Hasta La Gadget!

I go offline from 8pm – 8am every day.

This means that I disconnect from email, social media, and internet for 12 consecutive hours each day.

This habit initially started with avoiding email first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, based on advice from from Tim Ferriss in the The 4-Hour Workweek. He said that one simple change would be a life-changer, and it has been for me.

I then extended to a full digital detox for 12 straight hours — including about eight hours of sleep and two hours immediately after waking and two hours just before going to sleep — after reading the book The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.

I have been able to stick with this “12-on, 12-off” approach for the last several years and find that it greatly increases my overall productivity and peace of mind.

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Disconnecting for 12 straight hours isn’t as hard or extreme as it might sound.

Roughly eight of these hours are spent sleeping, which I now prioritize based on sleep’s proven health benefits. I keep my phone on airplane mode during this time to prevent unwanted disturbances (I can be reached on my land line in case of emergency). I have personally found the ideal sleep hours to be 10pm – 6am (or 5:30am depending on the morning), in order to maximize my mornings and evenings while still getting enough rest.

Upon waking, I like to start the day with 10 minutes of meditation, 30 minutes of exercise (usually running outside), and then enjoy a cup of coffee while getting ready for work, followed by breakfast with my family.

This morning routine puts me in the right frame of mind to tackle the rest of the day and be “all in” at work. I also find that many of my work breakthroughs or ‘aha’ moments come during these pre-online morning hours. All of this would be derailed if I checked email or went down the rabbit hole of social media first thing in the morning.

I try to keep my work day to 9 hours (10 at most) because productivity has been shown to go down dramatically after that point, and I can feel this dropoff. I also find that setting hard office hours forces me to get my work done in that amount of time, much like a work deadline does. Getting home by 6 or 6:30pm (most of the time) enables me to spend time with my family, eat dinner, and then do a last check of email if necessary.

I then like to spend the last 1–2 hours before bed offline, taking care of personal items, hanging with family, and relaxing after the long day (which for me includes reading, writing, enjoying a glass of wine, or watching TV).

Checking email too close to bed makes my mind race with all of the things I need to do, making it very challenging to fall asleep. I am better prepared to read and respond to those emails the following day when I have the time and am well-rested.

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All of this means that I am offline for 12 hours per day — from about 8pm – 8am (this window can shift up or back by 30 minutes on any given day). I also try to avoid email and social media for one day each weekend.

Keeping this schedule enables me to prioritize the things that are most important in my life — my family, my health, and my work. If I was always connected and attached to my phone or computer, I am sure that each of those three buckets would suffer.

Your schedule likely looks a bit different than mine, and that is to be expected. This is not a prescription for exactly how you should structure your time, or intended to be a one-size-fits-all approach. You should find the routine that works best for you. But I do believe that we all need enough time offline to gain perspective and make time for the things that truly matter.

I have found that balancing my online and offline time helps me to achieve balance in my life overall.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his e-mail list at andrewmerle.com and follow him on Twitter.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump recently dismissed what he called “the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days,” even as the White House issued a press release Tuesday touting his executive actions and the absurd claim he had “accomplished more in his first 100 days than any other President since Franklin Roosevelt.”

Trump has in reality had a poor start compared to recent predecessors. He has signed no landmark bills into law, despite his party’s full control of Congress, and he failed to fulfill a 100-day score card he signed during the campaign.

But Trump is right about the arbitrary nature of the milestone.

“It is a totally artificial measure,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University. “Some presidents are good in the first 100 days. FDR was the best. Some don’t get a lot of legislation, and Trump will be the one people point to. But it doesn’t indicate what will happen next or what will be successful. There is plenty of time to get things done.”

Indeed, while pundits place a lot of emphasis on the start of a presidential term as an indicator of its success, often the next 100 days (and the 100 days after that) are filled with as many, if not more, accomplishments.

Barack Obama, for example, notched some notable legislative wins early on: the massive fiscal stimulus package and the Lilly Ledbetter Act, to name two. But his landmark health care legislation didn’t become law until 14 months into his presidency.

Bill Clinton’s presidency, by contrast, had a rough start. While he managed to get a budget through Congress, he suffered many missteps, including a faltering search for an attorney general and a failed effort to pass a stimulus package. Ultimately, he was able to right his presidency and win a second term.

“He ended up being re-elected and being very popular,” Zelizer said. “I think it is a mistake to think because [a president’s first 100 days] didn’t have a lot of legislation that you might not have it down the road.”

Clinton, of course, would have preferred that things had gone differently in those early months. His 1993 budget and the passage of the assault weapons ban as part of the 1994 crime bill are largely cited as major factors in the Democratic Party’s massive midterm election losses. But this also illustrates how administrations aren’t truly shaped by their first 100 days. Governance ― including matters of immense political consequence ― often happens afterward.

Here are some notable examples of previous administrations’ major accomplishments beyond the first 100 days:

Barack Obama

May 20 –  Obama signed into law the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 and the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, two measures focused on reforming the housing finance system after the 2008 recession.

May 26 – Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the first justice of Hispanic heritage.

June 4 – Obama gave a major speech in Cairo, in an attempt to repair U.S. standing abroad.

June 17 – Obama signed a memorandum extending certain benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.

June 26 – Obama signed the “Cash-for-Clunkers” bill into law.

George W. Bush

June 7 – Bush signed a legislative tax cut of $1.35 trillion over 10 years.

July 12 – Bush unveiled his plan to enable seniors to buy prescription drugs at reduced prices.

August 1 – House voted to approve a Bush-backed ban on human cloning.

August 9 – Bush signed an executive order allowing limited stem cell research.

Bill Clinton

May 20 – Clinton signed into law the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, otherwise known as the “Motor Voter” law, which made it easier for millions of Americans to register to vote by allowing registration at the same time they get a driver’s license.

August 10 – Senate narrowly approved Clinton’s deficit reduction plan, which slashed the deficit in half. It also extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by three years.

August 10 – Congress approved an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, giving a tax cut to 15 million of the neediest American workers.

August 10 – Clinton created nine “empowerment zones” to spur local community planning and to encourage private investment in distressed communities.

August 10 – Clinton unveiled his childhood immunization initiative, designed to ensure that all children in the U.S. receive vaccinations.

George H.W. Bush

June 5 – Bush suspended the sale of American weapons to China following the Tiananmen Square massacre.

August 9 – Bush signed into law the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, providing billions of dollars to prop up troubled savings and loans institutions.

Ronald Reagan

July 1 – Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court, the first woman justice to be named to the court.

August 4 – Congress passed Reagan’s tax cut bill, slashing rates by 25 percent over three years.

August 5 – Reagan signed an executive order that began firing more than 11,000 striking air-traffic controllers who were in violation of his order to return to work.

Jimmy Carter

August 4 – Carter established the Department of Energy.

Richard Nixon

July 20 – Nixon made the longest distance phone call in history to astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon.

July 25 – Nixon announced the Nixon Doctrine (also known as the Guam Doctrine), which maintained that the U.S. would support its friends and allies with economic and military aid rather than with ground troops.

Lyndon Johnson

July 2 – Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

John F. Kennedy

May 25 –  Kennedy gave a speech before a joint session of Congress in which he challenged America to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

Dwight Eisenhower

July 27 – Eisenhower fulfilled a campaign promise, negotiating an end to hostilities in the Korean War and establishing the 38th Parallel as the boundary between North and South Korea.

Harry Truman

August 15 – Japan surrendered, ending World War II.

September 2 – The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was officially signed in Tokyo.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Members of the international community pledged to meet just over half of the United Nations’ $2.1 billion appeal to support crisis-afflicted Yemenis at a summit in Geneva on Tuesday, which U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres declared a “remarkable success.”

He thanked donors for “generosity and solidarity” to help those affected by the two-year conflict in Yemen, where extreme violence between Saudi-led coalition forces and Houthi rebels has triggered mass displacement and one of the world’s most dire food crises.

But humanitarian workers issued swift reminders that while $1.1 billion in promised funds will “mean the difference between life and death for millions of people,” millions more will remain without desperately needed aid.

“Donors are leaving Geneva without having committed enough funding to meet the needs of just the 12 million most vulnerable” Yemenis, said Mutasim Hamdan, Yemen country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “I fail to grasp how the international community can see this crisis unfold without doing its outmost to limit the suffering that Yemenis are facing.” 

Of Yemen’s approximate 27 million citizens, a staggering 19 million are in need of humanitarian assistance ― including 17 million who don’t have enough food to eat. Desperate circumstances have forced families to resort to extreme survival measures, sometimes sending girls into early marriages and boys into combat.

More than 2 million children in the war-torn country are malnourished, and some 500,000 could starve to death without imminent treatment. As Guterres noted at the summit, a Yemeni child under the age of 5 dies from preventable causes every 10 minutes.

“With the [funding pledges] realized today, at least the U.N. and UNICEF would be able to respond to the most urgent needs,” Bismarck Swangin, UNICEF Yemen communication specialist, told HuffPost. However, he added, “We are asking the world to fiscally provide the needed resources for us to save lives. Until we’re able to get that full amount, any amount is definitely less than our expectations from the international community.”

Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, issued a grim statement Tuesday, describing the severity of the crisis in stark terms: “Without further action from parties to the conflict and the international community, Yemen is at a serious risk of plunging into famine,” he said. “We are in a race against time.”

Swangin further stressed that the country’s rapid deterioration highlights the urgency for an immediate escalated response.

“The summit today will make a difference and will save children’s lives if we’re able to get the funds that have been raised as soon as possible,” he said. “Pledges are good, but money is better.”

Swangin echoed Guterres’ warning that “funding alone will not reverse the fortunes of millions of people in Yemen,” asserting that humanitarian access and a cessation of violence are also essential.

“The parties to the conflict on the ground must allow for unimpeded access to all parts of the country,” Swangin said. Additionally, “we need hostilities to cease so that displaced families scattered across the country are able to come out to points where they can receive medication and food.”

Anxiety is growing over increased tensions and reports of a looming military offensive by the Saudi-led coalition in the city of Hodeidah. Located along the western border with the Red Sea, Hodeidah is a crucial port for humanitarian supplies transported from Djibouti, and nearly 80 percent of food imports.

“The Hodeidah port is a critical lifeline,” David Beasley, executive director of the U.N.’s World Food Programme, said at the summit in Geneva. “Any disruption to the port would gravely hamper efforts to prevent famine.” 

When asked about the complicity of major donors that have supplied arms to warring parties in Yemen, Guterres reportedly responded: “The day in which there are no weapons sold to any warring parties anywhere in the world, it would be very difficult for war to take place.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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