If you have lost your job (or even your business) and found yourself with a lot more time on your hands, consider this: Watch less TV, go to bed earlier, get more sleep, and wake up earlier.

If you do have all this extra time because of job or business loss, it's understandable to take the first few weeks as a break, like an informal holiday. However, at some point, I highly recommend not staying up late watching TV or playing video games, especially if that wasn’t your usual routine before.

Staying up late, sleeping in, and spending hours on unproductive activities can lead to a loss of precious time you could use for self-care or job hunting. Over time, your self-esteem might also diminish because you know you're not engaging in activities that reflect your best self.

The fact is, for most people, if they go to bed at 10 and wake up at 6, they feel much better than if they stay up until midnight and sleep in until 8. Even though the total sleep time is the same, there’s something about the discipline of an earlier routine that makes us feel more productive and positive about ourselves.

In fact, the greatest loss in going to bed earlier and getting up earlier (vs going to bed late and getting up late) is often a loss of TV time- and no one ever improved their job prospects by watching more TV!!

Ps Watching TED talks doesn’t count as “watching TV”- plenty of people have increased their physical and mental well-being by feeding their mind on “clean food” which has every likelihood of increasing your job prospects!! 

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