Twelve nights since the screen cutoff post, the one about picking an actual time instead of ‘soonish.’ I picked 11pm and tried to hold it even on nights I wasn’t tired yet, which is what one of you said in the comments and it actually stuck with me.
Hit it 9 times out of 12. The 3 misses were all study nights, same pattern each time, a problem set due the next morning and the laptop staying open past midnight for ‘just one more section.’
What actually helped wasn’t willpower, it was moving the phone charger out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. After 11 the phone isn’t within reach, so there’s nothing left to decide on the nights I’m tired enough to cave anyway.
Garden watering still happens right after my shift, before any of this, so that part held through all 12 nights without a gap.
Still waking up around 6:40 most mornings regardless. Falling asleep earlier didn’t move when I wake up, but on the 9 nights I hit the cutoff I remember actually falling asleep instead of losing the time somewhere in between.