A few months ago, I realized I was wasting that valuable “brain time” on tasks that needed to be done, but didn’t necessarily need to be done during that optimal work time. I wanted to study smarter – literally! I wanted to maximize my best time of day.
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On Just a Girl and Her Blog, Abby Lawson talks about how her morning routine was a game changer. For me, though, the game changer was the nightly routine! I realized that no morning routine was going to work without a good nightly routine, because if I don’t wake up on time or have my act together, it doesn’t matter how well I planned my morning…I won’t be able to do any of those awesome things.
Here is what I learned:
- Come up with the ideal routine, but don’t necessarily worry about implementing all of it at once. Instead, pick one thing from the list and gradually build. I found that my routine took longer than expected at first, and trying to add everything at once had me staying up too late!
- Choose your must-do’s and your want-to-do’s. I typed up my routine and put my “must-do’s” in bold. If I don’t get through everything, I try to do those, so I know I’m on track. The rest is bonus.
- Don’t use your screen for your routine. Have it printed out – in a planner or framed or taped to the wall – so that you can get away from the distractions.
- Train yourself to go back to the routine to do the next thing, even if you remember…this will help you be consistent and catch what’s on the list.
- Forgive yourself when you fall of track.
- Tweak it as necessary. Make it YOURS. I made some changes to mine even as I wrote this post!
Joy’s Nightly Routine
Tasks in BOLD are must-do.
- Turn on calm music or white noise machine to block out other sounds from the house.
- Review Tasks in Producteev and reschedule anything left over
- Plan for Next Day
- Set Alarm – I use this Philips Wake-Up Light
- Turn off screens – blue light keeps your body from releasing melatonin, making it harder to sleep.
- Pack Gear
- Load Car
- Pack Meals
- Dim lights – helps your body start winding down. Check out this post from the FitBit blog on ways to make your room sleep-friendly.
- Lay Out Clothes
- Tidy Room
- Get Ready for Bed
- Acupressure Mat 5-15 minutes
- Journal
- Prayer Time
- Read (if time allows)
