9 Life-Changing Evening Routines You Need to Consider

Sometimes, I wonder why there is no well-known bestselling book about evening routines yet.

Most people know Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod or Robin Sharma’s 5 AM Club, yet, even though I average reading one book per week, I haven’t come across a book explaining the power of evening routines thus far.

That’s a pity because our evenings are at least as important as our mornings.

A proper evening routine can set the tone for a successful day and help you in staying calm, productive, and effective.

Whenever I lose control throughout my evenings and go to bed stressed and imbalanced, I find it hard to start the next day productively, which often results in a whole ineffective day.

It’s so much easier to stay energized and productive when you create the right environment and routines that empower you.

Here are my favorite bedtime habits and how you can easily implement them:

1. Create a to-do list for the next day

Sound too cliché? It isn’t.

Preparing your to-do list on the night before can level-up your life tremendously. This might sound too simple if you’re already into it, yet, I know many people who start their days by preparing the daily to-do list, that’s just ineffective.

Too often, we spend our evenings worrying about the next day. We think of all the stuff we need to get done and stress ourselves before the day even starts.

Therefore, writing down all your tasks for the next day can lead to great relief.

Once you’ve written your tasks down, you don’t have to think about them anymore. You can trust your piece of paper, your notebook, or your digital task management system and enjoy the rest of your evening in peace.

If you don’t have a proper system for organizing your to-do’s yet, I can highly recommend the Ivy Lee Method.

The simplicity and effectivity of this system will surely fascinate you. Even though I am into productivity and peak performance for a long time, the Ivy Lee method helped me to uplevel my own efficiency tremendously.

If you feel like you need more tips on productivity, make sure to check out some of Jari Roomer’s amazing postings.

2. Reflect on your day

While we sleep, our brains process all the data we consumed throughout the whole day.

As you can imagine, that’s tough. It’s exhausting. And even though it helps us to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, it doesn’t help much when it comes to our emotions.

Therefore, a daily reflection is incredibly powerful.

Only through self-reflection, can we understand ourselves and create a truly fulfilling life.

“We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.”

— John Dewey

I often combine this daily reflection session with my journaling practice. I grab my calendar, my journal, and a pen, and have a look at how the day went.

I look at my achievements and my mistakes. I reflect on the things I’m most proud of and what I could’ve done better.

There is no right or wrong. Self-reflection looks different for everyone.

Wait, there’s indeed one rule: Honesty.

You need to be shamelessly honest to yourself. Self-reflection can hurt. It can go deep and make you feel bad so that you can come back even stronger.

3. Calm your mind and let go of negativity

Let’s admit: we all face negativity throughout our days.

Even if you are an unbroken optimist, you’ll come across annoying people.

And that’s okay.

What’s not okay, however, is letting this negativity get over you. At the latest in the evening, you should let go of all the negative feelings you had throughout your day and calm your mind.

One of the most effective strategies to ensure a calm mind is a meditation.

Even a five-minute guided meditation can help you to release tension and let go of negativity.

Another helpful strategy I often apply is journaling.

Sometimes, I am too angry to meditate. In that case, I simply write down everything that crosses my mind. By doing so, I release it and let go of the tension.

If you want to go one step further, you can write all your anger down on a piece of paper and then burn it down. Literally, burn the piece of paper. By doing so, you physically let go of the problem.

4. Visualize your next successful day

For me, visualization is one of the absolute must-have practices for a powerful day.

Most people are visual learners. Therefore, the power of vision boards and a visualization exercise is indisputable.

I love closing my eyes and going through my next, successful day in imagination. It helps me to focus on the positive, get clear about my intentions, and gain a lot of energy.

Visualizing your day is especially powerful if you prepare your to-do list and all of your appointments in advance so that you can literally go through your next day in imagination.

This will help you to stay calm and focused for the whole next day as you already have a good picture of the day in mind.

5. Don’t eat two hours before going to bed

Eating right before going to bed, especially carb-loaded and fatty meals, will tremendously harm the quality of your sleep.

And as you might imagine, a night of poor sleep hardly results in a successful day.

Besides, eating late can lead to inflammation and impairments in blood sugar regulation as well as weight gain and elevated triglycerides and cholesterol levels.

You see, there is no positive reason to eat your last meal close to bedtime.

Whenever it’s possible, avoid eating late at night. Your sleep, your body, and your performance will reward you for doing so.

Instead, you can drink teas that help to sleep better, for example, chamomile tea, which is known for its antidepressant qualities or lavender tea, which reduces stress and anxiety.

6. Avoid your phone

There are a few good reasons to avoid spending too much time on your phone before bedtime.

First of all, our screens emit blue light, which harms the production of the sleep hormone, melatonin, thus, resulting in poor quality sleep.

Other than that, looking at our phones often end up in a social media marathon scrolling through other people’s faked Instagram pictures.

You don’t need that. You are worth more than that.

Don’t spend your precious time and energy scrolling through others’ pictures.

Instead, focus on creating a great life yourself.

Another major mistake many people make is answering emails or checking other work-related stuff on their phones until the minute they sleep in.

Let’s be honest: You don’t need to do that. Instead of taking your work to bed, focus on increasing your productivity throughout your day.

7. Prepare your outfit for the next day

This one is so easy, yet, so powerful.

Many people, I assume especially women, spend so much time and energy on deciding what to wear.

Unfortunately, I was one of them for years.

Preparing your outfit on the night before will make your mornings so much easier. Promised.

You will save valuable energy which you’ll be able to spend on tasks that are much more important.

8. Read

Reading before going to bed is one of my absolute favorite evening routines.

I majorly read books about self-improvement and personal growth, and even though I sometimes sleep in while reading, my reading time is incredibly precious to me.

I believe reading fiction books would probably be even better before sleep time, yet, as I don’t read fiction at all, I stick with personal growth topics.

Even if you read for 15-minutes per day, your whole perspective and mindset will shift in the long run. There is so much to learn and explore, reading is one of the easiest means to do so.

9. Prepare for high-quality sleep

Poor sleep quality is one of the main reasons why we feel exhausted and lack energy throughout our days.

Yes, it’s essential to get at least six to eight hours of sleep, but besides the quantity, also the quality of your sleep matters.

Here’s how you can easily improve your sleep and wake up with more energy:

• Dim the lights at least 30 minutes before going to bed. By doing so, you ensure your body calms down and gets ready for sleep mode.
• Avoid your phone and other screens. These emit blue light, which harms the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, and results in poor sleep quality.
• Make sure to sleep in a dark and utterly noise-free environment. If that’s not possible, grab a sleeping mask and a pair of earplugs.
• As mentioned above, avoid big meals for at least two hours before bedtime.

Bottom Line

While the world is going crazy about morning routines, let’s take it one step further and create life-changing evening rituals.

This will not only improve your wellbeing and the quality of your sleep, but it will impact your whole next day positively.

Just like a morning routine, also an evening routine doesn’t need to take much time. And of course, you don’t need to apply all of these tips at once. Just reflect on whether which would fit your current needs best and get started with one or two little changes.

1. Create a to-do list for the next day: It will help you to stay focused and save time as well as energy.
2. Reflect on your day: Only through reflection, can we take lessons and improve ourselves.
3. Calm your mind and let go of negativity, for example, through meditation or journaling.
4. Visualize yourself successfully going through your next day
5. Avoid big meals at least two hours before going to bed: Your sleep quality will improve.
6. Avoid your phone or other screens: this will improve the emission of your sleep hormone and help you to sleep in faster
7. Prepare your outfit for the next day and save tons of time and energy
8. Read a good book: this will help you unwind and let go of all the information you processed throughout the day.
9. Prepare yourself and your bedroom for a good-quality sleep: dim the lights and avoid noises