As smoothly as my mornings go, I try to keep my evenings the same. However, depending on my level of exhaustion at the end of the long school day, it makes a HUGE difference in how my evening will play out. Unlike my mornings, I don’t have set times for everything I do. Some nights I eat dinner at 4:30pm [yes I’m 85 years old] and other days I don’t eat until 8:00. It really depends on the day, what work I have, afterschool activities, etc.

Despite these time differences day to day, I do however try to do the exact same things every evening at some point no matter what time they get accomplished. For example, I get home from school and the first thing I do is hang my coat and put my bag in its place. I take my laptop out of my bag and I plug it in because most days I use at least 1/2 of the battery and I always need to come to school with it fully charged. I spend 30-45 minutes relaxing. I lay on my couch, sometimes have a little snack, watch Netflix, play on my phone, etc. Being gone for 9 hours really takes it out of you and I deserve a little time to myself just to do absolutely nothing of importance.

Every night I cook dinner, obviously [I wish I could do the same thing at home]. I aim to eat around 5:30 or 6:00 but as I said, it depends on the day. While I’m cooking, I check my planner to see what schoolwork I have to get done this evening and make a list of it or start the work while I eat.

After dinner, I do all my dishes from the day. I clean the coffee pot and get it ready for the next morning, my breakfast dishes, lunch box, dinner dishes, etc. It’s always nice to begin and end a day with a cupboard full of clean dishes and an empty sink.

Once my dishes are done I tidy up my apartment. Random shirts and pairs of shoes that I tried on that morning and didn’t want to wear are put back in their place and random tissues and pieces of plastic are thrown away.

After that, I have a nice-looking apartment that is ready for work. I sit either on my couch or at my table [or balcony when it’s not too cold]  and do whatever work I have to do. Some nights I have nothing and other nights I have a bit more. On nights that I have nothing, I get to enjoy a little more Netflix, take a walk outside, or progress on my edTPA. I love walking around my city because I always find something new [and remember some sort of food that I don’t have at home and need to pick up] to see or do and it’s nice to be able to call this city my home.

At 8:30 usually, I begin getting ready for bed. I brush my teeth, take my makeup off, do my skincare routine, some nights I do a face mask, etc. I put my clean dishes away, put pajamas on, and lay in bed. I watch a bit more TV, listen to music, read, write, etc. before ideally being asleep by 9:30 so that I’m ready to wake up the next morning.

With my morning routine as well as this one, my days go a lot more smoothly. Who would have thought it would have taken me 22 years to be able to come up with something as easy as this to get me through the days?

❤ Alicia