Transcription
It's so easy to fall into a complacent routine where you get home from work and you're just too tired to do anything else. This is really applicable whether you work from home or you work in an office. I lived this reality for years before I finally decided to just do something about it. If you're tired of ending your days feeling like you wasted your evenings, trust me, I was too. So here are six things that I learned in the last 5 years that I've integrated into my day that have really helped me stop wasting my evenings.
The first tip is to replace your phone with something fun. Doom scrolling is so easy to fall back on, especially after a long and tiring day. But how many times have you caught yourself just lying down scrolling on your phone and then suddenly hours have gone by and you don't even know what time it is anymore? I know this is easier said than done because scrolling our phones have become kind of like the go-to numbing activity that we all do. But there are a few things that I've done that really have helped me lower my screen time over the years.
The first is using the app Opal. Opal is this really cool app that will actually block certain apps from being accessible on your phone based on the schedule that you've set. So I always set a morning schedule, so between 6:00 a.m. to about 8:00 a.m. I make sure I'm not going on any of the apps, so I'm not waking up and scrolling. You can also set a schedule for after work time to make sure that from the time you get home for the next like 1 to 2 hours, those apps are blocked and you don't even have to think about reaching for your phone.
Another helpful tip is to think about what you like to do outside of scrolling through your phone. So what other activities help you sort of de-stress and get rid of your workday? For me, that's stuff like journaling or reading, or I can engage in one of the other hobbies that I like doing like sewing, or I've been putting together puzzles and that has been really fun. Or maybe you like reading articles on Substack or The New Yorker or The Atlantic. I think even just having some options on your phone that are not social media, for example, articles or an ebook, is a really great way to do like a quick switch when you're realizing that you started doom scrolling to turn your focus onto something else.
If you feel like you've been struggling with your screen time, doing a digital detox could really help as well. I've talked about this free resource before, but I love HubSpot's 14-day digital detox challenge workbook that helps you stay off your phone. Inside there is a 14-day step-by-step challenge that'll help you reduce your screen time, as well as daily exercises and journal prompts to really make you think about your overall device usage. I also love that they've included a ton of tips on just how to have healthier digital habits in general. It was such a helpful resource to have when I was really trying to figure out like how I could create a better work-life balance, especially when so much of my work revolves around social media. I do really think that it's a resource that can help anyone. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I'll put the link in the description below. It's completely free and I definitely recommend downloading it and just giving it a read-through after you finish this video.
Tip number two to making sure you're not wasting your evenings is to actually time block your evenings. If you're already time blocking the rest of your day, why wouldn't you do it for the evenings when you finally get to relax and do the things that you want? Time blocking is a scheduling strategy that essentially prompts you to group your tasks in the day so that you can be more effective with your overall schedule. The main point of this tip is to be intentional about what you want to accomplish and achieve for your evenings, whether that is making sure that you are saving time for a creative hobby or cooking a nice meal or doing some reading of the book that you've been wanting to read so bad.
I always start my day by time blocking my day and I make sure that I do it for my evenings as well. So I'll schedule in time for reading, I'll schedule in time for my meal, and I'll schedule in time for anything else that I want to accomplish, whether that's a passion project or something fun. As you are time blocking your week, it's important to zoom out and look at your week as a whole as well, because you don't want to just get too into the nitty-gritty and you want to see if you can actually fit all the activities that you want to get done in your evenings throughout the week. So for example, if Monday I'm having a chill evening where I'm just reading, maybe catching up on a show, then Tuesday I'm going to spend the evening editing for my YouTube channel and working on any other passion projects that I may have. So I'll do this for all the evenings that I have throughout the week. I'll schedule in writing my newsletter, editing for YouTube, shooting photos for Instagram. I'll cook, I'll clean. I will make sure that everything that I wanted to get done in my free time gets done throughout the week.
It's totally okay if you want to spend some evenings catching up on shows and just relaxing, because that is a part of what makes us productive is making sure that we make time for just like rest and relaxation and just life things. But do you really want to spend all your evenings doing that? Time blocking isn't the only scheduling tool that you can use for making sure that you make time for everything, but just do something so that you know exactly what you can achieve in your evenings and you're intentional about the time.
Tip number three is to develop some sort of a routine that helps you disengage work mode. I have a really hard time with this, especially because I've been working from home for the last 8 years pretty much. It applies when you work in an office as well, but especially when you share a work space and a life space because it can be hard to just turn off your work brain. I have a terrible habit of letting work kind of leak into the rest of my life and I am really trying to actively work on methods that'll help me separate work mode and life mode.
One thing I like to do is to picture work angel and life angel as two completely separate characters. Work angel needs to be always on, needs to be ready, needs to be happy and engaged when talking to the camera. She also needs to be focused and just ready to tackle the day. Whereas life angel, I'd like to think is a lot more chill, tries to enjoy the moments, and really tries to just slow down. So ask yourself, whether in a journaling prompt or just verbally, who do you want to be in each mode? What are the specific characteristics that distinguish work mode you and life mode you? On the other hand, I always try to create some sort of a routine that signifies to my body that it's time to just forget about work. For me, that comes with turning off my computer, turning off my office lights, and actually leaving my office space. I try not to spend too much time in my office when I'm not working because having that physical separation between your work space and your living space can really help as well.
My fourth tip is to start from step one. And really, what that means is to evaluate what is the first thing you do or the first place you go right after work or right when you get home. Do you automatically go to the couch or a specific armchair? Do you automatically whip out your phone? I think a big part of changing your habits is to first evaluate what kind of habits you currently have so that you can identify what it is that you need to unlearn. By understanding what you like to do now, you can slowly tweak those habits over time to make sure that they are actually productive ones or ones that fulfill you.
If you work at an office, maybe you can try not going home right away and going to a cafe, or maybe the park, or somewhere where you can spend a little bit of time just changing your mind from work mode to life mode. Or maybe if you leave your desk at home and go straight to a couch, try not to do that. Maybe try to go to the kitchen, do some cleaning, or make yourself a little snack. I want you to challenge yourself to start your evening in a different spot. Sometimes that physical change will actually prompt better, like mental change as well.
If you're watching this video, I can probably safely assume that you're feeling like you're wasting your evenings and you don't like your current routines or habits. But there's no point in trying to first completely overhaul all of your habits because that will actually make it harder to achieve. Start from step one and start small in just changing the physical location that you go after work or changing the first thing that you do right after work so that you can slowly build those healthy habits over time.
Tip number five is to have an accountability buddy. This is probably the best tip when it comes to trying to build any new habits because for some reason, humans when they feel like they owe it to someone else to do something, that can often be a lot more motivating for them to make the internal change. Yes, there is a difference between intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations, but sometimes you just need that extra extrinsic push that'll make you do the work intrinsically as well.
Your accountability buddy could look like making plans with somebody after work three nights a week. May it be your best friend or your sibling to just check in with each other and do an activity that isn't doom scrolling or lying around. If that seems unachievable for whatever reason, it could just be setting up a call or sending a text and being like, "Hey, I just got home from work. I'm going to actually do some writing now for the next hour. I'll send you a picture of my article when I've written it." The point of having an accountability buddy really is just to have somebody who can give you that pep talk and somebody who will hold you accountable for your actions after work, so you don't have to do this alone. Find somebody who is also looking to maybe change some of their evening habits and do this challenge together.
My last tip is lists are everything. I love making lists. I love writing lists in my journal and my notebooks. I love making lists in Notion. Whether that is to-do lists, whether that is like books that I read, movies that I've watched. Something about lists just feels satisfying to make. So for this application specifically, make a list of all the things that you love doing that are not work-related. So on my list, there's stuff like reading again, I really enjoy reading, but also stuff like sewing. It could be making stickers, it could be doing design, it could be listening to music, going for a walk, doing yoga, doing a stretch. There's so many things that I enjoy doing that are completely not work-related.
Often times when we've entered that state of routine and habit, whether it is a good one or a bad one, our brain has been trained to just continue to do that thing because it's familiar. So having this list really just helps you be able to shift your actions to something else without too much thinking. Because if you're already lying on the couch doing doom scrolling, it's so easy to continue that. But if you have a but if you have a list handy and you catch yourself doom scrolling, you can quickly pull up the list and be like, "Okay, I don't want to doom scroll anymore. What are some other things that I could be doing right now?"
If you feel like you've been wasting your evenings, I just want to quickly say that it's okay. I totally get it because work and life can be tiring and it's easy just to fall into routines that you think will make you feel better. But I guess my overall point of this video is to really prompt you to think about, are the things that I'm doing right now really helping me feel fulfilled and feel rested? Our evenings should be a time where we can pursue the things that we want to do but aren't able to because we work a 9 to 5 or we have a specific work schedule. Whether you want to spend your evenings doing something productive like me when I worked at 9 to 5 and I built my YouTube channel sort of in the evenings, in the mornings, and on the weekends, or you just want to find more activities that will actually make you happy and that are fun and that don't include your phone, just keep in mind that it's important to have balance between both.
Feel free to go through your social media and catch up on Netflix and just lie there and do nothing on the days that you want to do that. But also make sure you're zooming out to your entire week and scheduling that time for the other things that you want to get done as well. I hope this video was helpful and that it found you at a time where you felt like you really needed a little extra motivation. If you feel like the phone is your biggest issue, like often it is for me, make sure you go into the description and check out that free resource I was talking about from HubSpot. I loved doing that digital detox challenge and I think it'll really help you as well. But that's it for this week's video. I hope you're having an amazing day wherever you are in the world, and I will see you in my next video. Bye.