Stop Phone Scrolling Before Bed & Do This Instead | Cal Newport

Summary

In this insightful video script, the host addresses the common issue of feeling exhausted despite adequate sleep, suggesting that screen time before bed may be a culprit. He recommends avoiding attention-grabbing platforms and instead watching content on subscription-based services to help the brain wind down. Additionally, he discusses the importance of organizational systems to reduce mental fatigue and improve sleep quality. The script also tackles the stress of unstructured evenings, advocating for a clear separation between work and leisure, and the creation of a rejuvenating, albeit less structured, plan for personal time.

Takeaways

• 😴 Getting 8 hours of sleep is not always enough; mental fatigue and context shifting can also lead to tiredness throughout the day.
• 🚫 Limiting screen time before bed is crucial for good sleep hygiene; avoid platforms designed to maximize engagement like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
• 🛑 Engaging content near bedtime can be disruptive; opt for less stimulating shows or content that doesn't rely on viewer engagement for revenue.
• 🧠 Having a clear plan for the day can help reduce stress and improve sleep; ensure tasks and responsibilities are captured and reviewed regularly.
• 🔄 Multiscale planning helps in organizing work and reducing the mental load, which in turn can improve sleep quality.
• 🛌 A good shutdown routine at the end of the day can signal to the brain that it's time to rest, aiding in better sleep.
• 🎯 For non-work evenings, having a sketched plan for rejuvenating and meaningful activities can reduce stress and promote relaxation.
• 📚 Reading, exercising, and spending quality time with family are examples of activities that can be part of a non-work evening plan.
• 🤔 The feeling of wasting time during the evening can be addressed by planning activities that are separate from work and contribute to personal growth or enjoyment.
• 🧘‍♂️ Boredom is a natural human emotion that can drive us to seek out new activities or ideas, and it's not necessarily a negative state.
• 🌙 The key to unwinding after a busy workday is not to do nothing, but to do things that are meaningful and enjoyable outside the context of work.

Q & A

Why does Joel feel constantly exhausted despite getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep?

Joel may be experiencing mental fatigue rather than physical tiredness, possibly due to excessive context shifting or screen time before bed, which can disrupt sleep quality.

What is the irony mentioned in the script about watching videos on reducing screen time before bed?

The irony is that Joel might be staying up late watching videos about reducing screen time, which could be contributing to his sleep issues.

What advice is given to reduce screen time before bed?

Avoid using apps that are designed to keep you engaged for longer periods, such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok, and consider watching content on platforms that do not rely on engagement for revenue.

What is the difference between attention-engineered services and subscription-based streaming services in terms of their impact on sleep?

Attention-engineered services press buttons within your brain to keep you engaged and emotionally aroused, which is not conducive to sleep. Subscription-based services, while still engaging, do not rely on keeping you on the platform for extended periods to make money.

How can having a clear separation between work and non-work help with stress and sleep?

A clear shutdown routine helps the mind transition from a productivity mindset to a relaxation mindset, reducing the stress associated with feeling unproductive during non-work hours.

What is the role of multiscale planning in managing stress and improving sleep?

Multiscale planning, which includes having a plan for the season, week, and day, helps in organizing tasks and reducing the mental load, making it easier for the brain to relax and fall asleep.

Why is having a plan for non-work time important for people who are organized and productive?

Having a plan for non-work time helps maintain a sense of purpose and engagement without the stress associated with work, allowing for meaningful and rejuvenating activities.

How can the content of activities during non-work time affect stress levels?

The content of activities should be varied, interesting, and disconnected from work to provide a sense of fulfillment and relaxation, reducing stress.

What is the significance of 'open loops' in relation to sleep disruption?

Open loops refer to tasks or responsibilities that are not yet completed or planned, which can keep the brain active and make it difficult to fall asleep.

How can capturing all tasks and responsibilities in a trusted location help with sleep?

Capturing all tasks in a trusted location ensures that the brain does not have to keep track of them, reducing the mental load and helping with sleep.

What is the importance of having a good shutdown routine at the end of the workday?

A good shutdown routine helps in reviewing and closing all open loops, providing a sense of completion and allowing the mind to transition smoothly to non-work activities and rest.

Outlines

00:00

😴 Addressing Sleep Disruption and Screen Time Habits

The first paragraph discusses the issue of feeling exhausted despite getting enough sleep. The speaker suggests that mental fatigue, rather than physical tiredness, could be the cause and recommends ensuring a less exhausting daily routine. The main focus, however, is on the impact of screen time before bed, particularly with apps designed to engage users for as long as possible. The advice given is to avoid these platforms before sleep and instead opt for content that does not rely on user engagement for revenue, such as subscription-based streaming services. Additionally, the speaker touches on the importance of managing work and mental tasks throughout the day to ensure a clear mind for better sleep quality.

05:00

🛑 Balancing Productivity and Leisure Time

In the second paragraph, the speaker addresses the stress associated with unstructured evenings and the desire for constant self-improvement. The advice includes establishing a clear separation between work and non-work time by having a defined shutdown routine. It also suggests that having a plan is essential but emphasizes the importance of creating a plan that is varied, rejuvenating, and enjoyable. The speaker argues against the idea that doing nothing is the solution to stress, instead recommending that one should intentionally plan activities that are meaningful and separate from work to achieve a sense of fulfillment and relaxation.

10:01

🤔 Embracing Boredom and the Human Drive for Action

The third paragraph delves into the concept of boredom as a natural human emotion and its role in driving human progress. The speaker explains that humans are evolved to seek out activities and that doing nothing can be stressful for many because it goes against our innate desire for action and engagement. The paragraph also discusses the importance of the content of our activities rather than the planning itself, suggesting that the nature of the work or activity is what causes stress, not the act of doing. The speaker concludes by highlighting the evolutionary benefits of boredom and the need to find a balance between structured plans and the freedom to explore and create.

Keywords

💡Sleep Hygiene

Sleep hygiene refers to the practices and habits that are conducive to sleeping well on a regular basis. In the video, it is mentioned as a way to improve sleep quality, suggesting that avoiding highly stimulating content before bed can contribute to better sleep hygiene. The script implies that good sleep hygiene is essential for not feeling exhausted despite getting the recommended amount of sleep.

💡Screen Time

Screen time is the amount of time spent looking at a screen, such as a television, computer, or smartphone. The video discusses the negative impact of excessive screen time before bed, particularly due to the addictive nature of apps designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible, which can disrupt sleep patterns.

💡Mental Fatigue

Mental fatigue is a state of exhaustion that affects cognitive processes, making it difficult to concentrate or engage in mentally demanding tasks. The script suggests that feeling tired throughout the day could be a result of mental fatigue rather than physical tiredness, which might not be resolved by simply increasing sleep duration.

💡Engagement

Engagement, in the context of the video, refers to the level of interest and involvement with a particular activity or platform. The speaker warns against the high engagement levels promoted by certain apps and services before bedtime, as they can lead to overstimulation and interfere with the ability to fall asleep.

💡Customer Experience

Customer experience is the perception a customer has of a company's products or services, which can be influenced by factors such as usability, aesthetics, and emotional connection. The video contrasts customer experience with engagement, suggesting that platforms aiming to enhance customer experience, rather than just engagement, may be less disruptive to sleep.

💡Open Loops

Open loops are tasks or projects that are incomplete and still require attention. The script uses the term 'open loops' to describe responsibilities or ideas that, if not properly managed, can keep the mind active and prevent it from relaxing, thus affecting sleep quality.

💡Multiscale Planning

Multiscale planning involves organizing tasks and goals across different time frames, from long-term goals to daily tasks. The video emphasizes the importance of multiscale planning in reducing stress and improving sleep by ensuring that the brain is not preoccupied with work-related thoughts when it's time to rest.

💡Shutdown Routine

A shutdown routine refers to the set of actions taken to signal the end of the workday and prepare for relaxation or sleep. The script discusses the importance of having a clear shutdown routine to help transition from a productivity mindset to a restful state, which is crucial for sleep.

💡Context Shifting

Context shifting is the act of moving attention from one task or activity to another, which can be mentally draining. The video mentions that some exhaustion might be due to context shifting rather than poor sleep, suggesting that managing transitions between tasks can contribute to overall well-being.

💡Productivity

Productivity is the efficiency of an individual or system in converting inputs into desired outputs. The video discusses the irony of productivity advice being delivered through platforms that may actually hinder productivity by promoting excessive screen time and engagement.

💡Boredom

Boredom is an emotional state that arises from a lack of interest or engagement in the current activity. The script touches on the idea that humans are driven to avoid boredom by seeking out new activities or challenges, which is a key factor in human evolution and development.

Highlights

Joel's struggle with feeling exhausted despite getting 8 hours of sleep and the potential impact of screen time before bed.

The importance of limiting screen time before bed and the irony of watching videos about reducing screen time.

The concept of 'highly salient' content and its negative impact on sleep quality.

The distinction between attention-engineered platforms and subscription-based streaming services in terms of sleep hygiene.

The role of mental fatigue and context shifting in contributing to daytime tiredness.

Strategies for reducing screen time before bed, including shifting to less emotionally arousing content.

The impact of open loops and mental tasks on the ability to fall asleep.

The benefits of using organizational systems like Notion for capturing tasks and reducing mental load before sleep.

The necessity of a good shutdown routine to transition from work to rest effectively.

JJ's dilemma of feeling stressed during evenings due to the desire for constant self-improvement.

The challenge of balancing productivity with leisure time and the stress associated with unstructured time.

The recommendation for clear separation between work and non-work activities to reduce evening stress.

The overrated nature of having a plan and the importance of sketching a plan that is rejuvenating and varied.

The idea that doing 'nothing' can be stressful for many people, especially those who are organized.

The evolutionary perspective on boredom and its role in driving human progress and innovation.

The importance of making intentional use of time during non-work hours that is separate from productivity goals.

The discussion on the reasonableness of activities and their demands as the primary source of stress, not the planning itself.

Transcripts

from Joel I'm getting the recommended 8

hours of sleep every night but

constantly feel exhausted both when I

wake up and throughout the day I've been

watching videos on the importance of

limiting screen time before bed and I

think I may be a culprit uh for my bad

sleep do you have any advice on ways to

reduce screen time before bed as I find

it very addicting and hard to break that

habit I love the irony of watching

videos about how to reduce screen time I

imagine him Joel up late late into the

night watching videos about how to not

watch videos before

bed all sorts of contradictions and

irony in the online productivity space

as the channels are exactly the causes

of productivity issues in the first

place um all right Joel a couple things

here I mean first of all of course if

you're tired throughout the day and

you're getting enough sleep if you

actually are getting enough sleep go

back to the opening segment of the show

make sure that you're not excessively

contact shifting some of that tiredness

may actually be mental fatigue and not

actual um rundown tiredness so you want

to just set up your day to be less

unnecessarily exhausting but if we're

going to focus specifically on this

issue of uh your sleep being

disrupted I mean I agree that good sleep

hygiene can

help and uh going on to I think the

right way to think about it is highly

Salient highly distracting highly

arousing content should not be consumed

near bed so anything where it's coming

through an app that makes money by how

much time you look at it avoiding that I

think is important so you should not go

on YouTube before bed you should not go

onto Instagram or Twitter or Tik Tok

anything that's attention

engineered uh is is going to be a

problem because again these Services

those Services work Services you don't

pay to use work by getting you to look

at the service longer so they're going

to be pressing buttons within your brain

to get a response that makes you very

engaged and aroused emotionally and

wanting to actually come back and keep

watching more that's not a great state

to be in if you want to go to bed

so if you're going to be looking at a

screen before bed a general rule of

thumb here is look at things where they

don't make money off of you spending

more time on it so if there's a the

office on peacock like I watch an

episode or two of the office because

it's it's comforting and it's dumb

that's going to have much less of a

negative impact right these streaming

services make money by you paying a

subscription fee so they want to make

sure there's stuff on there you like but

they don't particularly care if you

binge for seven hours in a row or not

they're just here's we have a bunch of

shows we think you'll like so there's a

real difference they both seem like

screens but you know watching a

comforting somewhat boring show could

actually help your brain calm down in a

way that watching Tik Tok videos or

following YouTube recommendations might

actually get your brain fired up so the

intent of the platform is it an

engagement or is it customer experience

makes a difference on how it's going to

affect your

sleep the other thing I want to throw in

here the sort of the curveball is

another common sleep disruptor it's not

necessarily what you do right before bed

but what's happening inside your

head if your head is keeping track of a

lot of open Loops to use a term from

David Allen tasks that you're

responsible for projects you need to

work on ideas that might lead to cool

opportunities if you have a lot of these

things that exist primarily in your

head and if you forget about them it's

going to be a problem your brain is

going to have a hard time falling asleep

because it feels like the juggler where

the things is juggling are very uh

fragile and valuable and want to drop

anything so it has to keep

moving so ironically one of the biggest

things you can do to help you sleep at

night is be better about how you control

your work during the day being better

about how you shut down your work at the

end of the day organizational systems

that are built around Notions like full

uh full capture and planning so every

task that you need to do that you've

committed to is captured in a trusted

location that you review regularly so

your brain doesn't have to keep track of

it makes a huge difference for your

sleep multiscale planning I have a plan

for my season which gets turned into

plans for my week which gets turned into

plans for my day so that my brain

doesn't have to just keep thinking hey

what am I working on what should I be

working on should I be thinking more

about this or that helps you

sleep having uh in general a good

shutdown routine okay the day is over

before I shut down work let me check all

of the inboxes my email my plan making

sure that everything uh has a place

anything that came up has been written

down I know what's happening tomorrow

there's nothing there's nothing I need

to be keeping track of we have a good

plan everything's captured great let me

now check that shutdown complete

checkbox in my time block planner or

have a ritual or phrase I say and so

later if my mind starts to get

ruminative about work I can say no no no

I checked that checkbox in my time block

planner I said that phrase that means I

successfully reviewed and shut down all

open Loops I don't have to worry about

things till tomorrow that makes a big

difference for

sleep all right right so to summarize we

have a couple different things going on

here be careful about what screens you

expose yourself to before bed it's

probably going to be easier if you have

a bedtime screen Habit to just change

what you look at than it will be to just

cold turkey stop looking at a screen

before bed just shift your screens the

things that's not emotionally Salient or

emotionally arousing and then care a lot

about how you organize your work open

loops shutdowns and multiscale planning

and finally uh make sure that some of

your daytime exhaustion is not actually

from Context shifting as opposed to

sleep disruption those are my three

points Joel I think all three of those

things combined will make a

difference I'm noticing Jesse we got not

only do we have a bunch of J names in a

row but the next name is literally

JJ it's as if we go through our

questions alphabetically I like it

unfortunately it's the last the J names

I wish we had more but anyways let's get

after John and Joel let's get rolling

with what JJ has to ask us yep all so J

JJ has to say I'm constantly feeling

stressed during the evenings when I'm

not at work because I feel like I'm

wasting time I want to constantly be

improving myself but I also want to take

time to do fun things video games see

friends Etc what should I do right so

this could be an issue for people who uh

care a lot about productivity r large is

evenings can be

stressful it could be stressful because

if you're not doing uh anything

structured you feel just

unnerved you practice multiscale

planning your workday is time block

planned it's connected to a weekly plan

and a seasonal plan and it can feel

unnerving to be just

around uh feel unproductive but then

you're worried about like what do I want

to do is if I treat my day like my work

day that's exhausting because it's also

really hard to be very structured during

the work day and so you can be in a

dilemma like JJ is in as

well so the two things I recommend in

this situation is one clear separation

between work and non-w work okay okay so

clear shutdown

routine we just talked about this in the

answer that I gave to Joel in the

previous question so you really can shut

down work that'll help your mind leave

the work productivity mindset of we are

constantly trying to keep track of

what's going on and making sure

nothing's being misplaced and we're

making good use of your time you want to

clear

shutdown so your mindset can shift but

the second thing I would advise is that

especially if you're an organized

person having plan is

overrated we we often tell ourselves

that the solution to maybe the

exhaustion we feel from work is

nothingness the goal is if I could just

have nothing to do then no plan no

intention that will be the opposite of

being having too much to do and I'm

going to find relaxation and

Rejuvenation actually does not work that

way for a lot of people especially if

you're organized having nothing to do

having no plan uh is

stressful and you get that unnerving

feeling that you talk about so what's

the right thing to do sketch a plan but

make sure that plan is vared and

rejuvenating and

interesting the problem that people have

what what stresses us out about work is

not the fact that we have things to do

it's not the fact that we have a plan

it's just that we have too many things

to switch back and forth behind it's

because the work is hard the work is

stressful it's not the plan itself it's

what the plan is actually is in the plan

work is

hard you sketch a plan after you're shut

down it shouldn't be a detailed time

block plan be like yeah I want to get a

reading session in and work out and then

um why don't we watch this show with the

kids that I've been reading about I

think it's going to be special and I

want to make sure that you know I have a

um go for a walk before we get ready for

bed you s sketch a plan of things that

are meaningful and useful for the family

and useful for yourself and varied and

rejuvenating and it's not a tight

minute-by-minute plan you're actually

going to feel much better about that so

the again the key to get away from the

stress of a uh busy workday is not to

significantly reduce what you do it's

not to significantly reduce the idea of

having a plan it's to make the things

you do much better to make the things

that you've planned to do fun or

interesting or useful to the world

beyond the world of work and completely

unconnected so shut down work shift to

nonwork mode but then say I want to hit

the pillow proud tonight like what do I

want to do with my time that makes this

an evening that I'm proud of and it has

nothing to do with productivity it's not

how do I achieve this or get ahead of

this it's like how do I like get time to

read this book I really like how do I

get some one-on-one time with like my

oldest son who I haven't seen

recently you want to make intentional

use of your time which is separate from

some notion of optimizing time or

maximizing output so doing little can be

stressful I mean that's the there's so

many books Jesse there's a while where

do nothing how to do nothing The Art of

Doing Nothing it's this whole notion of

what we need to do is nothing doing

nothing stresses a lot of people out

yeah like humans don't like to do

nothing

yeah because people are like really

afraid of being bored yeah and boredom

is actually a useful human emotion right

yeah like why do we feel such a strong

distasteful uh emotional reaction that

doing nothing is because we're evolved

to actually want to be doing things

that's what drives humans to unlike a

cat who's completely happy if I can lay

in the Sun for seven hours and I'm a cat

it's a good day right cats don't get

bored humans do but that is the drive

that's like okay well what else are we

going to do well I don't know let's

invent fire or organize a political

system or invent religion like the

boredom is part of what drove humans to

take advantage of this larger brain that

we grew yeah so you know we shouldn't

boredom is important indicator the key

is I mean again people are not stressed

out by doing things they're stressed out

by what they're doing yeah the

reasonableness of what they're doing

whether they have enough time to do it

the the actual demands of the work

they're doing that's what's stressful

not the doing itself I mean you can stop

your work and be reading and Woodworking

and you know movies watching sport like

all sorts of things you can do which are

things but they're very different than

work it's really the content of activity

not so much the uh planning around

activity planning itself is not too

stressful yeah actually Lex had um yal

Harari on like a couple weeks ago and I

listened to that they were talking about

like Civilization and boredom and stuff

oh interesting yeah youall is real big

on um the concept the cognitive

conceptual development in human

evolution that just unlocked everything

mhm yeah I'll listen to that one yeah

yeah it was just before the Isaac in one

I think um I saw someone the other day

attribute sapiens to me that's pretty

good they said cal newport's book sa

like millions and millions of copies

yeah I was like I like that I suppose I

mean it's probably bad news for you Val

Harari but I guess good news for me I

like I'll take it I'll take it hey if

you like this video I think you'll

really like this one as well check it

out