No Bedtime Keeps You Poor

I’m not going to lie, one of the reasons I love Grant Cardone is because a lot of stuff he says validates my own thinking. When I’m listening to Grant’s audiobooks I’m constantly thinking, ‘I do that, I didn’t even realize it’s a thing’.

One thing Grant emphasizes in If You’re Not First You’re Last is that a lot of people fail because they don’t plan. I couldn’t agree more because being very well organized is the one reason I can attribute to me being a lot more successful than people that I know for a fact are inherently smarter than I am. Don’t get me wrong, I am one smart cookie but I’m not egotistical enough to think I am the smartest girl in the world.

Anyhow, many adults I know completely have no sleep structure. When it comes to sleep most people seem to have a consistent waking up time just because they have a job to get to but they go to bed at anytime.

When it comes to wealth planning, sleep is what you should schedule into your plan first. I have always done this.

Why Do I Rate Sleep So Highly?
Personally,

• I am more creative when I am well rested
• I can solve problems better and more quickly
• I am more efficient when I operate on a good night’s rest
• I am overall less grumpy, more happy and I tend to make better food choices than when I am tired

A few people who have very bad sleeping patterns may justify their pattern by saying sleep makes no difference to them. If they are living a life of abundance, I will believe them. If not, they’re lying to themselves. Get rid of the sleep deprivation and you’ll start enjoying more wins in your life.

How do I manage my day?

I’m only telling you this to help you structure your day. What works for me may not work for you but at least you’ll gain some insight into one person’s schedule for a productive day.

MY STUDENT TIMETABLE (UNIVERSITY)

It depends on what’s happening that day, however, on a normal day:
10:30 p.m. – 6.30 a.m.: I sleep

When I am studying for an exam I keep a very strict schedule of:

• 08:00 – 10.:00 a.m.: work
• 10:30 – 12:30 p.m.: work
• 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.: work
• 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.: work
  

6:30 p.m. onwards: have dinner and chill out unless exams were less than a month away in which case I might do two more hours of light hearted work. E.g. going over previous exam papers to see the type of questions that come up.

There are 8 hours of work in this schedule. I actually work in 5-minute slots during each 2 hour period. I create a plan that has an outcome after every 5-minute period. This is extremely intense but it ensures that I don’t daydream. I’m a daydreamer so I need to account for my time.

By 3:30 p.m. I am usually shattered because I work so intensely, so in my last two-hour session I’ll usually do something less intense, like solving maths problems.

What do I do during breaks?

• 10:00 a.m. break – shower and have porridge, possibly catch a few minutes of TV.
• 12.30 p.m. break – have lunch and watch TV, possibly have a short walk
• 3:30 p.m. break – jog or walk for 30 minutes to get blood flowing to the brain
  

I only worked this intensely from March to June when we had exams in Cambridge; three straight months of hard graft. I wouldn’t skip a week – I was on it Monday to Sunday. On Sundays I did 6 hours of work because I used to go chapel too.

The schedule was manageable because I had all my evenings off. This meant I could go to the cinema or to dinner or go hang out with friends. I did all this stuff often. Some people crammed all the work into the last few weeks before exams so they didn’t factor in sleep and relaxation. They were a little burnt out by the time exams came. 

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MY ENTREPRENEUR TIMETABLE (2012+)

It depends on what’s happening that day, however, on a normal day: 
10:30 p.m. – 6.30 a.m.: I sleep

My ‘Trep timetable is very much informed by my life as a student and as an employee. In the first 18 months I worked like crazy. I enjoyed it and I was setting up and learning lots of new things so I didn’t really feel any pain.

Now, keep in mind that in the early years of investment banking I rarely went home before 10 p.m. and I frequently went home in the teeny weeny hours of the morning so it shifted my norm for what hard work is.

The First Two Years of Business

• 7:30 – 9:30 a.m.: work
• 10:00 – 12:30 p.m.: work
• 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.: work
• 4:00 – 6:30 p.m.: work
• 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.: work even though I told myself not to!
  

I gymed twice a week in the morning so I’d start work at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. on such days.

I walked for about an hour daily listening to audiobooks this is why I have so many book reviews. If I wanted to rest my brain I listened to music instead.

I consistently worked 10 to 12 hours per day.

Before bed I always make sure to update my to-do list for the next day. Usually I have to adjust what I need to get done as a week progresses because I am a little overambitious in what I want to achieve; I really pack it in to my schedule. Some goals are placed into the following week and new goals are added to the current one.

As the business started to make more money I started hiring many more freelancers allowing me to enjoy more rest. However, even when I was pregnant I worked at least 8 solid hours per day creating products, setting up automated processes and from about 34 weeks of pregnancy, training my freelancers to do more of my work.

By the time my baby came in Dec-2014 I could keep the business running well with only about 4 to 8 hours of work per WEEK from me. The harder you work setting things up, the more you can rest.

GRANT CARDONE’S TIMETABLE

9:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m.: sleep  

This was one of the most amazing things to me about his schedule. I would previously have called 04:00 a.m. an ungodly hour but Grant changed my frame of thinking a little.

Fortunately, I found Grant when I was suffering from pregnancy insomnia and I frequently naturally woke up at 4:00 a.m. – so what did I do? Well, if Grant can start his day then, so can I. I got up and handled my business and caught up by having a two-hour sleep in the afternoon instead. It worked very well for me.  

After Grant gets up he:

• Writes some goals
• Does a 20-minute work out
• Listens to something inspiring
• Showers
• Gets some work done
• Spends an hour with his kids 
• Then he’s out chasing money – he doesn’t do lunch with colleagues because you can’t make money from colleagues
• In the evening he spends another hour with his kids, a quality hour with his wife And before you know it, it’s bedtime. 

FUN 

Within our structure, we have plenty of fun too. There is plenty of time to goof around, laze about, watch the X-Factor, Millionaire Matchmaker, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, eat out and have a laugh. However, the more work you get done in the early years the more fun you can have later.

Importantly, time needs to be scheduled in and managed. If you follow what most people do, i.e. have fun without a deadline, you are setting yourself up for financial poverty.

CONCLUSION

Plan your life around some solid rest. You have to sleep to maintain your productivity. No one can work well without rest. If you need help with creating a schedule I have provided three above: my student timetable, my entrepreneur timetable and Grant Cardone’s timetable. You can use these to create your own.

If you choose to join The Money Spot™ Program you will get a weekly planner. In the meantime, you can download my simple Objectives Template.

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