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Success Story:

As director of marketing strategy at Social Driver, a digital agency that builds social-fueled strategy solutions for clients, Emily Rasowsky is making waves in the marketing industry. She also founded the Women in Tech campaign, which aims to redefine women in technology through the use of storytelling and events.

Sleep Strategy: Find your boundaries

“I’m one of those people who needs seven to eight hours of sleep or I just can’t function,” Rasowsky says. She admits that adopting good sleep habits can seem next to impossible for millennials -- and that’s why it’s all the more important to be vigilant about it, she says. “Millennials have a go-getter attitude; we push ourselves and we lay it all on the line at work,” she says. “You have to check yourself first and make sure you get what you need, and then you can really nail it [during the day]. We’re going to burn out so much quicker [if we don’t], and that’s not good for anybody.”

Her trick to achieving both professional and bedtime success is to set boundaries: Rasowsky unplugs an hour or 30 minutes before bed to prevent herself from doing work, communicating the hours that she’s accessible to her co-workers and encouraging her team to do the same. That way they can all arrive at the office rested and ready to tackle their next challenge.

“Over time, I’ve had to learn the hard way that if I don’t get the hours of sleep that I need and don’t refresh and reset, I’m so much less productive and my work is lower quality,” Rasowsky explains. “About a year and a half ago, I felt spread thin because I wasn’t being honest with myself about when I needed to sleep. I hit a wall -- just internal exhaustion. [To start] taking care of myself better, I started small. I went to sleep 15 minutes earlier for a week, and then five minutes earlier the next week.”

Setting up the right environment for yourself to usher in much-needed shut-eye is just as crucial, she says. “Having a comfortable bed is important, and keeping the lights dim for the last hour so that I’m awake at night helps a lot.” And don’t be afraid to start small; even the littlest changes can give you major benefits in the long run.