The Evening Routine to Set You Up for Success

Though the title of this article may have had you expecting a detailed schedule to revolutionize your evenings, that’s not what I’m here to give you. Instead, what I want to highlight is the value of having a routine. Routines and habits are powerful tools that can support our success if we intentionally create them to do so. By having a routine, I mean identifying useful actions, planning then into your typical evening, and sticking with that plan consistently. I’ll share a few of the evening habits I find especially helpful throughout the post, but the real focus will be on the framework I use to design my routine.

Check in.

Do you have an evening routine? Even if it’s not intentional, you probably have some consistency in the actions you take each evening. Take a look at what your evenings are like right now. Which activities are fueling your success and which are distracting from it? For example, is that late-night email check making it difficult to fall asleep? Does your evening run give you a chance to unwind? Looking at what you have going on already is the best place to start with shaping a strong routine. Once you know which activities you want to keep and which you want to get rid of, you’re ready to keep building.

Determine your needs.

A bit more reflection here. To create the best evening routine possible, you need to tailor it to you. What is your optimal amount of sleep? What do you hope to accomplish in the morning? Which actions add stress to your evening and which help you relax? For example, if you know you’ll be setting your alarm for 6am, keeping a regular bedtime in your schedule can help you get a better night’s sleep and keep you around that optimal amount of sleep. If you know you want to get to the gym in the morning, but you tend to feel unmotivated when you first wake up, getting in the habit of packing your gym bag the night before is a great way to get yourself out the door. Creating some screen-free time in your evening can help you create a better work-life balance and let your brain recharge.

Factor in your goals.

You’re not designing this routine to maintain the status quo. If you want it to power your achievements, you need to take advantage of those evening hours to work towards your goals. If you’re primarily focused on work goals, this does not mean bringing your work home and sacrificing your personal life. Instead, it might mean setting aside fifteen minutes to create a detailed schedule for the following day or carving out a specific window to check after-hour emails from clients. If you have more personal goals, your evening hours are a great time to make some progress towards those as well. Say you have a goal of eating healthy, preparing a nutritious lunch in the evening can keep you from reaching for a less-healthy option at lunch. If you want to improve at a hobby or skill, committing to a regular window of focused time can help you make real progress.

Repeat.

One of the best parts of a routine is that it becomes almost automatic. When productive actions become automatic habits, you supercharge your potential. A strong routine can be an amazing foundation to build off of. Just remember to occasionally repeat this routine-making process to ensure that your routine is giving you exactly what you need. Needs change, goals change, our lives change — and it’s to be expected that our routines will change as well.

Ultimately, the evening routine is going to look different for everyone. It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing. Instead, it’s a commitment to finding the practices that work best for you and a willingness to continue experimenting. It’s the intentional act of creating that routine that holds so much power. When you use this framework of checking in with where you are now, identifying the things you need to perform at your best, and carving out regular time to work towards things you want to achieve, you can create a strong routine to fuel your success.