Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to keep a highlight journal so you
Speaker 1: can end your days on a high note and go
Speaker 1: to sleep happy. I'm very lucky that I tend to
Speaker 1: sleep pretty well, but if you have trouble falling asleep
Speaker 1: or suffer from general restlessness at night, you know, it
Speaker 1: can be incredibly frustrating. You go to bed at a
Speaker 1: responsible time and yet you're still tired in the morning,
Speaker 1: and that can keep you from doing great things. Before Breakfast,
Speaker 1: Chronic insomnia is a medical condition that requires treatment. In
Speaker 1: today's tip is not about that. Instead, I'm sharing a
Speaker 1: tip from Before Breakfast listener Hilary Sutton, host of the
Speaker 1: podcast Hustle and Grace, about how she helps calm her
Speaker 1: mind at night. Sutton recently had a baby, and new
Speaker 1: parents are finn up at very strange hours. She writes
Speaker 1: that I had a hard time going back to sleep
Speaker 1: after feeding my daughter in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: It was like my mind thought it needed to stay
Speaker 1: awake to process life changes and solve problems when I
Speaker 1: really just needed to sleep. So here's what she started doing.
Speaker 1: I take about three minutes before turning the lights out
Speaker 1: to jot down the highlights of my day in a
Speaker 1: little notebook that I've oh so originally dubbed my highlights journal.
Speaker 1: She says, this does a few things. First, it forces
Speaker 1: me to identify a win from the day. Some days
Speaker 1: are just hard or tiring or both. Rather than letting
Speaker 1: my final thoughts before bed be about how I failed
Speaker 1: or what frustrated me, I consciously choose to find and
Speaker 1: focus on a positive moment from the day. Second, it
Speaker 1: improves my mood. Thinking about my two to three favorite
Speaker 1: moments of the day, whether it's my baby's new trick,
Speaker 1: a delicious meal, or a great conversation with a client
Speaker 1: is an automatic mood booster. Third, it keeps me present
Speaker 1: as a futuristic thinker. I'm prone to think six steps ahead,
Speaker 1: but taking a moment to reflect on the day and
Speaker 1: write down the highlights reminds me how good this moment
Speaker 1: is and to savor it. I like Sutton's idea because
Speaker 1: it really ends the day on a high note. And
Speaker 1: also it's really easy. I know lots of people say
Speaker 1: they want to keep a journal, but all those blank
Speaker 1: pages can be daunting and it's hard to start the habit. Or,
Speaker 1: if you're like me, you tend to write in your
Speaker 1: journal when you have something to complain about. This can
Speaker 1: be cathartic, but it's not exactly the best way to
Speaker 1: remember and commemorate life. A highlight journal is a very
Speaker 1: simple way to commit to memory something good that happened today,
Speaker 1: and taking three minutes to write it right before you
Speaker 1: go to bed isn't a huge ask. You probably spend
Speaker 1: a minute or two brushing your teeth at that point,
Speaker 1: and it's not that different from that. So if you
Speaker 1: tend to ruminate on unpleasant things at night, why not
Speaker 1: give a highlight journal a try. As Sutton said, it
Speaker 1: helps her drift off and get into a kind of
Speaker 1: happy state in my sleep. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast Podcast at I Heeart media dot Com
Speaker 1: that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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