10 Evening Routines to Support Creative Living
- Productivity
Zach- 37 minutes read
If morning routines set the tone for the day, and daily routines keep us going, evening routines are about winding down and supporting rest to prepare for the next creative day. How do you wind down after a busy day of work? What evening routines do you have to support creativity and well-being?
The CDC reports that 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep and studies show that creative minds need rest for better problem-solving, learning new skills, improved mood, attention, and memory for better creative thinking. If you want to have a creative and productive day, prepare for it with healthy habits and routines in the evening.
Evening Routines and Habits That Hurt Creativity
- Not getting enough sleep
- Not drinking enough water
- Drinking coffee too late in the day
- Putting off your most important work until the evening
- Prioritizing work over rest
- Not making time for yourself
- Not planning time for fun or play
- Using your phone before bed
- Eating too close to bedtime
Clear Your Work/Creative Space
“Outer order contributes to inner calm.”
― Gretchen Ruben
Everyone loves quitting time. But even if you prioritize a stopping point, it can be hard to wind down when thoughts of work are still flowing. This is why you should create a routine of clearing your work/creative space at the end of the day to connect the mind and body in an act of letting go.
When your workday has come to an end, clear your space. Whether your day was good or bad, clear your space to let go and create a space for new beginnings tomorrow.
This follows the philosophy of “out of sight, out of mind.” When we don’t let our minds and body’s transition, stress and anxiety can rise and affect other parts of the day. Instead of fighting the currents of the day, flow with it and support transitions for the next series of healthy routines. Support your evening routines and boost creativity by letting your day work come to a pause.
Clear your mind by starting with clearing your space.
Tips
Start by Keeping Things Simple
Practice minimalism to speed up the cleaning process at the end of your day.
- Remove distractions
- Consider what is essential in your creative space
Control Clutter – Set Up Zones
A mess can have its place in the creative process, but it needs to be managed. If you like to have some mess, separate your creative spaces. This way, it won’t hurt other parts of the creative process.
- Have a mess box
- Sort and pile
- Create a simple filing system
- Use digital spaces like Trello to organize and speed up cleaning
Schedule Time to Organize and Clear Your Work/Creative Space
- Put it on your calendar.
- Set an alarm.
- Keep yourself accountable every day to clean and clear your space.
Journal - Review The Day and Plan Tomorrow
Tips
Review your day
- What did you do today? How did you find joy?
- What tasks were left undone?
- What helped you stay productive? What didn’t?
- What bad habits did you overcome and how?
- Did you do anything out of character? What triggered it?
- What progress did you make toward your vision and goals?
- What improvements can you make with what you learned today?
- What new things did you learn today?
- How did you practice your creativity?
- What was the biggest challenge of the day?
Plan Tomorrow
- What are the three most important things to do tomorrow?
- How do you want to do better tomorrow?
- What would make tomorrow a better day than today?
Unplug and Disconnect
Tips
Getting off your phone
- Set time limits on your phone, especially for social media.
- Turn on night mode and let people know when you are not available.
- Set up a box for electronics.
- Especially helpful for bringing family together and being in the moment without distractions.
- Don’t have email on your phone or devices.
Improve sleep habits and quality
- Keep your phone away from your bed.
- This not only helps you avoid late-night browsing but can help you wake up in the morning since you have to get out of bed to turn your alarm off.
Dedicate time to creativity
- Explore creative hobbies and get outside.
Connect with others instead of your phone
- Start a game night with no phones allowed.
- Use a phone box to make dinner device-free.
Socialize and Collaborate
Humans are social creatures. Socialization became a key strength in our primal survival to help create more advanced ways of sharing ideas. This helped develop better tools and strategies to live better and evolve to where we are now.
One thing 2020 taught us is how meaningful social connections can be. Research even finds that maintaining healthy social networks can help you live up to 50% longer. Healthy social relationships have positive effects on heart, brain, hormonal, and immune function. If that doesn’t convince you, social relationships and collaboration fuel intrinsic motivation and can sometimes help generate better ideas.
There are different types of creative socializing, each with a different purpose. Social collaboration during the day can aid in the creative process to develop and test ideas, but evening socializing should be about winding down and having fun. Focus on relieving any negative emotions from the day and inspire playful collaboration, like storytelling.
What is important to remember is to balance time and set boundaries. Extroverts can learn a lot from introverts in this area. Both benefit from improved emotional states without compromising goals or values, but there needs to be a limit to not harm sleep quality. One study found extroverts exposed to social environments were more vulnerable to sleep deprivation than introverts.
Manage your social time, and make sure you leave time for other evening routines the support rest.
Tips
- Balance time in social environments and set boundaries.
- Just like separating work, rest, and creative spaces. Separate social spaces.
- i.e., focus on winding down, not building up with work talk.
- Pair evening socializing with creative hobbies and play.
- Meet new people and boost well-being by volunteering time for a cause.
- Find and join events that match your passions.
Evening Walk After Dinner
Everyone knows walking is good for you, but do you know the benefits of walking in the evening, especially after dinner?
Dinners are often the biggest meal of the day, and they can leave us feeling sluggish and wanting to crash, but if you’re looking to cultivate a healthy and creative lifestyle, start an evening routine of walking. Evening walking can improve digestion, blood sugar management, reduce heart disease risk, promote weight loss, and help the body relax for a good night’s sleep. To best experience these benefits, research recommends walking immediately after a meal.
Not only is a walk a healthy way to relax but walks in nature have a long list of benefits to support the creative mind. Studies show walks in nature can improve mood, attention, memory, and idea generation.
Tips
Building a healthy evening walk routine
- Start small and build up. You don’t need to walk a marathon to experience the benefits. 10 minutes is a recommended starting duration to help prevent an upset stomach.
Make your evening walk a meditation
- Practice and maintain mindfulness by pay attention to your breath and observing the physical sensations of moving.
- Time your walks with the sunset for improved well-being and inspiration.
Set goals and intention
- Setting goals and intentions for the walk can help you build lasting habits and support accountability.
Boost creativity with other elements that support the creative process
- Invite others to enjoy the walk to socialize and collaborate.
- Discover and explore new paths and locations.
- Listen to a podcast or music to facilitate divergent thinking and relaxation.
Play and Have Some Fun
When we’re young, the evening was a time for play. Above all evening habits and routines for kids, play was among the most important.
Play is a crucial part of the development of our brains and teaching skills. It’s so important it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. For such a crucial habit, it’s unfortunate that as we get older, play becomes less of a priority. Research now suggests that play shouldn’t just be for kids. Adults need it just as much, especially creative minds.
To reconnect with your inner child and experience the benefits of play, start evening routines that support play and have some fun. When you make time to play, you support convergent and divergent problem-solving, motivation, reduces stress, and more.
Tips
Find new ways to play
- Play board games with friends and family
- Learn from kids
- Play Video games to clear the mind and have some fun.
- Video games can reduce stress and improve well-being. Even a quick video game break can boost productivity.
Discover new hobbies
- Trying new things is a great way to inspire creativity.
Follow curiosity
- Play is a great way to follow curiosity and see the world differently.
Drink Evening Teas and Water
As the day comes to a close, you want to continue winding down and getting ready for bed. To protect the mind and body for a restful night, an essential evening routine for creativity and well-being is drinking water and even tea. Instead of drinking beer or wine to wind down, try herbal teas or water that supports the brain and body restorative process during sleep.
Despite the state of stillness, there’s a lot going on inside. The brain is storing information from the day and getting rid of waste. The body is repairing cells, restoring energy, and releasing hormones and proteins. These are all crucial for health and functioning for the day to come. For the body and brain to do these important tasks, it needs a good night’s sleep and water to support these essential functions.
Benefits of Drinking Tea
- Calms the mind – helps you relax and reduces anxiety
- Boosts creative thinking
- Improves immune system
- May promote weight loss
- Improves cardiovascular health
- Promotes digestion
- Improves mood
- May help promote sleep quality and quantity
- Theanine in tea reduces stress-related hormones and neuron excitement in your brain, which allows your brain to relax.
Tips
Best Teas for Sleep
- Green Tea – Has caffeine but still helps with sleep because of theanine to trigger calmness and relaxation. You can also find decaffeinated versions.
- Chamomile Tea – Caffeine-free and is known to help relieve stress and anxiety.
- Peppermint Tea – Caffeine-free and is great for settling an upset stomach before bed.
- Lemon balm – Has been used since the middle ages to reduce stress and improve sleep.
Make it a mindful practice
- Slow down and observe every sensation and contemplate gratitude.
- Appreciate every sip.
Stretch
Tips
Guided stretch routines
- Yoga for Bedtime: Gentle Yoga Routine for Better Sleep | Breathe and Flow
- 10 min Evening Yoga Stretch – Bedtime Yoga for Beginners | Yoga with Kassandra
Best stretches for better sleep
- Seated forward bend
- Child’s pose
- Neck stretches
- Knees to chest
- Spinal twist
- Butterfly pose
- Bear hug
- Sphinx pose
Read
Do you need help falling asleep? Most people do. Do you watch tv to fall asleep? Stop. If you want to get better sleep and be more productive and creative during the day, turn off the tv and tech devices. Studies show that blue light in the evening can disrupt your brain’s natural sleep-wake cycles. A better way to entertain and ease the mind to sleep is by reading.
Reading is a great way to calm the mind and block out distracting thoughts. It can also trigger imagination and visualization. A study by Sleep Junkie interviewed 2,300 about how much they read in bed before sleep. Those who read before bed read an average of 45 mins and 76% of the bedtime readers were satisfied with their quality of sleep.
Tips
How to prepare for nighttime reading
- Get comfortable.
- Choose a quiet place.
What to read for better sleep?
- Keep it short. Keep it light. Fiction is usually better to calm the mind as non-fiction topics can further spur energy for creative thinking.
Reading on tablets and phones
- You should avoid reading on digital devices but if you choose to do this, change the screen brightness to the lowest level.
- Try audiobooks to avoid eye strain at night.
Evening Meditations
Tips
New to meditation? Learn why creatives should meditate and other helpful tips to get started
- Try meditating in VR to engage the senses for better focus.
- Try a guided VR meditation.
- Support your meditation with helpful tools and apps.
Meditation techniques for better sleep
- Use guided visual meditations to ease into sleep.
- Meditate to wind down after an intensive creative session.
- Practice abdominal breathing, which is a more full-body breathing technique for relaxation.
- Try body scan meditation.
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
