How To Create A Morning And Evening Routine

Do you ever wish your mornings ran smoothly… every day?

Sometimes, it feels impossible to get everything done and keep everyone happy every morning.

People are always asking me how I’m able to do everything I do – I run an online business, manage a team, eat a healthy diet, spend quality time with Steve and Penny, stick to a budget, read, listen to podcasts, journal, maintain fulfilling relationships, and practice my faith.

I’m not perfect, and I make mistakes often! But the way I manage to have the success I have is by living intentionally in my daily routines.

How to Create a Morning and Evening Routine

The key is to understand you have a morning routine and you can shape it to get anything done you want.

Let’s start with examining what is a morning routine exactly so you can know how to get started with this…

What is a Morning Routine?

Your morning routine is what you do from the moment you wake up until the moment you start your work for the day (whether that’s inside or outside the home). It’s how you get ready for the day. How do you spend your first 30 minutes of your day? Do you have any morning rituals you do?

How you start your day is so important. It sets the tone for how your day will go. If you wake up and lay in bed for a while scrolling social media or watching T.V., chances are you aren’t going to want to have a super productive day.

Is your wake up time line up with how you want your day to go? I am an avid morning person and love to start my day early being as productive as possible. I am not sleeping in super late and laying around all morning.

Examples of things you may do in your morning routine are: make your bed, drink coffee, work out, shower, pray, get your kids ready, or check your email. You can also check your social media accounts in the morning but I would set a limit on how long you allow yourself to do this. For example, before logging into social media say to yourself, “I am allowing myself 20 minutes to scroll social media, then it is time to start the day.”

Right now, you may or may not intentionally plan your morning routine, but one way or another you have one.

Resources:

What is an Evening Routine?

Your evening routine is what you do in between your work and when you get ready for bed and sleep. Your night routine may include anything from cooking and eating dinner to reading a book or watching T.V.

It’s easy to let your nighttime routine just happen. But the more you plan your evening routine, the more you will be in control of your time (which is something you probably wish you had more of).

How To Create A Morning And Evening Routine

To get more time back and live intentionally (with meaning and purpose), you need to plan your morning and evening routines.

Here’s how you can plan your morning and evening routines.

1. Write down what your ideal morning and evening look like.

The first step to reworking your morning and evening routines is to know what your “ideal” looks like.

Ask yourself important questions, like whether you want to use this time for 1) personal growth and development, 2) cleaning and doing house work, 3) rest and relaxation, 4) health and wellness (or something else).

Think hard about what you want out of this time. Decide what habits you would like in place that would make you happy to have done them. It’s up to you what you want to use this time for in the morning and evening. The point is to be very intentional about it so the days don’t pass you by without you noticing. Also, make sure you actually write down these visions – it’s not enough to think about it alone.

I recommend using the following resources for this:

2. Evaluate what your mornings and evenings look like now.

Write down what you do during your morning and evening routines right now. List your activities hour by hour (or in even small increments like half hour by half hour). Do this for yourself and anyone else you help get ready in the morning (e.g.: kids).

Once you know what you’re up against, you’ll have an easier time changing your current routine to match what your ideal routine is.

3. Create an outline of what you want your mornings and evenings to be like in the future.

Write out an ideal schedule for yourself. Humans work really well on a scheduled routine, so make it easy for yourself and plan it out ahead of time. This won’t be realistic for you to do every day, but it will keep you on track most days. It will also keep you away from easy temptations and time sucks like TV and social media! 🙂

For example, it might look something like this:

Morning Routine:

  • 5:30am: Wake Up
  • 6:00am: Run
  • 6:30am: Shower and get ready
  • 7:30am: Coffee and breakfast
  • 8:00am: Read and do misc work
  • 8:45am: Leave for work

Evening routine:

  • 6:00pm: Get home, change, pack lunch for next day
  • 7:00pm: Eat dinner
  • 8:00pm: Clean and do house work
  • 9:00pm: Journal
  • 10:00pm: Bed

Decide on a plan that works for you. Everyone will have different wants and needs. The key is to plan ahead of time so you’re prepared and following a schedule.

You can join Grow You to figure out exactly how you want to set goals for your own morning and evening routine if you don’t know how to set goals yet.

4. Implement your plan and monitor how it’s going.

Once you know where you are now and where you want to be in the future, the key to successful habits is implementation. You planned, you prepared, now it’s time to implement. I like starting cold turkey and just going for it. Otherwise, you will fall into the “trying trap” of saying you’ll “try to do this tomorrow”. There is no try, there is only do and do not. So, don’t try it. Just do it! Also, it’s really important that you evaluate how it’s going for you after some time. Is it meeting the expectations that you set for yourself? Are you happier, more fulfilled, and better off? If not, then adjust your plan.

When you create a plan for your morning and evening routines, you will accomplish more of your goals and live a life in line with what you want.

Why Planning Morning and Evening Routines is a Game Changer

If you want to change your life, start by changing your day. It’s the little habits repeated over time that will be the difference between failure and success.

Your morning and evening routines are perfect times for you to implement habits to promote your success.

For example, if you plan to read for 2 hours tomorrow night, you will be much more likely to do it if you plan it ahead of time. If you don’t plan it, you could easily get side tracked and end up watching two hours of T.V. instead.

If you plan to do thought work for 15 minutes before you fall asleep, plan it ahead of time, and hold yourself accountable so when the time comes and you’re tired, you do it anyways because you already set it in your nighttime routine.

No matter what stage in life you’re in, improving a small thing like your morning and evening routines can be enough to reenergize you and help you accomplish your goals. I know you can do it!! 🙂

Resources:

A Final Note!

Creating a solid morning and evening routine can change the course of your life. You can become happier, less stressed, get quality sleep, and live better.

It’s all about the plan!! 🙂

You can take it a step further and use tools to help you accomplish this more successfully. I use The Five Minute Journal, the Productivity Planner, and Grow You.

Another fav that people rave about is The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, where you can learn a specific strategy for how to create the perfect morning routine for you.

Whatever you do, do something! It’s worth it. 🙂