{"id":58799,"date":"2014-01-21T15:05:04","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T20:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=58799"},"modified":"2014-01-21T15:03:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T20:03:00","slug":"sleep-better-work-smarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=58799","title":{"rendered":"Sleep Better – Work Smarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ruth Lincoln, Head Editor, INALJ DC<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Sleep Better – Work Smarter<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"ruth.lincoln\"<\/a>Does it ever feel your to-do list grows exponentially? Between work, school, volunteering, job hunting, professional development, families, and maybe a personal life, I know we all wish there were more hours in a day.<\/p>\n

BuzzFeed explains it well as the #1 \u201cShocking and Unexpected Fact\u201d you learn in your twenties: http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/regajha\/shocking-and-unexpected-facts-you-learn-in-your-twenties?sub=2765753_2150844<\/a><\/p>\n

Sleep seems like a luxury, just another box to check. But if research tells us anything<\/a>, sleep should really be a priority<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the past few months, I\u2019ve made a conscious effort to sleep more during the workweek. At first this meant my evenings seemed \u201cless productive\u201d. But it was really a blessing in disguise. I\u2019ve found that when I sleep more, I work smarter the next day. I\u2019m more focused, patient, and I actually get MORE accomplished.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy, and some nights get away from me. But know that every day helps. Here are a couple tips to get you started.<\/p>\n

Use Your Smartphone (Yes, Really)<\/b><\/p>\n

We all know smartphones, tablets, and laptops can keep us up way too late. But this app is an exception.<\/p>\n

Sleep Cycle<\/a> (Apple\/iOS) or SleepBot<\/a> (Android) lays under your pillow and tracks your sleep and analyzes your sleep patterns. Its built-in alarm wakes you up gently and softly (i.e. no more blaring fog horn). The app calibrates to your movements and produces a graph each morning displaying your sleep cycle. There are some nifty built-in statistical features that track your sleep time\/quality on a given day of the week (I sleep the worst on Tuesdays for some reason). You can also capture notes if you drank coffee\/tea or exercised that day.<\/p>\n

The trick, however, is to set the alarm at bedtime and ignore your phone\u2019s other features.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go Analog\/Limit Screen Time after work<\/b><\/p>\n

If I had to guess, you\u2019re reading this article on a screen and it\u2019s not the first (or last) screen you\u2019ll examine today. Many of our jobs as information professionals and job hunting itself requires ample screen time. While we can\u2019t escape the requirements our positions dictate, we can control our screen time after work.<\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve tried instituting a \u201cno screen after dinner\u201d rule. Instead of watching TV, working on my laptop, and\/or fiddling on my phone, I reserve the 1-3 hours before bed for reading print, cleaning, or other technology-free chores. You know what? I sleep longer and more soundly that night.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not perfect. Many days this doesn\u2019t happen. But I know if I put in effort, I\u2019ll work better and exhibit more patience and compassion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ruth Lincoln, Head Editor, INALJ DC Sleep Better – Work Smarter Does it ever feel your to-do list grows exponentially? Between work, school, volunteering, job hunting, professional development, families, and maybe a personal life, I know we all wish there were more hours in a day. BuzzFeed explains it well as the #1 \u201cShocking…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,5875,5872,3637,5874,4720,5873],"class_list":["post-58799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-buzzfeed","tag-inalj-dc","tag-inalj-washington-dc","tag-rest","tag-ruth-lincoln","tag-sleep"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ruth.lincoln.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-fin","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}