It's Sunday night.

That means it's football time!

Definitely kidding. (While I do enjoy a game as a good excuse to get silly with the chums, you'll soon know why this is an unlikely prospect.)

It's week-prep time.

Here are three things I try to do every Sunday to prepare myself for the week ahead.

1. Have the week (more or less) planned out.

What does this actually look like?

I've got an Evernote template with each day of the week spelled out, split between work time and after-work time (which I refer to, for whatever reason, as "Evening"). Every day is there, Monday to Sunday.

First, I add all items that are s specific to a day that week. For instance, under "Wednesday" I'll write "pick up those new undies from Amazon downtown."

What about the things I want to get done that week, but not necessarily on any particular day? (For example, "renew Google Adwords certification") I list them at the beginning of the note, before the days of the week. Then as the week goes on, I can slot them into this day or that. I tend to tinker with my formulas for everything - but for the last several months, I've enjoyed this framework. It provides me enough structure to remind my stargazing monkey brain what I need to focus on, plus flexibility to groove with what the week gives me. ("Take what the defense gives you," as we always say in basketball.)

I've found that I feel much more grounded, centered, and confident heading into my week when I do this. It's the difference between dunking into Next Week Lagoon with limbs flailing, desperate to breathe, versus calmly navigating Next Week River on a comfy raft. (Note to self: learn more about rafts so I can describe them better than "on a comfy raft.")

2. Leave Sunday evening for wind-down activities.

Rec league basketball? That's for Monday.

Catching up on an episode of The Good Place? That's for Sunday.

40-minute Full Flow Vinyasa Yoga? That's for Wednesday morning.

15-minute Restorative Practice? That's for Sunday.

Visiting my buddy Ian's place to ham it up and have a few? That's for Friday.

Chilling with my family, staying at home, meditating, and writing this blog post? That's for Sunday.

You get the picture.

BTW, this extends to mental activities as well. As you can tell by how poorly this post has been proofed and edited, I mostly leave Sunday for staying a little looser, and not being too strenuous mentally.

(PPS - This doesn't mean I won't exercise on Sunday - if it's been a couple days, my body will tell me it's not happy with me. Today is a great example. Yesterday, my body told me, was a particularly chill day - so I took it easy. Friday evening was enjoyed winding down with an end-of-week beer. The bell tolled today. This being Sunday, I didn't go crazy. A 30-minute resistance workout at 5:15pm got me feeling great without wiping me out. That's enough to get my brain, body, and long-term longevity all boosted - and that's enough in my book.)

3. Get to bed early on Sunday evening. Give me 7 or 8 hours and I'll be singing like a canary come Monday.

I fought it, and fought it, until I could fight it no longer. I had to face facts.

Are you someone who likes to eke out every hour of waking time that you can, resolving to sleep a little less and power through it the next day? I used to be there. "You'll be much more productive this way," my serpentine brain would whisper to me inside. "Just stay up another hour and get that thing done. You'll be so happy you did."

Well, how's this for math? After working an extra two hours, then getting 5.5 or even 6 hours that night... I'd wake up groggy the next day and secretly hate myself for the next 16 hours.

And once I'm on that sleep deficit train, it doesn't just stop the next day. The ripple effects travel throughout the week, and I end up one step behind every day of the week. It dulls my spirit, diminishes my cognitive ability, and keeps me from contributing what I might to the world.

No more of that, thank you.

Now, all that said, I cannot speak for anyone else. I know extremely successful, talented, outstanding people who sleep 3-5 hours every night and swear by it. Isn't Kobe famous for doing that? It is they to whom I bow down and praise at the altar. It is they for whom I am green with envy.

For me, the effects of a good night's sleep are irrefutable, irreplaceable, and astronomical. 8-hour Jake is a completely different person from 6-hour Jake. It is as simple as that. My quality of life skyrockets.

There you have it

Follow these 3 rules and you will succeed in work, life, love, play, and everything you ever do.

Okay, maybe that's a slight oversell. But we've all seen the countless quotes about how your day / habits / discipline / etc determine your final contribution in this life, and (as best we know) we only get one shot at this ride. So for me, this is a helpful way to get ahead of that curve and become more intentional. It allows me to create the future I want for myself, instead of living anyone else's story. And I hope it may help you do the same.