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Better
Next Days

A RISK MANAGER’S VIEW OF SLEEP

A night is uncertain.
Your fallback need not be.

The sleep bow tie is a planning tool. It helps you look at what could disturb a night and what you can arrange for the day that follows.

BEFORE THE NIGHT

Make a good night more likely.

A late call. Noise through a shared wall. An early start. Choose the disturbance that matters and decide who can help change it.

AFTER THE NIGHT

Reduce the cost of a poor night.

A different journey. A delayed decision. Cover for the demanding task. Prepare those arrangements before you need them.

One problem. Two useful changes.

Suppose a late international meeting often runs over. Before the night, agree an end time and an owner for unfinished items. After a poor night, use a pre-arranged lift and move the report approval to a colleague who is fit to do it. The meeting may still go badly; the morning is no longer starting from nothing.

This is not a medical model or a risk score. A long checklist cannot diagnose a condition or prove that one item caused a bad night.

Get the causes-and-consequences checklists

Turn a priority into an arrangement.

Choose one or two changes. Give each an owner, a trigger and a Plan B. The fillable toolkit has worksheets for this; the book explains the process through daily steps and real-life constraints.

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