Sleep Your Way to Success
The new energy + focus protocol that changed my days.
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A few weeks ago, I’d come home exhausted, barely able to progress. Now? I’ve got a system that lets me grind until bedtime, without burning out.
Hi! Zoli here, the 17-year-old building a business from scratch.
I recently found a solution to a scary problem I had: I lacked the energy and focus to show real progress. Today, I’ll break down the exact protocol of small but impactful changes that elevated my productivity.
Sleep More to Win More
This one is the most important, and sadly, I find myself breaking this rule often:
“Sleep is not an optional lifestyle luxury. Sleep is a non-negotiable biological necessity” - Matthew Walker
By sleeping well at night, you basically double down on tomorrow’s success. This is one of the first steps on the path to achieving top-tier productivity: have at least ~7 hours of sleep each day, and have a consistent schedule (±30 minutes difference with sleep/wake time).
Here comes a lesser-known strategy I implemented: the power nap method. Once I got home afternoon (school + gym), I went to bed and relaxed for 15-30 minutes. No phone, no reading, just lying down. You shouldn't fall asleep, but you should rest.
I tried this multiple times, I also tried instantly jumping into work and active relaxation before work, and the power nap method was superior: I can’t explain why exactly, but I truly feel like I completely reset even after just 20 minutes of real rest.
You can make this even more powerful by getting some caffeine in after the nap, but be careful with this: it can seriously mess with your sleep, and you don’t want that.
In summary:
Have a consistent and satisfying sleep schedule to win tomorrow.
Use the power nap method to reset mental soreness quickly.
Achieve Sniper Focus
Right now, I have about 3-5 hours of free time from getting home to bedtime. I must use this time efficiently. So, how do I do this? Each day, I plan for 2 types of working sessions: a deep one and a shallow one.
Within the deep session, work on just 1-2 high-capacity tasks that require your full attention. A deep session usually ranges from 60 to 120 minutes1, and what’s important here, everybody is different. Some might be able to stay in flow for 2 hours, and someone else loses track after 50 minutes. You can also make a short ritual you do before each deep session, so over time your brain will know: “it’s time to lock in”.
When the shallow session starts, complete a bunch of smaller tasks, which require only a lower level of focus, yet still mean valuable progression. For me, these tasks range from writing a few notes to spending 10 minutes learning copywriting, or setting up a database (which I already planned in a deep session).
A technique I’d include is the scratchpad rule. Prepare a sheet of paper (with a pen) close to you, and whenever a random thought comes into your mind, write it down. This way, you’ll stop thinking about it because you know it’s recorded, and you can continue working.
Here’s a last basic approach worth mentioning: no multitasking. It simply doesn’t have real advantages, and I’ve never heard about a person who found juggling between tasks more efficient than being focused on one task.
In summary:
Plan a deep and a shallow session based on the needed mental capacity.
Use the scratchpad rule to avoid getting lost in random thoughts.
Stop multitasking. It’s dumb.
The Protocol’s Safety Guidelines
Here are 2 ways to make progression safer to not risk burning out:
1. Plan your weeks with a buffer day! This means that you should plan work for 6 days only instead of 7. If somehow you can’t finish everything you planned, you still have a whole day to catch up or do some extra progress on top of your goals.
2. There are days when you simply can’t focus enough to achieve a deep flow state. For these rough times, my recommendation is to only do shallow sessions: progress with low mental-capacity tasks. Progression is progression, no matter the kind.
Big Mindset Shift
This literally hit me this morning. (For some context, yesterday didn’t go as planned, and I had a bad mood at night and today morning.)
Today didn’t start the best. So how can I make today so good that it can’t even be compared to any other day from this week? How can I make today the best?
I didn’t just ask this question, but I kept thinking about it, and I got sucked in: I feel like I have to make today the best one. And what’s crazy, it works (at least today).
Since this is truly a completely fresh idea, I can’t prove yet if it works for multiple days. I’ll update this post in a week to share whether this works for me for multiple days straight.
If it does, this might be one of the best mindset treasures I've found this year.
And that’s it, you’ve got the entire protocol! This system is still new to me. It’s not perfect, but so far, it’s been a game-changer. Once I have used this system for a few weeks, I’ll share my results with longer-term testing.
Which of these strategies will you test first? Did you have any hacks you use that I could try? Let me know in a comment!
Have an energetic and focused time,
Zoli
I’m currently testing my boundaries to figure out my best deep session length.
Your post have so much value in it. I will definitely the Power Nap. I often feel tired so I will try that. The way you explain it is so clear and simple but so effective. Thank you for sharing!