Most people have a relatively consistent wakeup time. Fewer have a set bedtime, which could be the reason you feel lacking in free time during the day, says author and time management expert Laura Vanderkam.
The logic works like this: Without consistent sleep habits, most people can be generally productive but struggle to stay consistently focused all day, every day. Without consistent focus, your task list can build up, leading you to frantically rush to get things done. And when you’re rushing, you make mistakes. Now the time you intended on saving is being spent backtracking or playing catch up.
“The problem is that people will get enough sleep over the course of a week overall, but it’s very disordered,” says Vanderkam, who’s written eight books about time management. “One night, you’re staying up too late and getting up too early in the morning. The next night, somebody’s crashing on the couch ... and weekends are all over the map.”
In spring 2021, Vanderkam surveyed over 150 participants who spent nine weeks implementing nine preset rules for productivity, including sticking to a consistent bedtime. “One of the people in my study called [setting a bedtime] the least sexy, but the most impactful rule of all of them,” says Vanderkam.
