5 Practices to Include in Your Evening Routine

The importance of an evening routine and how to implement one.

Morning routines are everywhere. The morning routines of writers. The morning routines of famous people. The healthiest morning routines. I love morning routines. Benjamin Hardy’s 8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M. changed my life. I developed my own morning routine around the concepts that Hardy outlined in his article. I started implementing meditation, journalling, exercise, and reading uplifting content to my mornings, and the results were incredible.

There is so much power in routine. But routines aren’t limited to the morning. Not long after starting a morning routine, I created an evening routine. This routine prepares both my mind and body for sleep. The routine signals that it is time to relax, unwind, and get some sleep. The morning routine acts as a powering up sequence, and the evening routine acts as a winding down sequence. While routines are highly personal and there are myriad practices you can include in your routine to make it meaningful and helpful to you, here are the top 5 things I have found most beneficial to include in an evening routine.

1. Put out clothes and pack your bag for the next day

This initiates my wind down sequence. I look at my calendar to see what I’m doing tomorrow, and I prepare accordingly. I put my clothes out, I pack my work bag, I pack my lunch. If I’m not working, I prepare my things for my morning routine — I get my headphones out of their case so that the zip doesn’t wake my partner up when I want to do a guided meditation as soon as I wake up, I get my journal and pen out, and the book that I’m currently reading.

There’s nothing like going to bed knowing that everything is ready for the morning. I even go as far as getting the scale out and putting the coffee beans I want to have on top of the grinder. I prepare every single thing that I can, so that when I wake up I barely have to do anything. Closing your eyes with the knowledge that you are prepared for the day ahead will help you get to sleep easier.

It also has the added benefit of reducing decision making in the morning, and therefore limiting your decision making fatigue tomorrow. If you want to read more about decision making fatigue, you can see this article:

2. Prepare your phone and put it away

We all know we shouldn’t use technology before bed, but most of us still find ourselves tucked up in bed, on our phone. You’re not on social media, of course, but you need to set your alarm for the morning, right? So you have to use your phone before bed.

Well, if you include preparing your phone early on in your evening routine, you’ll have no reason to look at it before bed. After you’ve prepared your clothes for the morning, now’s the time to set your phone up.

Set your alarm, pick which morning meditation you’re going to listen to, reply to any final messages. And then put it away somewhere where you won’t be tempted to look at it. I try to have my phone put away at least 45 minutes before I go to sleep.

If you want to listen to something as you go to sleep, open it up now, connect your headphones, and then turn the screen off. When you’re ready for bed, all you have to do is press play on your headphones. You won’t need to look at your phone at all.

3. Journal

With your phone gone, what are you going to do? Now is the perfect time to journal. There are many forms of journalling you can do, but it’s often helpful to review your day — the things you did, your successes, the challenges you faced, the thoughts you had. And then to plan for the day ahead — what do you need to get done tomorrow?

I like to rapid log (a bullet journal technique) my day — I have half hour blocks of time and I write what I did in each of them. I find it helpful to see where my time went each day, and to be able to look back on my days and see what I did. Then I write my top 3 wins of the day, one thing I am grateful for, one thing I am looking forward to tomorrow, and the one thing I need to get done tomorrow. I then have a space for free-form journalling where I can write about anything that’s been on my mind that day.

This was an important exercise for the Stoics, who would sit down at the end of each day and analyze their actions and thoughts, and think about how they could be better the next day. The evening is the perfect time to consider where you went wrong, and also to recognize what you did well.

Epictetus said,

“Allow not sleep to close your wearied eyes,

Until you have reckoned up each daytime deed:

“Where did I go wrong? What did I do? And what duty’s left undone?”

From first to last review your acts and then

Reprove yourself for wretched [or cowardly] acts, but rejoice in those done well.”

— Discourses, 3.10.2–3

4. Foam roll

Foam rolling has many benefits, especially when done in the evening. In only 10 minutes each night, you can drastically improve your mobility and recovery, leaving you feeling less tight and more relaxed. Foam rolling also helps you to connect with your body before sleep, and in this sense is a form of moving meditation. It also stimulates your parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system. Kelly Starrett, bestselling author and mobility expert, explains,

“One of the biggest problems we have in society right now is that people aren’t very good at down regulating. What we see is people getting into a constant parasympathetic nervous system vs parasympathetic nervous system tug-of-war, and the sympathetic system is turned all the way up to 60. We know that we can power up by drinking some coffee or chugging an energy drink and be ready to go, but show me how you can go (in reverse) from 60 to 0.”

You can read more about this exercise here:

5. Set up your sleep sanctuary

This is my final step. I’ve brushed my teeth, my pajamas are on. It’s time to sleep. I get my ear plugs out, I do a final check that my water bottle and headphones are ready for when I wake up, and I put a few drops of lavender oil on my pillow.

This step is so important. Having a space where you feel safe and comfortable is vital for a good sleep. Ideally you want a clutter-free, plain room, with nothing except the essentials in it. Make sure your nightstand is clear. Have something that makes you feel safe nearby — whether a photo of a loved one (an exception on your nightstand), a particular blanket or pillow, or anything else that is comforting.

Smells are also an incredibly powerful tool to include in your sleep sanctuary. I use lavender, which is the traditional sleep smell. It helps to promote calm and relaxation, and helps with sleep. But you can use any smell. The point is to associate this smell with relaxation and sleep. As soon as I smell the lavender, I feel safe and relaxed. It’s become a comfort for me, because it is associated with being tucked up in my comfy bed, feeling relaxed and prepared for the next day.

It’s also really important to not have technology in this space. No phones, no TVs, no laptops, no tablets. If you need an alarm, then at least put your phone somewhere besides on your nightstand. I put it on the book shelf so that it’s easy to grab in the morning but it isn’t right by my bed.

To conclude

Routines are a powerful tool to induce certain states of mind, and to prepare the body and mind for what is coming next. While morning routines often act as a powering up sequence, evening routines can be a useful tool for a winding down sequence. The routine signals that it is time to relax and sleep, and these practices can lead to improved quality of sleep.

Play around with different evening practices, and see what works for you. Some will resonate more for you, and you’ll probably find your own. However, the practices that I have found most beneficial are:

• Preparing everything for tomorrow
• Preparing my phone and putting it away
• Journalling
• Foam rolling
• Setting up my sleep sanctuary