Why Creating a Night Routine is High ROI
There’s a lot of talk about a morning routine in the self-improvement space.
And rightfully so.
My morning routine allows me to have clarity for the entire day.
The days that I don’t do the morning routine are the days that the entire day feels slippery.
Guess what though?
How we end the night influences how we behave the next morning.
It’s difficult to execute the morning routine with little to no enthusiasm.
Want to know why you feel such little enthusiasm?
‘Why?’
Because you’re sleeping at 4 in the morning when you have to be up at 8 am!
Why a Night Routine is Important
The reason that a night routine is important is because it allows us to activate a loop.
Right now, many think of the morning routine in a land of its own.
Here’s something to understand:
- All the days are connected.
If you have a night routine, then you will intertwine your days.
Intertwining the days allows productivity to go from a solo act to a lifestyle.
We don’t want to overdo it with our night routine.
I know people who bring out candles, scents, and a bunch of tracking apps.
Not me.
I like to keep it super simple.
We will be talking about a simple night routine shortly.
The important concept to understand is intertwining our days.
It’s sort of like when we begin working out, all the body parts seem separate.
Our biceps seem completely different than our legs.
However, if we do calisthenics…
Like pullups or pushups.
Then we’ll feel how our legs and biceps are a part of a whole.
The whole is our body.
The biceps and legs are not in a land of their own.
Rather, they can both be leveraged to help us balance better.
Think in links and connections.
We can think in links and connections by executing a night routine before our morning routine.
Sample Night Routine
My night routine is super simple.
Here’s how it goes:
- Identify a night cut-off.
- Create a to-do list for the next day.
- Rest.
- Turn off digital activity.
- Sleep.
1. Identify a Night Cut-Off
I believe having a certain range of when to sleep is smart.
Without it, a night routine is not set up on strong foundations.
Identifying when to sleep is all about reverse engineering.
You just need to know when you want to wake up and how much sleep you want to get.
I normally like getting 7 hours.
I noticed when I sleep 8 hours, I feel lethargic.
So, 7 hours of sleep.
Let’s say I want to wake up at 6 am.
Then a rough range I should be going to sleep is at 11 pm.
When I have identified when I plan to end my day, I can proceed to the next step.
2. To-Do List
Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest doing a bunch of productive tasks at night.
I’m sure you spent the entire day being productive.
However, the to-do list is the ONLY productive task I will recommend.
We can make it fun.
We want to create a to-do list for the next day.
But rather than writing the action items in sentences, use words.
Rather than writing:
- Clean the apartment by vacuuming, doing laundry, doing dishes, etc.
Just write:
- Clean
Turning complex sentences into a word fools the brain into thinking that difficult tasks are easy.
I think this is fun, no?
Sometimes, you’ll find it difficult to turn a sentence into a word.
Play around with the sentence.
Soon, a word will emerge.
Write the word on your to-do list.
Once satisfied with the action items on your list, proceed to the next step.
3. Rest
Rest however you want.
That’s my philosophy.
I hate video games.
Don’t like playing them.
However, I am able to distinguish between the following scenarios.
Scenario 1:
A guy plays video games all day while postponing work. This guy does not get paid to play video games.
Scenario 2:
A guy plays video games after being productive all day. This guy uses video games to relax.
Scenario 1 is unacceptable.
Scenario 2 is perfectly acceptable.
I spend my night watching funny clips and sitcoms.
That’s my rest period.
4. Turn Off Digital Activity
After a certain point, I recommend disengaging from digital activity.
Sleep is a natural act.
Digital technology is a man-made creation.
A lot of natural acts get disrupted because we are overloading them with man-made creations.
Step away from the phone!
Step away from the TV!
And turn off the Kindle.
Identify a certain range when you are just going to be natural.
If I’m going to sleep at 11 pm, I aim to disengage with digital devices at 10:45 pm.
5. Sleep
This part is pretty straightforward.
Sleep, my friend.
Sleep is not your enemy.
I do recommend experimenting though.
I’m not a sleep doctor by any means.
However, I will say that 8 hours never energizes me.
I know people who say that 8 hours energizes them, but 7 hours does the trick for me.
Where to Keep Your Phone
I will give you 1 final tip.
I recommend that at the beginning of adopting a night routine, you keep your phone in a different room when sleeping.
The reason a lot of people fail with the night routine is because of their phones.
When you keep your phone in a different room, it does 2 things:
- No distractions when sleeping.
- You’re forced to get up and turn off the alarm the next morning.
A lot of distractions happen because we get obsessed with scrolling at night.
Kill the problem quickly.
Keep the phone in a different room.
Also, if you set an alarm, then you’ll be forced to get up from bed the next morning to turn off the alarm.
No more snoozing!
Once your night routine is integrated into your lifestyle, then you can bring your phone back.
Good luck with the night routine.
This is the missing puzzle piece to making your days connect!
