This was what did it for me as well. I was alone with my three kids (5,6 and 9) for half a year recently (wife went on a foreign student exchange program) and t

This was what did it for me as well. I was alone with my three kids (5,6 and 9) for half a year recently (wife went on a foreign student exchange program) and to prevent life from descending into chaos I established a pretty dictatorial parenting style. Kids were asleep by 8-9pm, and we had to be up at 7am to prevent our mornings from being stressful. I eventually discovered that I could make much better use of the day if I also went to sleep early and woke up about 5am to prepare the day or start working. These early hours were much so much more productive than the evening hours. I've tried to stick with this program, or at least a version of it, but ironically it's kind of harder now that there are two of us again.