I have a confession.

Ever since I came back from Japan, my routines were thrown off.

I got back into my deep work mornings (duh) because I felt like I lost out on time and progress while I was slurping Ramen in Osaka.

(Logically I know it’s not true because I benefitted from stepping away for 2 weeks)

BUT I’ve been slacking off with my evening habits.

In case you’re wondering what’s on the menu…

1. Meditation
2. Visualisation
3. Journaling
4. Reading

So wholesome right? 😬

Well, they’re good habits as we know.

But there’s a big problem…

I don’t feel any different whether or not I do them which made it easy to shove them aside — exactly what I did.

But I didn’t like that.

So last week I decided to get my shit together.

How?

By building a new evening routine.

It became apparent to me that trying to go back to my old routine isn’t making things easier.

Cue the pen and paper

Here’s the end result:

10:30pm sleep.

No tech 1 hour before bed - that’s when I’ll journal, meditate, and read on my Kindle (please don’t reply with Kindle is tech so you suck.)

No work 2 hours before bed - instead, I’ll be on my phone, do my stretches (also another habit I’m trying to build bc I’m stiff AF), plan my next day and set up for it.

So far I’ve been doing well with this and order is returning to my evening.

If you’ve been struggling with your routines, a reset can help.

It signifies a fresh start and we tend to do better with fresh starts - think January of each year.

All you need is to sit down, and have a pen and paper.

Plan things out.

Make a tracker in 3 mins.

That’s all you need for a start - whether it’s building a habit or a routine.

Don’t overcomplicate things.