An Open Letter to My Younger Self

I wish to share with myself the science-backed self-improvement tools I wish I had known about earlier.

Stop right there. This is not a personal reflection piece that gives my opinions about things. Whereas opinions can be amusing to read about, you’ve come to the wrong place if that’s what you were looking for.

No. Over the past ten years, I have collected several self-help ‘tools,’ and most I discarded, only keeping very few on my metaphorical life toolbelt.

What am I referring to? The productivity hacks that I don’t usually write about but actually use — the method I stole from a musician which helps me to fall asleep faster, for instance. Or my personal hack for stifling the overflowing anger of disgruntled guests, which I learned while working as a receptionist at a hotel.

All of the methods below are science-backed, so you can rest assured that they’re likely to help you just as they’ve helped me.

So, dear Sabana Grande from 10 years ago, here’s what I want you to know:

Notice that I said faster — not ‘instantly,’ as many others claim about their techniques. My technique cannot be described as ‘instant’ because people respond differently to things.

I have seen many YouTube videos in which someone hypnotizes themselves into passing out in front of an audience, and I believe that those people do actually fall asleep. However, I do not believe that everyone trying the same technique will fall asleep just as fast. Trust me, I have tried many of the methods out there and was often disappointed.

However, I found one thing about a year ago, which significantly reduced the amount of time it took for me to fall asleep — previously, over an hour. The way it did this was by shutting off all the mental chatter in my head.

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