Align Undesirable Actions with Your Goals

Reading time: 4 min

I really don't like sleeping early. This is something I seriously struggle with. Time before bed is time that I have complete freedom over how to spend, whether I use it to socialize, exercise, catch up with work or study, consume entertainment, or rest.

Work and study are particularly dangerous for me. Whenever I re-establish healthy, early sleeping hours, I eventually push my sleep schedule later and later into the night to finish my studies, assignments, or other commitments.

I found that aligning sleep as a contributor to my other goals and values and regularly reminding myself of this discourages me from pushing too late into the night.

For example:

Effective and efficient work and learning is important to me. Earlier sleep produces higher sleep efficiency, making me feel more rested in less time, giving me more time in the day. Sleep also raises work and learning efficiency, raising productivity.
I want to achieve a high grade in my courses. Sleep will help with understanding and remembering the high volume of knowledge I must go through in pharmacy courses.
I aim to maintain a reasonable degree of health. Sleep is a low-effort, high-result way