that’s not what we want to do with our lives.

I know it feels great, you have a lot going on and it’s medicine, it’s entertainment. There is nothing wrong with entertainment but there are so many other ways to wind down at the end of the day that really fulfills you.

My husband Blaine and I thought of all the other things we could do with our time instead of watching TV. It really was the reason we were not going to bed on time. We decided to limit it to two nights a week. Just be really intentional about your TV time. If you need more support in this area then check out this podcast.

This really does help me to get into my nighttime routine as soon as I tuck in my kiddos. Then from there, it is immediately programmed in my brain to get into bed.

This is what is so powerful about routine stacking and time blocking. My PM block with my kiddos immediately begins when I leave their bedroom. 

The transition I use to get me into my nighttime routine block is this incredible nighttime beauty skin routine that I love dearly. I truly love the way my skin feels and looks. It excites me and makes me feel good about myself.

That’s just the beginning of my nighttime routine and it takes me 5-10 minutes max. That might be the only thing you do and you go straight to bed. That one thing is what helps me get to bed and skip all the other distractions that are calling my name and are keeping me from getting to bed on time.

This is more of an advanced tip. You might not be here yet and that’s ok. The most important thing that we have talked about so far is getting your kids to bed on time. Stick to at least that one if you are still getting a handle on this time blocking. That is the time you are transitioning from your PM block to your nighttime block.

If you are doing good with that then focus on sticking to your other time blocks. Why? If you didn’t finish everything in your work block then you are going to want to stay up late. You have to show up to the things you have designated as important for every time block or you are going to push them into your nighttime routine block and you are going to dig into your sleep.

I created this 5 block system, to ensure I was getting to bed on time and honoring all the major categories of my life that I wanted to pour into. Ok, that’s all the tips I have for you to start on so you can start getting enough sleep. Let’s recap.

1. Clean up the kitchen immediately after dinner.
2. Have tidy cues.
3. Establish a lights-out for your kids.
4. Establish a bedtime for your phone.
5. Set TV dates.
6. Create a simple beauty routine you look forward to.
7. Stick to your time blocks during the day.

You need sleep to be the kind of mother, wife, and business owner you aspire to be. Please make this priority in your life and you will see some major changes. Join us over in the Facebook group and let us know why you are struggling to get enough sleep. We would love to support you on this journey!