Did you join me last week as we tried to meet a goal of reading from the Bible for 15 minutes each day? Well, this week’s goal is one that sometimes is easier said than done: Get 8 hours of sleep per night.
When I was younger, even in Kindergarten, I would take naps and still go to bed at 8:00 p.m. (Man, my parents were lucky.) :) Anyway, through the years, especially the last 13, I have trained myself to survive on less sleep. Many nights I only get 6 hours of sleep. Guess what? That’s not enough.
With kids, especially little ones, there have been many times over the years when I have stayed up late to work on projects or to clean after the kids have gone to bed. A couple of years ago I stayed up painting until almost 2:00 a.m. for several nights because I didn’t have any interruptions then.
How can I ensure that I get enough sleep each night? Better time management during the day. I need to make sure I am planning my days so that I don’t have to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to finish what should have been accomplished earlier.
We all have 24 hours in a day. If I can’t accomplish everything I need to do in 16 hours then it is just going to have to wait until the next day. Being exhausted does not a fully functioning Jackie make.
My goal for this week will be as follows: Get 8 hours of sleep per night. Sounds simple enough, right?
This means that on school nights I need to be in bed by 10:00 p.m. Weekends will be a little more flexible. Maybe I will even get more than 8 hours some nights. (A gal can dream can’t she?)
Now, there may be times when I may not get anywhere near 8 hours of sleep, especially if I have sick kiddos. Life happens and we all have to be flexible sometimes. However, I think this is a totally doable goal and should be something I can do most nights.
Who’s with me? What’s not to love about having a goal of sleeping? 
I’ve even created a handy checklist to help keep you on track. Click the picture below to print it out.
