How to Develop a Productive Morning & Evening Routine

All of us have a morning and evening routine, whether or not we want to acknowledge it. As humans we tend to do the same things repetitively and automatically, but this doesn’t mean we are doing the right things or the most productive things. Learning to control our habits and routines is a crucial step to living a more productive life, but this process doesn’t have to be complicated or require us to add a bunch of different to dos to our lists. My philosophy on routine building is to start with what you are currently doing, eliminate the unnecessary and swap time wasting tasks for productive ones. So let’s get started helping you develop your own defined and productive morning and evening routines!

What do your morning routine and evening routines look like right now?

Think about all the things you do in the morning between the time you wake up and leave for (or begin) work and then all the things you do in the evening in order to prepare yourself for sleep. Make a list to help you work out all the details, but most importantly, ask yourself why you do each item. I don’t doubt that the majority of tasks on your list are important, but, I do question whether everything you do is necessary to be completed in the morning before you begin the bulk of your day. Some examples of common unnecessary tasks performed in the morning and evening include:

Preparing/Planning meals: unless you’re cooking breakfast or setting up dinner in the crock pot to cook while you go to work, your morning is not the time you should be meal prepping, nor is your evening. Ideally, your lunch should already be prepped and in the refrigerator waiting for you and if you’ve waited until the morning of to decide what dinner is going to be, you have significantly increased the chances that no matter what the answer is, the result is going to be take out. Try prepping the meals for the next day while you prepare dinner so you are using your time in the kitchen wisely.

Choosing clothes: These should have been laid out the evening before, not the morning of.

Working out: Despite all we hear that working out in the morning is the best thing ever, there isn’t much scientific research to back that up and some research has found that working out in the morning when your cortisol levels are naturally at their highest doesn’t work well for some people. Likewise, nothing makes it harder to sleep than a late night workout before bed, so plan for your physical activity during peak daylight hours if you are really interested in improving your health.

Cleaning up: The habit of leaving messes to sit until the morning is one that you desperately need to break, but that doesn’t mean you should stay up late doing chores. Try to pick up after yourself during the day and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble.

Completing work tasks: If it really can’t wait until you get to work, you’ve dropped the ball. Try not to spend your evenings or mornings on tasks that belong to your 9-5.

Watching TV: News is one thing, but waking up and turning on the tv or falling asleep with the tv on is another terrible time wasting habit that can cause morning stress or evening restlessness. Same goes for your computer and tech gadgets. I won’t say you can’t check your phone before bed or when you awaken, but don’t let it keep you up or keep you from getting out of bed on time.

What’s missing from your morning or evening?

As we evaluate what we are currently doing as part of our unofficial morning and evening routines and what unnecessary tasks need to go, we also need to put thought into what we are missing that may need to be added. The purpose of a morning routine is to help you start your day with a framework of success, and the purpose of an evening routine is to help you end your day peacefully. So what aren’t you doing right now that could support those ends and furthermore what could you choose to do in the morning or evening to move you closer towards success with your goals. Sometimes there are specific actions we can take in our mornings or evenings to help support our goals, but other times just the simplification of our routines and the elimination of wasteful habits can be the best way for us to support goals. Here is a list of tasks to give you an idea of things you could add to your morning or evening routines.

• Prayer
• Meditation
• Stretching
• Hydration
• Breakfast
• Journaling
• Self Care
• Music
• Reading
• Gratitude
• Affirmations

What does a productive morning or evening routine consist of?

A productive morning or evening routine will look different for each person, but if you can outline a simple routine for starting and ending your day and strive to stick to it, you will find that your mornings become less stressful and your evenings become more restful. Here are a few tips on what to do and not to do when building your routines.

Do This

Subtract before you Add: Before you consider adding any activities to your routines, make sure to take away some things first by rescheduling those tasks to different parts of your day or eliminate them completely.

Use Common Sense: You know your needs and energy level in the morning, so don’t mess around with what really matters to you and helps you to set your day up for success. I am a believer that even inessential tasks can be important if they significantly affect your mood and outlook on the day.

Create Boundaries: Your morning and evenings are pinnacle parts of your day that should be protected so that you can start and end your day properly. Put boundaries on other people and certain tasks, even if that means setting yourself some rules, so you respect whatever time you can devote to setting up and ending your day productively.

Don’t Do This

Wake Up Earlier or Go to Sleep Later: Unless you really have zero time to complete even a basic morning or evening routine, don’t feel pressure to force yourself to change your sleeping pattern. Yes, we all wish we woke up earlier, but what we want in theory and what our bodies need in practice are not always the same. Your routines should fit into your life by swapping time wasters with more productive tasks, not by changing your schedule entirely.

Take on Too Much New: There are a lot of opinions on what you should do in the morning and evening to set yourself up for a productive and successful day, but it’s not your responsibility to try them all out. Eliminating time wasting behavior will be difficult enough to manage in the morning and evening without adding the complication of adding new tasks as well. I think a simple 10 minute routine can be as productive and set you up for as much success as a whole 60 minute routine.

Aim for Perfection: When it comes to developing a new morning or evening routine (or both!) you can’t expect that you will stick to the routine 100% of the time. I think setting a goal of completing your routine in it’s entirety 3 days a week is a good start. Working up to 5 days or your workdays would be excellent. And don’t forget, you can take time off from your routines or create different ones for the weekend and that’s perfectly acceptable as well. Don’t set yourself an unnecessary standard for these routines because it is literally too early and too late in the day to expect perfection. You are only human after all!

I sincerely hope this post stimulated some ideas for you to develop your own morning and evening routine. If so, I’d love to hear about it down in the comments!

xoxo,