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Last night, I began to read an excellent novel right before I went to bed. The plot twists! The engaging dialogue! The cliffhangers! It was a great read. But there was a problem. When I finally went to put the book down two hours later, I was completely wired, and nowhere near sleep. Needless to say, I wasn’t too productive the next day.

I always thought it was a good habit to read before bed. Was I wrong?

Kind of. I had failed to take my own advice — to do something mindless before bed — and had instead remained engaged in something that was mentally stimulating, instead of something that helped me wind down. Stress is stress, whether its source is work, or a fictional heroine who won’t leave her unfaithful husband. And that stress is responsible for 33% of adults losing sleep.

But my story shows that external stressors aren’t always to blame. Sometimes, our own routines are getting in the way of our productivity, especially when it comes time to settle in for the evening. It’s not easy, but with a little recognition and behavior modification, your bedtime routine can go from wrecking your work, to enhancing your productivity.

Bottom Line: You’re Not Sleeping Enough

As you may have guessed, we are faced with a sleep deprivation epidemic — 34.8% of U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended minimum of seven hours each night. And it’s getting expensive. In the U.S., the lack of productivity caused by sleep loss costs employers as much as $411 billion a year.

Less than seven hours in one night is what the CDC calls “short sleep,” which we’ll use throughout this post. Among such side effects as high blood pressure and diabetes, short sleep can also lead to “frequent mental distress.” In other words, it can really mess up our work and life in general.

On top of that, short sleep is linked to a higher probability of obesity, probably due to its correlation with poor eating habits. When you’re sleep deprived, you’re more likely to mindlessly eat or make less-than-healthy food choices. But we also eat poorly when we’re stressed, and when we’re stressed, we don’t sleep well. All of these behaviors are linked and, ultimately, are leading to this epidemic of exhaustion.

That network of cause-and-effect does more than illustrate that you’re probably not sleeping enough. It shows the complexity behind why you’re not sleeping enough, which is where your bedtime routine comes in. So let’s explore some of the “why”s. Once you’re aware of them, you can fix them.

6 Reasons Why Your Bedtime Routine Is Wrecking Your Work

1) You’re eating a bunch of crap (and probably too late in the day).

In addition to short sleep causing bad eating habits, the same thing works in reverse — diets high in saturated fat and carbohydrates, for example, have been linked to lower sleep quality. Plus, our tolerance for glucose decreases later in the day, so eating late a night can also throw off our circadian rhythm, the biological sleep-and-wake pattern of humans.

But willpower is hard — and as my colleague Mike Rehahan once wrote, it depletes as the day progresses, so the later it gets, the more tempted we are to indulge in comfort food that we don’t have to cook ourselves. After a long, tired day, it’s a recipe for disaster. You’re not just more likely to indulge. You also risk depriving yourself of quality sleep, creating a vicious cycle of exhaustion.

Here’s where planning ahead can tremendously help. When the weekend rolls around, all we really want to do is watch Netflix and shop online. But setting aside two hours on Sunday afternoon to cook meals for the week can help preserve your willpower on those late nights. But make sure you’re giving yourself the right kind of sustenance — check out my colleague Lindsay Kolowich’s tips on that.

2) Sleep isn’t in your schedule.

When our days are already so overbooked, it seems ridiculous to schedule something like sleeping. But it’s called a routine for a reason — “setting a pattern of going to bed at the same time each night and rising at the same time each morning,” according to the CDC, is key to sleeping well.

Not too long ago, I wrote about how I use a technique called time blocking and create calendar events for everything — getting dressed, working out, and feeding my dog. But when I realized that I was slipping into the bad habit of being liberal with my bedtime, I knew that I would need to schedule time to turn off my electronics, too.

When I asked my team to share the bedtime habits that mess with their productivity, Managing Editor Emma Brudner replied, “Falling into the rabbit hole of the internet for hours.” She’s not alone — I have a bad habit of turning a simple search for a carbonara recipe into an hours-long research session on the culinary arts. And when that happens, my desired bedtime falls to the wayside.

That said, too much screen time before has other impacts on sleep quality that we’ll discuss later. But scheduling a time to unplug can prevent those evening hours from wasting away. Depending on your bedtime, try programming a recurring calendar event to shut down two hours before you actually want to get to sleep for Monday through Wednesday. As it becomes habitual, start adding additional nights.

3) You’re planning your next work day at home.

I’m a big believer in the separation of home and office. Even when I work from my modest apartment, I have a special space set aside to attend to my tasks — every other area is an off-limits, no-work zone.

That accomplishes two things. First, it helps to keep certain distractions out of sight while I’m working. And when I’m not, having a something like a designated “weekend chair” keeps me from checking work email when I should be recharging — as 50% of us are wont to do.

That’s why I also believe that all work-related tasks, including planning for the next day, should be limited to designated work spaces only. Thinking about that seemingly endless schedule can cause some anxiety, which you don’t want to bring into a place that’s designated for personal time — especially at a time of day when you’re supposed to be winding down.

It might mean staying at the office a bit later, but planning your next day at a designated workspace can help maintain your home and sleeping areas as a stress-free sanctuary. Try it tonight — chances are, you’ll be glad you left your work at work.

4) You’re putting off morning stuff until the morning.

We know — when else would you do morning things?

But my colleague, Sophia Bernazzani, stresses the value of getting certain morning tasks done in advance, and she suggests taking “15 minutes to lay out your outfit, pack your lunch, and prep your coffee” the night before.

If you’re not a morning person, she explains, “decision making abilities are limited — so you should save them for work.” So completing these items ahead of time not only gives you the peace of mind of having them done — but also, it frees up a bit of time in the morning to sleep more, work out, or meditate, which is shown to lower stress levels by 31% and increase energy throughout the day by 28%.

5) You’re ignoring your tension.

We have instincts for a reason — we’re built to instinctively seek out the things that will help us survive. Those are represented in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which includes sleep at its baseline.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

When we ignore our instincts, things start to go haywire because we’re essentially fighting biology. And when we ignore our instinct to sleep — by reading “just one more” chapter, or watching “just one more” episode — it can lead to even more tension over the fact that we’re losing sleep.

It’s very meta, but stressing over a loss of sleep will only make you less likely to fall asleep, since — say it with me — stress causes sleep loss.

But when you can’t get that stress off your mind, write them down. It makes sense that journaling before bed has shown to improve sleep quality — it gives your troublesome thoughts somewhere else to “live,” rather than being mentally recycled when you’re trying to quiet your mind.

6) You’re looking at screens.

We’re starting to feel a bit like a bunch of broken records with this one — yes, we harp away about ditching the screens before bed. And yet, nearly half of us continue to use our smartphones before bed.

But if you’re getting as sick of reading about it as we are of nagging about it, here’s a quick rundown, courtesy of Harvard:

• Blue light is the kind emitted from most electronics.
• It’s often cited as the culprit for sleep loss, because it sends a signal to your brain that daylight is present.
• That — like so many of the behaviors we’ve listed here — causes disorder to your circadian rhythm. When your brain thinks there’s daylight, it also thinks it’s time to wake up, not go to bed.

Seriously. Put the screens away before bed.

And if you absolutely must look at your screen close to bedtime, consider investing in an app that will adjust its blue light depending on the time of day, like f.lux or PC Sun Screen.

Give It a Rest

Our cultural sleep deprivation might make things look a bit bleak. It’s causing us to be grossly underproductive, which is causing our collective employers to lose a lot of money. Not only that, but it’s making us sick.

But we hope this post emphasizes that it doesn’t have to be that way, and that our bad bedtime habits can be modified. Don’t try to tackle all of these things at once — start with the one that’s easiest for you to change, and once you master it, slowly work your way through the list.

Consider the fact that people who sleep six hours or less each night lose about six days worth of productivity each year. When you feel tempted to stay up late, ask yourself, “What could I do with six extra days?” Let yourself dream — it’ll be worth it.

What does your bedtime routine look like? Let us know in the comments.

This year will be an important one for ecommerce brands, hinging largely on one specific element — customer experience (CX).

According to Gartner data, 42% of CEOs say that better CX was “the key change that has driven more wins.” Furthermore, for 80% of B2B customers, CX is the biggest influencer in the decision to work with a certain vendor. And, Walker insights indicate that by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiators.

That data emphasizes the significance of CX, but what do online retailers really need to know about it? And with 89% of organizations competing on customer experience, what’s the best way to stand out?

In this post, we’ll explore those questions, and look at some examples of brands who already reap the benefits of building a strong online experience.

The Growth of Experience

To better understand why more brands are putting an emphasis on improving their CX, let’s discuss how it’s evolved. We’re already seeing CX come to the forefront in many different formats. For example:

• In 2014, Facebook bought virtual reality company Oculus for $2 billion in order to create new, more engaging experiences for its audience.
• Brands are seeing higher conversion rates by adding a seamless mobile checkout experience.
• Mindfulness is becoming increasingly important within leadership roles on every level, indicating that decisions are being evaluated differently than in the past. In fact, McKinsey cites observation of consumers as a crucial first step in creating better CX.

When we look at experience-related changes that are happening around us, the above examples are merely at the tip of the iceberg. But what we can glean from them is that online CX takes on much more importance than it has in the past — in fact, 76% of consumers say they view this experience as the true test of how much a company values them.

So what changes can be made in the ecommerce world to improve the overall experience? Let’s look at some examples from ecommerce brands who are stepping up their online CX, and find the elements of their successes that we can learn from.

How Brands Can Improve Online Experiences

1) Marucci Sports

The Takeaway: Emphasize the Story

We can take a page from the book of Marucci Sports, the brand that redesigned its site to be both story-centric and mobile-friendly. Using strong visuals and compelling copy — with responsive design — to highlight relationships with players, Marucci was able to increase mobile conversions by 50%.

2) Di Bruno Bros.

The Takeaway: Enable Exploration

We can also learn from food and beverage brand Di Bruno Bros. — and its site redesign — which put an emphasis on a discovery-based CX. With detailed product descriptions and strong visuals, the brand makes it easy for visitors to explore offerings and gather the information they need to make a purchase.

It worked. After these changes were implemented, Di Bruno Bros. more than doubled its average conversion rate and boosted online sales by 6.5%.

3) BOXHILL

The Takeaway: Showcase the Product (and Earn Press)

When BOXHILL revamped its logo, the team looked to implement a new site design that would accomplish two goals:

1. The logo was to appear front and center.
2. The new design needed to showcase the products, pushing more customers to conversion, rather than losing them on what was a confusing journey across the site.

The use of white space, a centered logo, and a more modern site experience increased conversion by 410%. Even better? The publications and vendors BOXHILL was working to secure became more inclined to include the brand in mentions and roundups. With the new site design, BOXHILL earned coveted spots on outlets relevant to its brand, like Goop and HGTV Garden.

4) Andreas Carter Sports

The Takeaway: Remembering to A/B Test

When Andreas Carter Sports relaunched its new site that was replete with a new look and feel, the brand saw nearly immediate results. That made sense — customers would now be able to immediately view products in all available colors, for example.

But the Andreas Carter Sports team knew that additional changes could even further boost success. One of the biggest long-term modifications tested was changing the “Add to Basket” button color from black to blue. It worked — during testing, that one change reduced abandoned carts by 50%, eventually leading to a change of the button color across the site.

5) Baby K’tan

The Takeaway: Learn From the Competition

Good site design isn’t created in a bubble. Online consumers grow used to certain functionalities — things like the “hamburger menu,” which you can read more about here. At first, it was only used on a few sites, but was eventually adopted by many as a mobile best practice.

In some cases, your cometition might provide a certain experience that people have gotten used to — but your site doesn’t provide that experience. In that case, it’s good to do research to figure out what your site might be missing, which is what baby carrier manufacturer Baby K’tan did.

“Our site was inspired by a few favorite websites which helped us decide on a desired layout, and by our brand culture which revolves around family and expressing a cheerful emotional connection,” Tali Zipper, Baby K’tan’s VP of Marketing told BigCommerce. “We wanted something that was colorful, with bright and joyful images as well as a clean and simple layout for easy navigation.”

With these changes, site traffic grew 116%, and the brand saw a 45% growth in revenue.

Prepare for the Rise of Ecommerce Experience

As mobile usage continues to rise — and begins to outpace desktop usage — customer experience will be the focus for many ecommerce retailers. But with the statistics and examples we’ve covered, you can start planning your own customer experience improvements.

Think about which areas or your online presence can be enhanced for your particular audience, and put together an experience strategy that takes it a step further — or better — than competitors.

And remember — observe your customers, imagining yourself in their respective places. What’s missing? What do you wish was there? Answer those questions, and you’ll be on your way to an action plan for CX that excels.

Digital marketing is undergoing a revolution.

Agencies have more granular insight than ever before into how their campaigns are performing. The days of selecting media channels based on broad demographic data and relying on generalized ad impression numbers are over.

Marketers can now target specific audiences across multiple devices and measure engagement on each touch point, building comprehensive roadmaps to conversion. They can confirm the right users are seeing digital ads and even serve websites that are customized to each user with dynamically generated content.

The best part is, every engagement can be mapped to its respective touch point and measured. This empowers agencies to become better strategic advisors in letting clients know exactly what’s working (and what isn’t).

The driving force behind this seismic shift is data — the collection of it, tools to analyze it, and automation algorithms that use it to capture and nurture the best leads.

But how should agencies approach this new flux of data? What should they specifically focus on, and what can they afford to ignore?

Crafting data-driven campaigns doesn’t have to be overly complicated or take months to implement. The foundation of a solid campaign that harnesses the power of data to reach the right audience can be built upon four primary tactics:

4 Data-Driven Ways to Create Better Targeted Ad Campaigns

1) Get Programmatic with Media Buying

The old methods of buying media have been upended. The days of reviewing spreadsheets, endlessly negotiating rates, and committing to inflexible long-term contracts that you are stuck with — even after it becomes obvious that they aren’t working — are over.

Programmatic buying is an automated method of purchasing digital media in real-time that is easily adjustable. That means if budgets change, if you want to test new messaging, or if placements aren’t producing good results, media buys can be changed or scaled instantly.

According to eMarketer, more than two thirds of all digital display advertising in 2016 will be purchased programmatically.

This process gives advertisers a direct avenue to be iterative with campaigns based on data received from first, second, and third party sources.

With access to enhanced data and the ability to implement changes based on what it reveals with no lead time, programmatic buying optimizes media placement quickly and gives advertisers the ability to make changes based on internal changes or external market forces immediately.

2) Verify the Right People are Seeing your Ads

Digital publishers and platforms have their own metrics for who views ads on specific channels, but the market changes quickly and the data they offer is not always accurate. If real prospects aren’t seeing your ads, then the money you spent placing them is a waste. It’s important to verify that the numbers and demographics you’ve been promised match the reality of what is delivered.

The best way to accomplish this is through third party ad verification — but if you aren’t ready to make this investment, you can confirm for yourself that the tools and tactics used by advertising partners are working as promised.

Ensuring users actually see the ads that have been served to them can get tricky. Some platforms still use the legacy “impressions served” model where you pay for each impression the moment the ad loads — but how do you know it was seen?

This can get especially complex when it comes to videos because not only do you have to consider how much of the player is in view, you also need to know how much of the video was seen.

Guidelines from the Media Rating Council count a video ad as viewed when at least 50 percent of the ad is visible for two consecutive seconds.

3) Personalize Websites with Dynamic Content

Your client’s website is made of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of unique visual elements — but there’s no reason they have to be presented the same way to every single visitor. They can, in fact, be customized to individual users based on what you know about them, providing the content that is most likely to be relevant to them first.

You already expect your advertising partners to understand web visitors and only serve your ad to relevant targets. You can use the same logic to create different versions of your site that are displayed for each unique visitor.

Use the data that you have about each user to customize the experience. It can come from browsing history, demographics, and your existing repository of consumer data. Even if you have no data available on a specific user, your website can make intelligent customizations based on navigation behaviors starting with the first click. This personalization ensures that every user has the most engaging experience and sees relevant offers that guide them through the conversion funnel.

4) Use People-Based Measurement to Track Multiple Devices

eMarketer estimates that mobile has already passed desktops as Google’s top device driver of ad revenues, but that doesn’t mean you can concentrate exclusively on mobile.

The modern buying journey is not always linear — consumers enter and exit the funnel at will on different devices. They will interact with brands multiple times on computers, smartphones, and tablets before converting, and they expect a consistent experience the entire way. The only way to provide this is to track relevant data about each consumer — and you can’t entirely accomplish this with device-specific technology like cookies.

Instead, people-based measurement uses unique identifiers that can track engagement across devices. This gives you the ability to measure ROI by channel, obtain accurate reach and frequency measurement, and even tie offline conversions to online interactions.

With so many touch points in today’s sales funnels, attributing conversion to the “last click” is no longer an effective measure to base decisions on. The right messaging at every point is vital to keeping consumers moving on their journeys and you must tie it all to conversion.

Your Campaign Shouldn’t Be a Shot in the Dark

Without the visibility of data-driven tactics, the customer journey is difficult to track, and attributing conversions to the right engagements is nearly impossible.

Using the correct information to advise media buying, messaging placement, website, and touch point mapping elevate all of your marketing campaigns from shots in the dark to highly targeted efforts with the power to right the course on any specific element that misses the mark the first time.

What data-driven tactics will your agency be focusing on in 2017? Let us know in the comments.