Blake Snow

writer-for-hire, content guy, bestselling author

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Tagged sleep

3 habits of healthy living: Eat clean, move more, sleep well

Courtesy Shutterstock

I was talking to my kids the other day about what I call the three pillars of healthy living. They are as follows:

  1. Eat clean. Think from scratch foods prepared at home and mostly comprised of fresh produce and raw foods. Usually simple, rarely indulgent, but still full of flavor with the right seasonings.
  2. Move more. Schedule regular exercise, especially on things you tend to avoid (leg days, etc). Always take the stairs unless it’s a skyscraper. Walk more. Invest in your body by using it.
  3. Sleep well. 7-8 hours people. More if you’re a growing teenager or child. A little less if you’re in the second half of life. When done well, sleeping well is a super power and legitimate fountain of youth.

Easier said than done. But it’s not rocket science. It is hard though but if we can all keep our momentum and stay in the groove, the above three habits are very much sustainable and fulfilling.

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5 ways to wake up with more energy (according to research)

I used to be a night owl. But after waking up groggy for three decades, I learned in my 30s to embrace sleep, if not be selfish with it—i.e. I rarely if stay up past 10 or 11 now, even on weekends.

Since then, I’ve accomplished signficantly more, especially on mornings and weekends, which I used to let slip by. How do I do it?

These are the rules that I live by, according to science: Continue reading…

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Want to make better decisions? Do these 10 things

Courtesy Miramax

Courtesy Miramax

Smart people don’t make better decisions because they’re smart. They make better decisions, research shows, because they habitually do the following:

1. Remove unimportant decisions. If a decision doesn’t have an impact on your work, relationships, or spirit, then remove it from consideration. For example, many CEOs, heads of states, or creative people wear the same thing every day. Steve Jobs wore blue jeans and a black turtleneck everyday. Mark Zuckerberg only wears blue jeans and a gray t-shirt. Similarly, the leader of the free world only wears blue or gray suits, “Because I have too many other decisions to make,” the president recently told Vanity Fair. “I’m trying to pare down decisions,” he added. “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing.”

For those of us without a personal chef, deciding what kinds of food to eat is a very important decision. But removing or outsourcing unimportant decisions to other people helps us make more meaningful decisions. One of the ways I achieve this is by removing TV from my life, limiting the number of sportsball games I watch, and restricting the number of news sources I read to only three per day. Doing so introduces more social encounters, analog experiences, and thought-provoking literature into my life, which make me a better writer (instead of regurgitator).  Continue reading…

Now I remember: Why I quite working in bed

I slipped up. After resolving five years ago to never work from bed again—thank you, Montana—I did it again recently.

“I’ll just work a little,” I told myself. Several hours later, I finally put the computer down. It was AM o’clock and I was fried. With lights off, I stayed up an hour or two longer, still trying to solve work stuff.

Of course, I woke up exhausted and sluggish. Had an unproductive day. Struggled through much of it.

But it was an effective reminder: Working from bed and overtaxing your brain is no way to live—at least for me. To be fully operational, you gotta keep your thirds separated.

This advice doesn’t apply to you

Hey, you. Yeah, you—the one reading this. The one that says ignorant things like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” “I’m busier than you,” or “I only require 3-4 hours of sleep.”

This research by Harvard obviously doesn’t apply to you, because you’re the exception in life. You’re superhuman.

For the rest of us, the study is a convincing reminder of mortality. Not only convincing, but alarming.

Continue reading…

My sister Lexia makes funny comments

I got a good chuckle today in reading a comment by my younger sister Lexia on my wife’s blog.

“Considering that the last time I set my alarm was for 5:30 PM, I would not consider myself ambitious when it comes to setting clocks,” she replied when asked about her wake-up schedule. “I am the complete opposite of ambitious. I am not a morning person either and hate any kind of sound before noon.”

Now that’s an idiosyncrasy!