The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Perfect Evening Routine

How to change an evening routine

Whether you officially have an evening routine or not, you have habits you do before you go to bed. That may entail binge watching your favorite show on Netflix, scrolling endlessly on your social media or even partying. Before you say, “I can’t help it, it’s what I do.” I want to empower you: you are in charge of your time and your life. You have the ability to change your habits and create a healthy evening routine.

I’m not saying that it will be effortless to change your habits, but the more you decide to enforce a new evening routine the more you’ll stick to them. After days you miss your routine, start over again the next day. One idea to adhere to the routine is to track your habits. I have a free printable goal planner with daily and night routine tracker to get you started.

Why evening routine matters

You may be asking, why does having an evening routine even matter? It matters because what you do in the evening directly affects your morning. If you stay up later than usual because you were on social media or binge-watching your favorite TV show on Amazon Prime, you will feel tired and groggy in the morning. As a result, it will affect your work and how you interact with the people you directly work with.  Your astute coworkers will observe your baggy under eyes and suggest you should get more sleep. Without a doubt, an evening routine is a foundation for the day ahead. When you set up a good habit the night before, you will have a more productive morning.

My current evening routine

Lately, I’ve been LOVING my evening routine. Not only does it help me get enough sleep, but I am loving all the things I do and use in the evening. The one main thing I incorporate to my evening routine was reading a fictional book. That book made me look forward to my evening was reading Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan! That’s how you can stick to an evening (or morning) routine — by doing things you love and enjoy. When you look forward to your routine, it makes you excited to do it!

At around 5pm, my husband and I go for a walk. This will take 10 minutes to an hour depending if he has any pressing deadlines. We check in with each other and talk about ideas or plans we’d like to do. Once we get home, usually around 6pm we both prepare and eat dinner. We’ve been eating a good amount of protein and adding more veggies into our meals. After dinner, this is around 6:30pm or 7pm, I examine and adjust my to-do list for the next day and finish my goals for the day. Next, we watch a few shows on Netflix (lately, we’ve been re-watching Friends). At around 9:30pm, I charge my laptop and phone in the living room then hit the shower and do my skincare. By 10pm, I’m in bed reading a fictional book until I fall asleep.

Here is how you can create your perfect evening routine

1. Envision your evening

Create a picture in your mind what your perfect evening looks like. Focus on how you want to feel at the end of your evening. Do you want to feel relaxed or feel productive?

One way to do this is to start backwards by looking at your morning. Calculate how many hours of sleep do you need to wake up in a good mood. Take notes on what you can prepare in the evening to cut hours off of your morning.

Another tip is mentally picture a terrible evening or morning you had. What happened? What activities (or people) do you need to avoid to protect your evening? Remember, you have the power to eliminate or add to the quality of your evening.

2. Create your task list

Jot down a list of things you want to accomplish for your evening routine. If you haven’t done an evening routine, I would suggest starting with a short list. You don’t want to be overwhelmed with all the things you need to do on your first run at this. When you have a good hold of it, you can add more to your list.

Ideas for your evening routine

• Tidy up the living room or kitchen
• Prep your lunch for the next day
• Read a fictional book to relax your mind
• Reflect and journal about your day
• Write down your to-do list for tomorrow
• Jot down 5-10 things you’re grateful for
• Eat a healthy dinner
• Take a bubble bath to signal your body that it’s time to wind down
• Drink Chamomile tea to improve sleep quality
• Take off your makeup and apply your night skincare

3. Determine how much time you want to dedicate

Now that you have a task list, set a time frame of how much time you want to allocate for each task. Be realistic on each task.

4. Do them

You can start tonight or set a date when you’d like to start with your routine. While you’re doing routine, be cognizant of how you feel about each task as you do them. Take mental note of what you like and what you don’t like.

5. Adjust as needed

At the end your first day or week, recall what your favorite parts about your routine and what you’d like to change. Try adjusting the time frame for a specific task or add more tasks if you need to challenge yourself.

Now what?

What happens after a few weeks or months of doing the routine? There are many Youtube videos where men and women are showing their routine that might inspire you to change up your routine. Or perhaps you’d like to improve your morning routine. Assess your goals and change your routine accordingly.

Let’s recap

• You are in charge of your evening. What you do in the evening directly affects your morning, work, and interactions with people.
• Include tasks that excite you because that’s how you’ll be able to stick to a routine.
• When creating your routine remember to envision your perfect evening, write down the tasks you’d like to accomplish, set time frame for each task, do your routine for a week, and adjust your tasks or time frame.

I want to hear from you!

How does your evening routine look like? What is the most difficult part about your routine?

Related blog posts:

• How to Change Your Habit with a Morning (or Evening) Routine
• 20 Ways to Always Have a Productive Morning
• 20 Ways to Always Have a Productive Evening