Looking for an evening routine for success? There are a lot of different things you can do in the evening that can help set you up for a positive and productive day, and sometimes it’s difficult to know what’s the best thing to do. Should you spend your evening on self-care? Do an intense workout? Set yourself up for success with some serious planning?
Well, in the spirit of trying different evening routines – I decided to try three popular night-time routines and see how they affected my days. There’s got to be some science behind it right? So let’s see, which of these three evening routines is best for a productive day!
1. The technology ban
Most websites, blogs, newspapers, hell even TV shows talk about the beauty of turning off your tech when you get home and refusing to turn it back on for the entire evening. Just the thought alone fills me with anxiety. Most agree that an evening routine for success begins with a technology ban…so I had to dive in and try it.
It was actually so refreshing to leave my phone, laptop, and the internet for an entire evening. Instead I finally got through my book club books, (I’m still behind!), did some yoga and weights, prepared my meal rather than shoving something in the oven and started working on my novel. I was actually amazed by how much time I had in my evening. I genuinely waste so much time on TikTok, that when technology is banned I get so much more done.
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2. The happiness routine
Gratitude will improve your life. It’s the process of rewiring your brain to see positives everywhere, to start rewriting the chaos of the day as a positive, happy experience. I’ve heard about the power of gratitude, but I’ve never really practiced it. I try to remind myself to be thankful for my house, my career, my cats, my fiancé, but it’s hard when you get easily washed over with negatives. You can easily do this with the 365 Days Of Gratitude Journal.
To begin with, I wrote down simple things, but after a day or two, I realized how easy it was to be really grateful, for everything from little moments to big life-turning events. Gratitude, it turns out, can really change your mood. I was waking up and not feeling tired, feeling super ready to smash the day, proud of myself and my work and ready to get stuff done. I’m sure that was all due to the gratitude I’d been practicing in the evening – and it reminded me to call my family more and try to spend time with them as much as I can. Because I really am grateful for them, even the ones I don’t see that often.
3. Benjamin Franklin’s routine
Benjamin Franklin’s daily routine always ended with putting things in their places and examining the day. Plenty of people have followed his daily routine over the years.
It was pretty eye-opening to actually review my day. I took my Getting Stuff Done planner and I made a plan for tomorrow that counterbalanced these things, first I wrote down yoga in my self-care section, next I kept an eye on my meal plan and tried to make sure that was balanced, and finally I moved my to-do list around so that lower intensity tasks sat between three and four.
I figured out how to improve my life by scrutinizing it. And I was pretty amazed. Examining the day does work if you let yourself look for patterns and improve them, if there’s an evening routine for success, starting with looking into your day is definitely a step in the right direction.
