You should always have a rebound routine for when you accidentally get stuck in a rut or fall back to some old negative habit. For me, I have had serious cases of insomnia on and off throughout my life. I have mostly conquered it, but occasionally I fall off track. Everyone’s rebound routine will be different due to their circumstances in life. Someone might occasionally eat too much, or play too many video games, or drink too much.
We should develop and test our routine so that overtime, when we realize we have fallen off track, we can quickly get back on track. I have a friend who would fall into a depressed state for months at a time, sometimes years, and then something would kick in and he would “be back” for a few months on this cycle. For my sleep issues, I would sometimes get off track for months at a time, but after I developed my offtrack routine, I got better and faster at rebounding. Eventually I would just notice I was offtrack and get back on track within a day.
I would fall off track when I was working too intensely, get too excited from ideas and projects and then at night I constantly wake up. When I notice that happen for 2 days in a row, I stop everything and run my offtrack rebound routine.
My offtrack rebound routine
Stop all work and thinking about work by 6:30.
exercise at dawn and watch the sunrise.
take a day off
update my sleep log
make sure im not working in my bedroom.
make sure im following “the 4 things” talk.
Why don’t I do this everyday? I do most of the time, but sometimes due to work and life, I loosen my boundaries until finally, I’ve lost control of my mind. By memorializing this and writing this out, this his immensely helped me stay on track.
One other note, one easy way to completely destroy a bad habit is to quit it cold turkey. It’s easier to quit drinking 100% vs 99%. Occasionally doing something has the potential to put you into your old negative habits. In my case, I actually love to work and I’m not in a position to not work, so I make it a priority to come up with better guard rails to put around my work life.