My Night Routine

A common opinion that a majority of people share (unless you’re one of the lucky few) is that mornings suck, and nighttime rules! The afternoon is preferred by most for a variety of reasons, whether it be the satisfaction of a finished day, free time to relax and do whatever you want, or the anticipation of a cozy bed to burrito yourself in. Personally, I love afternoons/nighttime because it is my time to unwind and let go of all the stress and anxiety I had during the day. I get to just sit on my bed and do whatever I want, from curling up with a good book, watching netflix, or simply taking a much needed nap. So without further ado, let’s dive into my afternoon routine!

1. After School

Getting out of school at three o’clock is definitely one of my favorite parts of the day. After managing my social anxiety for seven suffocating hours, it feels good knowing I have the rest of the day to do whatever my heart desires. My activities after school vary from day to day: some days my mom will pick me up and take me straight home (I still need to get my license lol), some days I’ll head down to starbucks to grab a drink and work on homework, and other days I’ll hang out and get lunch with my best friend. It’s important to give yourself a moment to have fun after working hard all day, and this is my time to do just that.

2. Unwinding at Home

My anxiety disorder causes me to have an abnormal amount of stress while at school, and throughout the day just builds and builds. Once I get home, I like to give myself time to just relax and let go of all my pent up stress and anxiety. This process usually takes about an hour, but I sometimes try to shorten it when I have a large homework load. The method I reach for the most is laying on my couch or bed and listening to my favorite music (which I will talk about in a later post). If I choose not to listen to music, I will either watch an episode of Gossip Girl on Netflix, or just scroll through my social medias. Once I’ve finished, it’s time for the much dreaded homework load that I receive every night.

3. Homework and Procrastination

If you’re anything like me, doing homework is EXTREMELY difficult. Not because it’s hard to understand, but because you get distracted every five minutes. As soon as I take out my work and get ready to start, something else catches my attention. For example, once when I was working on a history project I noticed I had an uneven nail, and for the next half hour I became a nail technician. I try to limit my distractions as much as possible by putting my phone in a separate room with my ringer on silent, but I almost always eventually get up to check it. In the end, I always end up finishing my work after about four hours. With that out of the way, it’s time for my favorite part of the night: bed time.

4. Getting Ready for Bed + Sleep

After eating dinner with my family, it’s time to start getting ready for bed. The first thing I do is sit on my bed and scroll through social medias while taking off my makeup for about five minutes. Once I’m finished with this, I take my shower and wash my hair which lasts about 15-20 minutes (my mom always yells at me for it). I also always brush my teeth in the shower which Marina thinks is so weird, but I love it because you don’t have to worry about dripping

toothpaste all over your clothes. If you guys brush your teeth in the shower too let me know in the comments! Once I’m done with all of this, it’s time for my favorite part: getting into bed. The feeling of crawling into a soft, warm bed is possibly one of the best feelings in the world. After basking in the comfort, I set my alarm for the next day, and check the predicted weather so I can get an idea of what I want to wear. Then, I fall asleep.

Thank you so much for reading my post! If you have a night/afternoon routine, I would love to hear about it in the comments!

-Maddy