Climbing the ladder to success in life can be overwhelming and stressful. According to a recent 2017 stress research done by The American Institute of Stress, the number one reason that causes stress is job pressure.
Striving for a higher position, higher salary, starting a new business, or just getting on the good side of your boss is simply exhausting.
No matter how long or tiring the day felt, in the evening, all you wish you could do is order the takeaway and curl up on the couch with the latest Amazon Prime show you’re obsessed with.
Yes, it sounds awesome, and I must admit that I follow that routine every once in a while.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s healthy, and it definitely doesn’t mean you and I are walking toward success. Nope, sorry to disappoint you; this isn’t the perfect night-time routine for success.
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How To Have a Good Evening Routine For Success
The web is filled with suggestions on what to do with your mornings. I’ve been busy offering you my two cents as well with this post on a short morning routine before work or this creative morning routine here.
However, your morning and evening routines are equally important, so today, we talk about the best night-time habits you might want to adopt for successful and insanely productive days where you keep reaching for your goals.
Keep reading because I will also give you the secret 10 things you should totally exclude from your evenings if you ever want to develop a better life for yourself. But a bit more on this later.
What Should Your Night-Time Routine For Success Look Like
Before I proceed with my suggestions on evening habits for success, you want to know that what works for others might not work for you and vice versa. Your success depends on your focus and hard work every day, and the evening routine’s mission is to enhance those focus and productivity.
Take whatever you need from the suggestions below and tweak them according to your lifestyle and everyday needs.
With that said, let’s jump into the routine.
Clean up for 15-30 minutes
I know your idea of being successful includes having someone to clean your home (at least, that’s what it is to me), but we are still a few miles away from that point, and the house would need us a little longer.
Going around your room (or a flat/house) and making sure that everything is nice and tidy creates a different mindset and readiness for the next day.
When you wake up the next morning, you won’t be kicking your clothes on the floor or trying to prepare breakfast and realizing you have no clean knives to work with.
15-30 minutes (anything in between will do) are completely enough to get most of the things done (unless it’s your first cleaning for the year).
You could even make it fun by listening to a podcast you like or some cleaning playlist on Youtube. Using a timer will help you stick to the time frame you gave yourself (’cause ain’t nobody wants to clean longer than needed).
Go over the main goals for the next day
If you are truly striving for success, whether it’s at work or on your side hustle, staying present with your goals is as essential as having that job or side hustle in the first place.
Whatever your plan for the week, month, or year is, you want to have it written in your planner or a simple notebook and look at it every evening. Two reasons.
First of all, having those short evening briefs with yourself keep you focused on how far you’ve come with your goals. Underline whatever is next and tick off whatever is already done.
Second of all, if you are struggling with coming up with the best way to achieve your goals, going through them at the end of the day helps your brain focus on that task while you sleep. Yes, what I say is that your brain will literally do the work for you while you get your night’s rest.
“Sleeping on it” actually means that your brain uses all of the information you give to it during the day and categories and sorts it at night time. Until morning comes, your brain has already worked with all the information from the previous day and usually comes up with a few fresh ideas for you.
Therefore, going through your main goals for the next day also means that you give yourself time to develop creative and quick ways to achieve those goals.
Inside Of My Happiness Journal
Inside Of My Happiness | Journal for Living an Intentional Life
Scared of journaling?
Journaling has so many benefits, and you've always wanted to stick to it but never did. It looks and sounds complicated. You think that there are some rules you know nothing of and can't see the magic everyone talks of.
Inside of My Happiness is your go-to journal for the morning and the evening. Get inspired in the mornings, reflect on yourself in the evening. As simple as that.
Spend quality time with family
Becoming successful doesn’t mean you have to ignore the people who love you when you aren’t successful. Therefore, sparing some time to spend with them every evening is actually more beneficial than you could imagine.
Too often, my best ideas strike me while I am talking to my partner in the evenings. I would say something, he would ask a question, and I would suddenly see the problem from a completely different point of view. It is so refreshing and eye-opening.
We would also often play some games (he totally crushes me on Monopoly) and just be jamming to some awesome songs we stumbled upon earlier in the day.
Whatever your choice, make sure it is quality time where you actually interact with each other (watching a movie together is okay, but it isn’t the best quality time ever).
Read on a subject you care about
It isn’t a surprise that success comes once you become an expert in the field you want to succeed in. And how do you become an expert in anything? By constantly educating yourself, of course.
Warren Buffet spends 6 hours daily reading, and Bill Gates spends an hour reading real paperback books… You and I might never get to their level, but we could at least reach our best potential.
Reading and taking courses on blogging has helped me grow my business to an amazing level that supports my family (and a team of 3 more people who work with me).
Reading is good!
Listen to podcasts on a subject you care about
Alternatively, you could also spend some time listening to podcasts that further educate you and give you ideas regarding your dream life. Whether it’s an inspiring personal development podcast or related to your job, you want to spend 10-15 minutes soaking in new ideas and points of view.
Prepare your clothes for the next day
Unless you work from home (which means pajamas would do the job), you most likely have to dress up the next day. Prepare your clothes from the evening before as this will not only save you time but avoid decision fatigue too.
Every day we make thousands of choices (35 000 to be precise), and each one of them tires us more and more. Our best decisions are usually the ones in the morning, so why waste them contemplating which skirt or shirt to put on? Decide on that the evening before, iron whatever needs ironing, and choose the shoes too.
Skincare routine is a thing
Yes, looking after your skin in the evenings is so important, and you know it. All you have to do is stop avoiding it. Cleanse your face, moisturize it with your serums and night cream, brush your hair, put on body cream/butter, and make sure your manicure is just fine. The last thing you need in the morning is to fix your broken nails.
Stretch
Light stretches or bedtime yoga are the best way to prepare your body (and mind) for relaxation. You’ve already been rushing through the day; your body’s tensed and stressed. Giving your muscles extra care in the evening will be so soothing and pleasurable.
Journal
This might be one of my favorite things to do in the evenings. Journaling helps you relieve whatever made you sad, frustrated, and happy throughout the day. Putting words onto paper is so cleansing (just as your skincare).
You could do just freewriting, expand on a problem you are trying to solve, or write down an inspiring quote. Whatever suits you – it’s your evening journal time.
Inside Of My Happiness Journal
Inside Of My Happiness | Journal for Living an Intentional Life
Scared of journaling?
Journaling has so many benefits, and you've always wanted to stick to it but never did. It looks and sounds complicated. You think that there are some rules you know nothing of and can't see the magic everyone talks of.
Inside of My Happiness is your go-to journal for the morning and the evening. Get inspired in the mornings, reflect on yourself in the evening. As simple as that.
Gratitude journaling
I can’t skip on this one. It’s my most favorite time of every evening – writing down whatever I am grateful for on that day.
Gratitude helps you focus on the positive. You also attract more of that goodness into your life by expressing thankfulness and showing appreciation for events, people, and realizations throughout the day.
There are so many ways to practice gratitude, and journaling is just one of them. You could create a list on your phone with things you are grateful for, or you could fill your gratitude jar (I have the perfect fillable pdf gratitude jar for you here). You could also list them silently in your mind or say them as a part of your evening prayer.
Do whatever works for you.
Tell someone, “Good night!”
In a world that slowly pushes us toward separation from one another, it might be hard to feel close to another human being (in any way). However, just because it’s modern to think about ourselves a lot doesn’t mean we should do it.
Even if you live alone, find someone to tell “I love you!” or “Good night!” every evening. It could be a parent, your siblings, your cousin, your best friend, or your dog… Keep those connections close to you, and don’t let society create that distance from others in your heart.
10 Things You Should Never Do as Part of Your Night-Time Routine For Success
After mentioning all the good ways to spend your evening, let’s talk about some really self-sabotaging evening habits you want to ban from your life.
Food
Okay, I know I exaggerate on this one (like a lot)! But I got your attention, and I bet you know what type of food I mean. It’s all the fatty, oily, heavy food you love stuffing yourself with (I do too). It doesn’t give you any nutrition and, on top of that, gives your digestion a hard time.
If your tummy is busy processing low-quality food, your sleep will be affected even if you do everything from the checklist above.
Also, keep a minimum of two hours gap between your dinner and bedtime. If you are starving, grab a fruit or some nuts, but not that cheesy chewy piece of pizza that winks at you from the top shelf in the fridge.
No Alcohol
No-brainer, I understand that. A glass of wine sounds like the ultimate evening routine for success and good sleep… not!
While it’s okay to have a glass of wine now and then, drinking before going to sleep (especially if you don’t supplement with more water) will dehydrate you and affect your sleep quality.
No social media
I promise I don’t hate you! Social media isn’t the best choice for a peaceful night-time routine for success. In fact, watching how others live their life give you more things to keep you up late at night. And let’s not mention the blue light from the phone that also lowers the hours and the quality of your night rest (proven!)
No important conversations
Solving the financial crisis from the comfort of your bed is fine. Starting a serious conversation about where your relationship is going isn’t fine at all. If you ever want to sleep well, don’t start important discussions at 9 p.m.
No work
If you are an entrepreneur or work in a highly stressful and busy position, it might be tempting to bring work with you to bed.
While ticking off some tasks from your to-do list for the next day sounds tempting, especially if you know they’ll take you “just a few minutes”.
However, your evenings are for relaxation, re-charing, and preparing for success. You build that success not just by choosing your work but also by choosing when NOT to work. And the last half an hour before you go to sleep isn’t work time.
No sweets, sugar or chocolate
I took away everything precious from you already, so let’s continue with chocolate and yummy sweets too. Sugar could keep you up until late at night, and if you manage to fall asleep finally, you will most likely wake up a few times throughout the night.
Suppose you have a sugar craving, go for an apple or banana. It doesn’t sound as tempting as dark chocolate, but it’s healthier, and the chocolate will still wait for you in the morning after you’ve had your portion of sound sleep.
No exercising
If you are anything like me, you most likely don’t even think of exercising in the evening time. However, if you are active and love squeezing some leg-work in the evenings, be aware that this affects the quality of your sleep— opt-in for light stretches or yoga.
Starting a new Netflix show
You know exactly what I’m talking about. Starting a new show means you will get hooked and want to watch another episode or two (or three…). That will totally ruin the rest of your evening routine and keep you up late.
Emails
They deserve their own spot on this list of things you should never do as part of your evening routine. Emails stare at you from the notification box. They call your name, and you could almost feel the physical pressure to open your and see what was happening.
Log out of your email the moment you decide to relax for the evening. Those emails will still wait for you the next morning.
Going to bed at different times
You truly know your sleep is quality once you start going to bed and waking up at the same time. As long as your sleep time fluctuates, you will wake up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and annoyed at the world. Trust me; I wrote this post on a day when I woke up later than I should’ve, and the level of sarcasm is over the roof.
Before you continue reading this awesome post, why not consider taking on the fulfilling journey of self-care? Sign up for my 5-day self-care email challenge by clicking here or the button on the image below. Discover what self-care truly means and learn how to make the most out of it.
Conclusion on Best Night-Time Routine For Success
Avoiding whatever brings fatigue and drowsiness and focusing on relaxation and re-charging is truly all you need to build the evening routine that leads you to success. Which ones of these evening habits above do you practice, and which ones avid at any cost?
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Best Night-Time Routine For Success
Blogger, dreamer, procrastinator, and lover of everything soul-touching. My mission is to make you laugh, provoke your thoughts, light up your day and inspire you to fall in love with life and yourself.
