In past, I had the habit of laying in bed and not being able to fall asleep because I was pondering about "bad" things that happened that day, or pondering about things going to happen the next day where I didn't feel confident about the outcome, or my role (or similar).
I kept this a little vague, I think the kind of events that keep you away from sleeping may be different for everyone. And if you have the habit of being in bed awake for longer time, you know why that is anyway.
To get to the point: Doing a daily writing basically wiped out the problem entirely for me. Nowadays, when I can't sleep, it is because I ate too much too late.
I do my writing once per day, usually close to bed time. I write about relatively noteworthy things ("another day of being too lazy to progress on hobby thing XY" is a pretty common one), then go a bit on a tangent maybe, why that is and if it's actually that bad. I try to be mostly gentle to myself here and keep it positive. If things happen that annoy me (neighbours annoying, cashier rude, big train delay, whatever), I of course write them down too, and also go on a tangent. Can I do something about this? Are there maybe good reasons for it, which I didn't think or care of the moment it happened, etc?
Basically, do the thing you would do while laying in bed and pondering things - the difference is, when you are not in bed, and writing, you do it in a more constructive, brief way. For events the next day (difficult meeting etc.) nail down the worst case, the way it will likely go, the things you for sure do not wanna do/say.
And it weeds out the desire to unwrap all that crap once more as soon as you lay down. Which is the whole point of the exercise, basically.
Do I read these things ever again? Most often not, honestly. But I maybe change my opinion on that, and if so, they are available.
FWIW, I write these on computer, not pencil and paper. Lowers the friction for me, and is fine. Most often it's in the range of 150-400 words, roughly guessed.
In past, I had the habit of laying in bed and not being able to fall asleep because I was pondering about "bad" things that happened that day, or pondering about things going to happen the next day where I didn't feel confident about the outcome, or my role (or similar).
I kept this a little vague, I think the kind of events that keep you away from sleeping may be different for everyone. And if you have the habit of being in bed awake for longer time, you know why that is anyway.
To get to the point: Doing a daily writing basically wiped out the problem entirely for me. Nowadays, when I can't sleep, it is because I ate too much too late.
I do my writing once per day, usually close to bed time. I write about relatively noteworthy things ("another day of being too lazy to progress on hobby thing XY" is a pretty common one), then go a bit on a tangent maybe, why that is and if it's actually that bad. I try to be mostly gentle to myself here and keep it positive. If things happen that annoy me (neighbours annoying, cashier rude, big train delay, whatever), I of course write them down too, and also go on a tangent. Can I do something about this? Are there maybe good reasons for it, which I didn't think or care of the moment it happened, etc?
Basically, do the thing you would do while laying in bed and pondering things - the difference is, when you are not in bed, and writing, you do it in a more constructive, brief way. For events the next day (difficult meeting etc.) nail down the worst case, the way it will likely go, the things you for sure do not wanna do/say.
And it weeds out the desire to unwrap all that crap once more as soon as you lay down. Which is the whole point of the exercise, basically.
Do I read these things ever again? Most often not, honestly. But I maybe change my opinion on that, and if so, they are available.
FWIW, I write these on computer, not pencil and paper. Lowers the friction for me, and is fine. Most often it's in the range of 150-400 words, roughly guessed.