How to Create a Productive Evening Routine

Does your evening routine look anything like mine did?

You’ve finally made it home from a long day of work and, at this point, you’re exhausted. You could unpack your bag and put things where they belong… or you could get out of your work clothes and just relax on the couch.

You know the one. The couch with the comfy arms that also serve as pillows in case you need to take a nap? Yeah. That one.

You put on a video or TV show to help you unwind and you muster up enough energy to grab something (anything) from the fridge. Eventually, you’ll make your way to bed.

Listen. No judgement. If you actually managed to do all that in your evening routine, then you’re steps ahead of where I was – like a whole block ahead of me. I remember my first full days of clinic when I’d get home, take off my shoes, and fall asleep on the couch by 8:00 pm. I kid you not.

The problem with this was that I never made time to self-reflect. I got frustrated just playing catch up day in and day out, and I was always tired.

See, I wasn’t making time for the things I was passionate about outside of work, and I wasn’t making time for my self-care. Luckily, my nights look a whole lot different now.

I’ve created an evening routine to maximize my productivity. It’s how I make time for all the things that I’m passionate about instead of crashing after work and regretting it in the morning. You can modify my routine and make your own, but here’s the basic outline:

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Productive evening routine step one: reset

This part is key. Do not, I repeat, do not catch yourself trying to relax “for just an hour.” Do not “rest” your eyes, “get more comfortable,” don’t “wind down” because these are all signals for you to shut down for the day.

Trust me. I’ve used all of that wording to convince myself that I could turn off my brain for just a bit. I’ve “rested my eyes” for hours instead of minutes even though I had every intention of being productive. Eventually, I had to get honest with myself; once I get comfortable, I get complacent. Once I’ve decided that my work day is over, there is no coming back.

If you tell yourself you need to rest, your body will absolutely agree with you. It’ll give you a break: a full, several-hour long break in the form of sleep.

Like I said, any time I sunk into my comfy couch, it’d be game over. I’d eventually get so comfortable that I couldn’t get up and get on. Similarly, whenever I told myself I needed to change into my pyjamas, I’d inevitably fall asleep. These are all behavioural cues that trigger rest and tell your body you’re done.

Instead of shutting down when you finish your official workday, try to maintain a productivity mindset. Treat your immediate post-work hour like a second lunch break.

When you’re on break at work, you don’t fully make yourself at home in the office. Your coworkers won’t find you sprawled out on a couch, watching your favourite YouTube channel.

Instead, you’re making the most of your break to reset and refocus for the remainder of your shift. You’re looking ahead at what needs to get done, while also being sure to refuel (Read: How to Clear Your Workspace to Get Things Done).

Treat your first hour at home like an extension of your work day. Give yourself a fixed time to reset, which could include a review of your calendar, your main goals for the rest of your evening, a meal or snack, etc.

I use this time to make a game plan for the night. I also make sure to avoid potential toxins, which for me include social media, online shows and last-minute food choices.

Productive evening routine step two: do what you love

This is when you get to decide that your passions outside of work are also important. Just like you made time for work, you can make time for your goals. So, set a sense of urgency around these next few hours in your evening by setting a firm end time.

8:30 pm is my end time. That’s when I’m no longer on any screens and I focus on my self-care. To be honest, 8:30 is also the latest I can truly be productive. I’m most productive in the mornings.

So on most days, after I reset in step one, I have a maximum of two hours to do whatever else I want to do for the day. (If I have work that absolutely needs to be done, then it takes away from these two hours.)

Two hours isn’t a long time. Outside of work, I love writing and traveling and learning languages, and so I need to be really selective about my time. If I’m scrolling through social media, I’m prioritizing that over my time to write. If I’m watching Netflix, I’m choosing to do that instead of learning a language. And that’s fine, as long as the choice is intentional.

Set a time that you’ll stop working and then race against the clock doing what you love. This could be catching up with your loved ones, going to your favourite fitness class, or working on a side hustle. No matter what, when your end time time comes, you’re off all screens and focused on self-care. If you need to set a timer, set a timer because if you don’t do what you love right now, you just won’t get to it for the day. So you decide.

Obviously, you’re going to have to avoid your biggest distractions during this time. This could be social media, phone calls, emails, last-minute requests from friends and family… Barring emergencies, these things can all be scheduled into your calendar for another point in time.

Right now though, focus on doing what you love. It’s probably some of your only you-time during the day, so make it count!

Productive evening routine step three: prioritize self-care

No surprise here, right? Y’all know I truly believe that you cannot maintain your productivity without maintaining your self-care. This is the time when I relax, when I settle into that comfy couch and turn everything off. The reason why I wait to do this until now, in step three, is that it’s a long and relaxing process. It’s essentially how I get ready for bed, and I usually have a thing or two I’d like to do after work before I fall asleep.

I’m devoted to my own self-care in this last hour. This is fluid. Most times, I’ll focus on some combination of practices within a few of the self-care domains. (Read about the self-care domains here).

Whatever I choose to focus on, the idea is for me to fold inward and pour into myself after my long day. Rather than collapsing onto a couch thinking, I’m so exhausted, I ease into self-care with a sense of accomplishment having already worked on things that were important to me in step two (do what you love… or what you haveto).

Now, in the past, I’d work on my blog before bed, and that was always a bad idea. Not because I couldn’t get things done, but precisely because I did. I could go on for hours and hours with new thoughts and ideas and articles and so on. And then I’d lay in bed outlining this and contemplating that, totally 100% awake.

Screens and creative thinking are extremely stimulating for me so I avoid them before bed. In step three, when you’re prioritizing your self-care, try your best to avoid stimulants.

Summary

So many of us do our best when we’re on other people’s time, but we don’t return this favour to ourselves. We don’t necessarily put our best into maintaining self-care and productivity when we’re “off the clock.”

One of the easiest ways to show up for ourselves consistently and meaningfully is to keep it simple and to set ourselves up for success in whatever way we’ve defined it.

So now that I’ve walked you through my evening routine, I hope you have some ideas about how you might shape your evenings more intentionally. Certainly, my circumstances are unique in that I live alone, but I know you and I can find some common ground in the multiplicity of our passions. Creating an intentional and consistent evening routine that creates space for you to do what you love can help you make sure you get to those passions.

To recap, the three steps to create your productive evening routine are:

1. Reset
2. Do what you love, and
3. Prioritize self-care

I’ve also written about morning routines, because the two go hand in hand (Read: How to Create a Simple Morning Routine).

And if you’d like to continue this discussion around self-care and productivity, go ahead and join the email community below. You’ll hear from me twice a month with blog posts, added tips and free PDF worksheets because you can’t maintain productivity if you don’t maintain self-care.