Success is not accidental. It is planned and methodical. Forming good habits at night will sustain you and your success for the next day and years to come. The following seven tips will help you plan for a better tomorrow and a brighter future.
1. Evaluate Your Day
Reviewing your day may take no more than 5 minutes a day, but can have a tremendous effect on your personal development.
Many people work to improve themselves and achieve more and more each day. However, even if they take action on their goals, they still don’t know whether they are making progress. They may think that they’re being productive, but in actuality, they are spending hours everyday in time-wasting activities, bad habits, and procrastination.
To change that, assess your day in the evening so that you can see what is working and what is not.
Here’s what to pay attention to:
- What did and didn’t you get done?
- Do you feel that you were productive?
- Did you prioritize your tasks and were they congruent with your overall goals?
- Would you change anything to make tomorrow more productive?
2. Write Tomorrow’s To-Do List the Night Before
It will be easier for you to start the next day simply because you will have scheduled your day.
Make sure your to do list includes the following for peak performance:
- Your most important tasks;
- Daily errands and/or habits (grocery shopping, cleaning the house, or starting a new habit);
- Things you’ve been delaying for sometime (you probably don’t need to complete them tomorrow, but it’s better if they are on your list so that you can eventually do something about them);
- Things not to do (consider a bad habit or behavior that you want to stop doing).
3. Accept Today As It Is
Tell yourself you did your best and feel good about it.
Many people tend to carry today’s burdens with them to the next day and on and on. Then, they can never achieve more because they’re always in the past. Do your best to refrain from this behavior. You’ll be stronger and happier for it.
4. Assemble Tomorrow’s Outfit the Night Before
Deciding on your next day’s outfit the night before has many benefits. First, you will be better decisions about your attire because you will have the time to decide what works best for the next day. Second, you will be more awake to decide on a more stylish and put-together outfit. You can also use this time to collect all the things that you will need the next day such as keys, notebooks, handbag, briefcase, and so on.
5. Let Go of Everything
Leave behind all the problems, thoughts about work, negativity, doubts and regrets about today. Focusing on them will make you stressed because you’ll be overthinking your perceived problems. You can be twice as productive tomorrow if you decide to let go.
6. Turn Off Your Electronic Devices
During your evening routine, make sure you don’t use any electronic devices. Make this a practice during the last 30 minutes of your day.
This may be difficult for people who use their laptops quite often (especially if they’re working from home) or use their their phones quite often; however, you will be all the better for it, especially during your evening routine.
7. Read a Book to Help You Fall Asleep
If you find it difficult to get to sleep, adding this habit to your nightly routine might do the trick. Not only will you bring back the practice of reading daily, but you’ll also get inspired or devise some new ideas. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, the book will eventually make you ready to fall asleep.
