My event in 2 weeks starts at 8:00 a.m. As you can probably gather, most event planning work is done before an event (hence the term planning!). Once you’re on-site, it’s monitoring and problem-solving but if you’re not well-prepared, there is only so much you can do. So the day before, and the morning of, are critical.
If I’m low on sleep, I will barely make it through the event. I know, I’ve tried. So I have a system (of course). There is no sleeping in on weekends during events season. For a recent event, I started to go to bed early 4 nights prior: 10 p.m. to get up at 6 a.m. then 9 p.m. to get up at 5 a.m. Not too tough.
But my upcoming event requires a 4 a.m. alarm which seems so much worse than 5 a.m. I plan on starting my sleeping regimen for that day five days prior working my way up in 30 minute intervals. Extreme, you think? Not to me on the night before, when I can easily fall asleep at 8 p.m., have 8 hours of peaceful rest before a 18 hour day leading production, staff, volunteers and attendees.
Don’t underestimate the power of sleep! If you have any other tricks (chamomile tea, anyone?), I’d love to hear them before I start my regimen!