Earlier this year, during Blogmas 2017, I spoke about a post I wrote called “My 2017 Ideal Morning Routine“.
It didn’t end very well however, during that reflection, I came to the conclusion that, the reason might be because, my evening routine is so out of whack.
For example, I do attempt to go to sleep at a reasonable hour however, I’m usually wide-awake either doing something (Hello from England, currently writing at 11:10pm) or laying in bed, trying my hardest to sleep with no avail.
So I’ve decided that, before I can improve my morning routine, I need to improve my evening.
Here’s the issue:
I usually finish work around 6pm. When I get home, I have dinner; mess about on YouTube, either film a video or watch them; perhaps write a blog post and do some writing, or I’ll sit and read. This part can go on until near 1am, at which point I’ll shower and go to bed.
The near 1am thing is clearly an issue. Sometimes I’ll attempt to go to sleep earlier however, usually if I try to sleep before I’m tired I don’t sleep at all. It’s frustrating.
Here’s the plan:
Finish work around 6pm.
Go to the gym for an hour. Sitting around the office isn’t helping to wear me out to sleep at night, plus it has the added bonus of actually being good for my overall health. I usually get really into this at the beginning of the year but doesn’t last that long.
Come home and have dinner.
Either film a video, edit a video or watch YouTube for 1 hour. This should potentially take me until approximately 9pm. This may mean that filming and editing will take place over two days, because importing sucks. (Let’s be frank!)
Shower.
Then get a chamomile tea or green tea (plus some water) and read for an hour, no electronics! Set alarm beforehand.
Hopefully be in bed by 11pm.
8 hours sleep should take me to 7am. My goal for the future is to wake up and get to work early, so that I have the option to leave earlier than 6pm. Which will hopefully improve the quality of my evenings.
Some might ask “What’s the point in this?” As I’ve mentioned, I did a morning version of this last year which gave me the opportunity to reflect. Next year I will do the same.
This clearly doesn’t account for nights out with friends, or down the pub. But I’ll take that as it comes, because I’d miss that too much.
What do you guys like to do to wind down in the evenings? Clearly I need some tips!
Good luck with this! I often find that a shower or bath right before I go to bed wakes me up again, so maybe your new plan will help – and no screen time to keep your brain wide awake! It’s a tough one though!
Thanks so much!
I think no screens will be the tough one. I find that if I’m awake anyway my brain asks all sorts of questions that, for some bizarre reason, I absolutely must know the answer to that second. Plus I think it’s just boredom of laying there, wide-awake with nothing to do
We shall see, fingers crossed! ?
I know that feeling!