Let’s talk about something that we easily overlook—our evening routine.
Often we don’t give the same amount of focus to maintaining a strong evening routine as we do our morning routine. But when you don’t have a strong evening routine, it affects your next day and how you begin your morning routine.
I thought I would share with you what I do each evening to set myself up for success the next day. Now, to be candid, I don’t always stick to all of it, but I try to hit many of the things on the list consistently.
For me, the biggest challenge in hitting a consistently strong evening routine is that I don’t always turn off or end the work day when I should.
At the time of this writing, I’m single with no kids. I run four different businesses, so the demands on my time are great. I often stay and work at the office until nine or ten, sometimes even eleven or twelve at night.
I’ve been trying to turn off by 8:00PM at the latest, review the day and plan the next, to work on what I call “a day’s plan”.
I plan out my weekly priorities for each of my businesses. I choose two or three things I must get done. As well as manage my time blocks, which is writing down major priorities for the next day.
Spend 10 or 15 minutes on this.
Then I usually go out to dinner with a friend, colleague or by myself. More and more, I am trying to eat a healthy dinner at home.
Now, I’m not a great cook, nor do I have the patience or the interest in cooking prep and clean up, so I hired a part-time Personal Assistant / Cook / Housekeeper. It’s a great way for me to leverage someone else’s expertise to simplify, automate and manage a lot of the domestic and household things that I’m not good at and don’t really have time for.
As a result, I’m not eating out for every meal. Not only am I saving money, but I’m also managing what’s going into my body better by eating salads, protein smoothies and healthy wraps during the week.
I know that if these healthy lifestyle management habits are taken care of, I can focus on what I’m best at—managing and growing my businesses.
The next thing I like to do in my evening routine is have a block for personal reading and project time, which is usually from eight until nine or nine-thirty. I’ll read a book, maybe make a journal entry, or work on something of a personal nature.
Next, I’ll do a quick two to three minute habit and routine review for the day. I have a spreadsheet that I use for my eleven things that I like to accomplish each day.
I make sure to put a check mark next to the ones I’ve done. Then I add up the checkmarks for a daily score; trying to hit at least nine out of eleven for each day signifies a good day.
Some of the actions on that daily habit tracker are exercise, meditate, read the news or my book for forty-five minutes to an hour, take my vitamins, drink five glasses of water, avoid negativity, follow my schedule for the day, achieve my goals for the day and engage my evening routine.
I might make a couple of personal phone calls to family or friends. I try to be in bed by eleven. Unfortunately, sometimes I’ll get to bed closer to midnight, and that’s really not enough sleep for me.
I try to optimize by tracking and measuring my sleep.
That’s a huge area of health and personal management that is often overlooked—quality and length of sleep time.
Everybody needs a certain amount of sleep for the body and mind to rest and feel rejuvenated and recharged for the new day. Some people only need 5 hours of sleep, while other people need 8 hours of sleep.
One way to help sleep is meditation or mindfulness practice at the end of the day.
I also try to do no coffee or caffeine after 4 p.m. I used to have coffee late, like an espresso after dinner. But that just kept my mind racing and didn’t allow me to get into a deep sleep.
I track my sleep with two different technologies. One is the Oura ring. It’s a waterproof, fashionable ring with sensors that tracks all of your physiological body signs. Body temperature, heart rate, number of times you wake up, breathing, how long you sleep and how deep you sleep.
It’s all tracked in the cloud with a nice app. A report is sent in the morning so you can see how you slept the prior night.
I also have a great memory foam mattress that’s supportive and Alexa-enabled to heat and cool. I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty sweet! It was a larger investment, but when you can talk to your mattress and tell it to warm up before you get in bed—and then it tracks your entire sleep pattern and sends you a report on how to maximize and improve—that’s next generation!
So that’s my evening routine. I don’t hit 100% of the time, but if I’m hitting it at 80%, I know I’m doing pretty well.
I get ahead of the game by ending the day strong, so I can have an even stronger next day.
What’s your evening routine?
Let’s GO!
Power Quote
“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” — Mike Murdock
Key Insight
Often we don’t give the same amount of focus to maintaining a strong evening routine as we do our morning routine. But when you don’t have a strong evening routine, it affects your next day and how you begin your morning routine.
Tactical Tip
Take a minute to write a list of things you would like to do in your evening routine. Keep it simple and start implementing it this evening.
Day Check
How did your new evening routine go? Did you accomplish at least half of what you wanted to get done today? What do you need to adjust for tomorrow evening?