I have joined a 30-day Productivity Challenge and wanted to share my journey with you and invite you to join me. Click here – https://30dayproductivity.com – if you want to join me. I think that this could be a lot of fun, especially completing it as a community.

Today’s productivity challenge is to implement a 10-3-2-1 sleep technique, where you do certain things so many hours before bedtime. For example, 10 hours before bedtime, you cut out caffeine; 3 hours before bedtime stop drinking or eating; 2 hours before bedtime slow down and unwind; 1 hour before bedtime eliminate all screens.

I get it. This might work for some people and their schedules. But at this stage of my life, juggling work, school, and three teenagers, it is just not possible right now. About the only one I can do is the 10 hour no caffeine because I have my first, and usually only, cup of coffee between 5:00 am and 6:00 am. The rest of the day I drink lots and lots of water, using my 64 ounce jug. I have been averaging about 1 to 1-1/2 of these a day.

We eat dinner between 7:00 and 7:30 every night, as a family. Eating as a family is more important to me than the time. We simply cannot eat any earlier. My youngest daughter is in school, then has tutoring, followed by basketball games or cheer practice. Most nights, we don’t get home until 7:00 pm. My husband and I plan our meals for the week, so I will usually have something started and he finishes it up so that we can eat shortly after getting home. At best, I eliminate food 60 to 90 minutes before my bedtime at 9:00 pm.

Not working and slowing down 2 hours before bed is not happening either. I mean, see the paragraph above! We eat dinner, then clean up the kitchen, followed by a quick dirty 30 (minutes) of cleaning and picking up. Then I return to my office and work on my schoolwork or dissertation research. This means that I am using screens until I am getting ready for bed – which takes all of five minutes at the most.

So, yeah, no screens for an hour before bed isn’t happening either.

In principle, this concept sounds great, but in practice, I cannot make it work with all the responsibilities that I have. I’m curious, with the responsibilities that you have, how many of you could implement the 10-3-2-1 principle?