Whether it be a morning routine, or a night routine, a simply a routine… there is a 100% chance that I am a fan of it. I love hearing about effective routines, I love watching routine videos on Youtube… it just vibes with me. I think that there’s a lot of comfort in establishment, and being able have a morning or evening go seamlessly and peacefully.
Beyond this though, routines have been proven by many sources in having an overall positive effect on people’s lives. These are the results that I see from having a routine.
Routine begins my day and caps off my day. Because I am a self diagnosed lazy person, I need something to force me into action. Because I am mindless in the morning , I know that habit can trick me into starting my day. There is also something really comforting in having these habits. I know that I will always have my cup of tea in the morning, and that I will always have at least ten minutes to choose a playlist to get ready to. The same goes for the night. Attaching the end of my day to soothing processes tends to calm down my mind enough to go to bed.
In this way, routine also maintains my health. I have a bedtime, and I also have a cut off period. My cut off period is when I cut myself off from work, unless under extreme scenarios (@ finals week). This ensures that I will be in bed by 11:30 pm, asleep by 12, and result in me getting eight hours of sleep. I wish that I could function properly after all-nighters, but it just doesn’t work for me. I need sleep, so I always try to prioritize it. On a less important, but still relevant, note, this also maintains my skin care routine.
Routine is also a time for me to assess what I need -to maintain sanity- and take care of myself. One of the most important questions that I ask myself is what do I need most at that moment. I try to make this the first thing that I think of in the morning so that I can establish my health as a priority. I also plan little things to make my morning and night routines exciting. I always drink my favorite tea in the morning, and allot time to choose a playlist or podcast to listen to. I have a special playlist that I can only play at night full of my best chill songs. Both examples make me so excited to wake up or go to bed, that it turns the experience into a luxury.
While my night routine sometimes is interrupted (@ finals week), it is more or less a habit at this point. I know that my priorities come off as a tad prim (being a brat about sleep and whatnot) but I am a schedule kind of person. I work all day to make sure that I can have a routine like this. I do it because I know it works for me, and maybe it could work for you.