A while back I co-founded a company that raised some money. We worked long hours, 6 days per week from a wonderful office, leaving Sundays to take care of personal things. After a few weeks, a few things became apparent:

• We were going to be working long, hard days for a while to come - at least the next six months… a year.. maybe more!
• After a long day of hard work, the mind feels like it is buzzing for at least an hour, often with an elevated heartrate.
• Often the mind keeps working on open problems, making it difficult to fall asleep!
• In order to perform at a high level every day, I needed to incorporate rest and recovery into my daily routine.

Here are a few habits that helped me keep my stress levels under control, and I hope they will help you too:

Wrap up each day by unloading the mind

Keep a notebook. In the notebook add a new entry and answer, “What happened today?” Update open tasks if needed.

Hard cut-off

The day is done. Stop thinking about work. To perform at a high level tomorrow (and the day after, and the day after…), one must rest. If possible, no more screen time of any kind until the next day.

Rest and Recreation

Find an activity that grabs complete attention, both mentally and physically, even if it is for a small amount of time. Examples include: sports or skills based activities such as dance, yoga.

Fall (back) asleep

There are a few similar tricks. If one doesn’t work, try the next:

• Close the eyes, and go through a mental checklist, starting at the toes, focus on relaxing each part and thinking “my … are relaxed”. (My toes are relaxed, my arches are relaxed, my ankles are relaxed, my calves are relaxed, and so on). If other thoughts creep in, go back to the last body part.
• Close the eyes and visualize waves breaking on the beach at sunset.
• Close the eyes and visualize a repetitive activity - skiing or snowboarding down a mountain (back and forth, back and forth), or walking through a beautiful valley.

For me, there often were nights with no time for activity after work. Falling asleep on those nights would have been impossible without the two visualization tricks.

Start the day right

Develop a morning routine: Make the bed, exercise, take a shower, pray, water the plants, dress for success, eat breakfast, etc. Ramp up to cruising speed: meditate for a few minutes; switch the mind back into focusing mode; look at notes from the previous day’s end. Kick a whole lot of ass, all day long!