One of the keys to successful daily life management is to build routines into your daily life. A routine is a regular sequence of actions that you repeat each day at the same time. Creating a routine helps to build a habit. Habits require less thought, memory and planning. They occur naturally and easily because they a part of your daily routine.
The three routines that we strongly encourage are:
Evening Routine (preparation for a good night’s sleep)
Morning Routine (preparation for your day)
Daily planning session (daily review of your tasks, schedule and goals)
In future articles, we’ll talk more about routines. Today, we’re going to focus on your evening routine.
Evening Routine
Your evening routine is a sequence of small tasks that prepare you for a good night’s sleep and for the day ahead. Create your evening routine as a task with a checklist. It might look something like this:
Evening Routine – 1 hour 20 m. (This routine should begin no later than 9:40 PM)
- Gather all items you’ll need tomorrow and place them where you’ll see them as you leave for work or school in the morning. - 10 m.
- Make lunch for tomorrow - 5 m.
- Tidy kitchen and living areas – 10 m.
- Lay out clothes to wear in morning - 5 m.
- Take shower – 10 m.
- Brush teeth – 5 m.
- Prepare for bed – 5 m.
- Read for ½ hour - 30 m.
- Light out – 11 PM
There are three important “rules” for a good evening routine:
- Do advance preparation for tomorrow so that you’re prepared to be productive.
- No “screen time” (TV or computer) for one hour before lights out (to promote good sleep habits).
- Lights out early enough for adequate sleep (7 hours, minimally).
Remember: If you want to have a good day tomorrow, start with a good evening routine tonight!
I practice these techniques myself, as I have an inflexible schedule that requires I be up at 3:30 a.m., in order to get to my job each day.
Unfortunately, I am only able to get 6 hours of sleep max on this schedule; but careful planning and limiting screen time certainly do help!
I used to implement a routine like this for my kids. Now I need to do it for myself. Thanks for the reminder. I’ll bet that if i ever get around to using my SKOACH program, I could set a reminder alert to step away from the computer at night. Thanks for all of your good and useable advice.
Good to know I already do most of this
Planning my outfit the night before saves me so much time in the morning– strangely enough, much more time than it took that night. I have to say though, the person in this sample routine is FAST! (Besides brushing their teeth for 5 minutes 
)
I love the idea of the routine and setting these limited times for each task. I think it will help folks a lot!
This can seem to work in conjunction with GTD as well – where one sets tasks that need to be done during a task time
. Excellent!
Looking forward to the rest of your posts.
I love the idea of routine, it is something I strive for, but my work schedule is very random as I am on call. Are there tips to help make a routine in the midst of chaos?
Nice newsletter, thanks. More and more people are noticing the need of preparing for sleeping. I have used time log from Alec MacGuiness to know how long it take to get to sleep. Your schedule confirms that it takes much more than a few minutes!
Thanks so much Kathleen, this is always a challenge for me–especially starting at 9:40 latest, as this is when I begin to “shut down” after the youngest goes to sleep–turning the TV on for hours…
Looking forward to getting this going, as I need LOTS more sleep,
thanks for the newsletter–looking forward to more!
If you have a job that requires you to be on call all night, go through your standard evening routine at the standard time whenever possible. You’re more likely to go to sleep and get some much-needed sleep if you do this. To prepare for leaving the house on a moment’s notice, do as much advanced preparation as possible. Shower at night, lay out your clothes, have a grab and go breakfast prepared (it’s important not to skip breakfast even when you’re in a hurry), and be ready to be out the door in five minutes if your call comes.
Bottom line – hang onto your routines, even in the most challenging times, and you’ll hang on to a greater focus, control and productivity.
-Kathleen Nadeau
Thanks so very much, Kathleen. I have been practicing this very same routine for almost 60 years, as my mother believed that it would get me off to a happy day (actually it kept her from having to get grumpy first thing in the morning). It certainly provided me with life-saving time on those nites-that -ran-into-mornings, in my early adult years, without being late to my job.
Anyway, this is an old and loved routine. Thank you for sharing it with everyone.
Kindest Regards.