8 relaxing evening habits

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

They will save you time and effort, and help you start the next day well.

After work, you have dinner, then watch TV shows, lying on the couch, or stick to your phone until late at night. And in the morning you wake up unrespirated and feel burnout by the middle of the week. Entrepreneur Thomas Oppong explained how to deal with this with simple evening rituals.

1. Prepare for tomorrow

Choose the clothes that you will wear to work, put your sports uniform in a prominent place, if you are going to workout, put all the necessary documents in your bag. Then write down how you would like to spend your morning. Tomorrow you will be more productive, because everything you need is already at hand.

Imagine the opposite situation, when you are not ready for a new day. You overslept, you can't choose what to wear, you forgot where you put important documents. If you prepare everything in the evening, this will not happen, and the morning will begin calmly.

2. Disconnect from work

Work messages and mail are often distracting, even at home, making it difficult to relax. To prevent this from happening again, always end your workday the same way: clean your desk, save important documents on your computer, make a to-do list for tomorrow.

And as soon as you come home, proceed to the post-work ritual. This is any relaxing activity that you can repeat every day: talking with your family, playing sports, hobbies, reading. This will essentially add a happy ending to any day.

3. Choose a place to relax

If you watch the screen all day, you need to relax both physically and mentally in the evening. In this case, watching TV shows is the least effective method.

Find a place where you are comfortable and spend 20 minutes in it just to calm down. For example, you can sit in silence in the kitchen or look out the window.

Another option is to shower as soon as you come home. This will signal to the brain that the work day is over. Or do simple household chores that relax you.

4. Reflect on the past day

For this, 5-10 minutes is enough. Remember the pleasant moments of the day, rejoice in small victories, think about what could be improved.

Here are some questions to ask yourself while thinking like this:

• What did I do and what did I miss?
• How do I feel about it?
• Could it be done in less time? If so, how?
• What actions were unimportant or even unnecessary, but seemed urgent?
• What would I change to be more productive?

5. Take up your favorite hobby

Working days usually do not leave time for hobbies. We constantly put off the desire to write a book, start a blog, learn a foreign language, start a business, paint or code. But evening is the time to do it.

So you can not only be able to distract from work and relax psychologically, but also become more productive at your main job. Find at least half an hour to pursue an important hobby. It improves mood and self-esteem.

6. Read something for fun

This is a great stress reliever. Pick any book you like - a fiction novel, a memoir, something inspirational - and take some time to read. During sleep, the brain consolidates the information received, and you will remember it better.

If you like to read while lying in bed, choose paper editions. They will not interfere with sleep, unlike books on electronic media that emit blue light.

7. Don't look at screens an hour before bed

Blue light from the screen of laptops and smartphones suppresses the production of the hormone melatonin, which is responsible for sleep. In addition, watching videos and pictures stimulates the brain, and this also interferes with falling asleep.

“Ten minutes of focusing on the phone is roughly the same as walking for an hour in sunlight,” says psychologist Richard Wiseman. - Imagine that you were in the bright sun for an hour, and then decided to sleep. It won't work."

So don't look at the screens even an hour before bed. If you urgently need to do something on your computer, turn down the screen brightness or install a program that turns on warm backlighting at night.

8. Put sleep first

We often neglect sleep in favor of other activities. But getting enough sleep is important for both your health and productivity throughout the day. Good sleep on a regular basis maintains a healthy psychological, emotional and physical condition.

To get enough sleep, go to bed and get up at the same time. Clean your bedroom and don't leave anything in it overnight that reminds you of work.