The last few weeks I’ve been sharing just how important my morning routine is. This routine, crafted over many years, is the pillar of success in my business and life. It is one of the most fulfilling things to start my day off right and to know I can trust myself. You start the day off by taking care of your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual health. Morning’s can be so beautiful.
But afternoon’s can be even better, because you can continue a successful morning right into the evening, so your entire day is actually supporting your best life. Worry about the minutes and days, and the years will just take care of themselves.
Today’s video tells how I keep a great day going: My afternoon routine and what my afternoon/evening routine consists of. I track my afternoons and evenings because my best, most focused work time is 7:30am – 2:30pm and by 3pm I start to get restless. I need to track well into the evening because otherwise certain things that need to get done, just won’t because I don’t feel like doing them or I’ll keep putting them off. I have a strong feeling I’m not alone in this category. 🙂
Courtesy of The New Yorker
You now know what gets tracked gets improved. @ishitagupta (Click to Tweet!)
The only way to see progress is by measuring it – visually and physically if you can.
The things that ordinarily wouldn’t happen unless I tracked them – calling family or friends, working out, or sleeping by a certain hour are necessary for me to track until I get into the habit of consistency.
Watch the video for all the details but here is some of my afternoon routine. In the video I share how you can also start your own afternoon and evening routines. Here’s what’s on my docket:
1) Eat lunch before 2:00pm
Sometimes when I’m in the morning zone of writing/creating, I’ll keep going and forget to eat, even though my body’s signaling, “Ishita, you’re hungry, eat.” I’ll just forget and I won’t do it, which then makes me HANGRY.
2) Get midday sunlight
My body also signals me to go outside, “Hey beautiful, it’s beautiful out, go outside!” but if I’m on autopilot I won’t listen to it. See the theme here? My body is asking me to do things, good things, but I override. Not good. Now I build this into my routine so I’m very aware of the signals and TREAT THEM AS FACT. Liz DiAlto helped me come up with my personal mantra to treat my body’s signals as fact and to override much less.
Moving on to the p.m. routine:
1) Move body for thirty minutes
I like to get at least thirty minutes of movement in at least three days a week, ideally more. Notice I didn’t write exercise or the gym, but movement. I don’t care how I do it and preferably I like something fun, but the movement is anything that helps me break a sweat – dancing, walking, running, etc. I’ve recently been dancing wildly in Central Park each afternoon and not one person bats an eyelash.
2) Drink eight glasses of water
I start off my morning routine with two glasses of water, so I generally knock out at least 16-20oz right in the morning. For the rest of my 44oz I spread them through the day and track how many I’ve finished at night.
3) Read inspiration before bed
Did I read something inspirational to wind down my night? I like reading inspiring non-fiction or fiction to feel positive right before bed. Totally beats checking your phone or Instagram which SUCK YOU INTO THE VOID.
4) Sleep by midnight
That sounds late, but recently I’ve been sleeping even later than that. So giving myself a midnight deadline is a good current goal for me until I get into the groove of sleeping early again. I keep midnight as my baseline, which means I have to be in bed by 11:30 p.m.
5) Call someone I love
6) Spend time with someone I love
7) Be kind and help someone
These last three items aren’t a daily necessity, although obviously it’s good to be kind each day, but I just track them weekly. Personally, it’s more important for me to be aware of them and look at how I do during the week then stress out every single day about things that do take up energy.
My family gets pissed all the time about it, but I really believe in CONSERVING ENERGY. I like to conserve my energy and relegate it to the things that I feel are important in my life. Calling my siblings to connect is important, stressing out about doing it every day is DEFINITELY NOT. If a few days goes by and I don’t talk to my brother or sister, I start to feel it, so I check in a few times. Other people in my life have a more rigid quota.
Remember, the goal with all this tracking is consistency and ease, NOT being a drill sergeant with yourself and making it even HARDER to do these things. The reason you put them on a tracker isn’t to make yourself feel bad if you haven’t done it on a day, it’s to make your priorities VISIBLE AND INTENTIONAL for you to achieve.
Thas all, folks.
Here are some tips for you to create your own morning, afternoon and evening routine. Watch the video for my antics and details, but the general things to remember are this:
- Do what FEELS most natural to you first.
- Start simple. You don’t have to be perfect or implement all of this at once.
- Start where you are. Don’t make your bedtime 8pm, make it 11:30pm if you know you’re starting at a baseline of sleeping at 4am each day. Start where you are, and that’s how you’re going to succeed.
- If you consistently track, you’ll remember and really start developing this muscle.
So, this is what’s important to me in a given day and week. If I’m not tracking, I actually feel like my week is off. So be disciplined and intentional with this, but not hardcore, especially if you’re beginning. Just bring awareness to what you do and how often you do it and you’ll start to see your life improve. I promise you’ll start to see it happen slowly, but surely.
xx Ishita
Ishita Gupta is an entrepreneur, speaker, and business breakthrough strategist. Building her business from zero to multiple six-figures in one year, Ishita helps entrepreneurs get the confidence they need to run their businesses like a Pro. Her programs help business owners lay foundations to make money, create systems to increase productivity, sell with confidence, and do high-impact marketing that gets results. Ishita speaks at conferences around the U.S. on entrepreneurship and leadership, including World Domination Summit, TEDx Detroit, Columbia University, and more. You can also follow Ishita on Twitter.
Featured image courtesy of Andrew Schofield.
