Most information on productivity states that morning is the best time to achieve the most in a day. While this belief is true, it is not exclusively so. Morning can be the best time for many people to make the most of their day.
However, lots of people are most productive in the late evenings, while others are often asleep. If you belong to the latter group, you should learn how to optimize your peak period. Read this simple guide to learn how to be more productive in the evening.
How to Be More Productive in the Evening
Being active in the evening has been found to lead to more productivity, as the late hours seem to be longer. Without daylight distractions, you can achieve more and live a happier life. However, the main task is optimizing the promise of productivity in the evening. Read these helpful tips carefully to make the most of being a night owl.
Prepare Ahead of Time
Several quotes exist on the importance of preparation in achieving anything worthwhile. The same principle applies here. To be productive in the evening, you should prepare before the evening rolls in. In this vein, you should plan your day to give you enough energy to take on your evening tasks.
Ensure your preparation covers more than just your evening routines. Your daily activities should reflect how you want to spend your night. For example, you may decide to do tasks that involve other people during the day. That way, you have the evening to attend to personal duties and finish them within a shorter time.
Create Structured Plans
Being a night person has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. To make the best out of your daily routine, you must create feasible plans for spending your day. Your plan should include the tasks you must complete and the timeframe for each.
This is when you decide on putting off the challenging tasks for the morning or afternoon, when you still have enough brain power. Then, by evening, you can settle down to the easy tasks, like everyday household chores, as well as catch up on your book club reviews.
Your plan should factor in your regular work hours, peak time, social life, and other factors that determine your lifestyle.
Take a Nap in the Afternoon
A nap in the afternoon will make you more productive in the evening. The human body needs enough sleep to function. Cutting back on your sleep will affect your health over time, helping you remain productive while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Experts recommend eight hours of sleep for everyone, but we understand that your body clock may not allow you to achieve this at night. What you can do is take micro naps during the day. Many successful people have opened up about doing this, and companies now allow their employees to take micro naps at work.
Review Yourself
You cannot measure productivity in a vacuum. It would be best to evaluate yourself to determine whether or not you have been productive. One simple way to do this evaluation is to review yourself regularly.
You can do daily and weekly reviews to keep yourself in top shape. It is advisable to note the good things you did, what you achieved and what you can do better.
With your review giving you a picture of how you have spent your time, you can improve as you fix your shortcomings. You should write your reviews down so you can compare notes and measure your growth over time. As you strive to improve your productive times, you can cut back on activities that waste time, like junk TV, and excessive social media use.
Eat Light and Healthy
You must have heard several times that breakfast is the day’s most important meal. We advise that one eats their largest meal in the morning. Despite this, many people eat large meals at night after skipping meals all day. You should avoid this if you want to make your evenings more productive.
A light dinner will give you enough brain power to carry out your evening routines while preventing health complications. It is also ideal to have your last meal of the day at least three hours before you are scheduled to sleep. Eating a heavy meal before bed will disrupt sleep at night and reduce sleep quality.
Make Your Bedroom Sleep-Friendly
Your sleep schedule keeps popping up as a topic because a natural sleep pattern contributes significantly to your productivity levels. You need to develop a consistent sleep routine to keep your mind alert and body healthy. To achieve this, your sleeping area must be well-suited and conducive.
There are a few things you should know about making your bedroom sleep-friendly. The first is to avoid working there, your subconscious mind will still treat the place as a bedroom. You should also avoid bright, blue, and all forms of artificial light once you start preparing to sleep. Keep your bedroom dark, warm and silent — like a cave.
Stay Away From Alcohol
You should avoid drinking alcohol at night if you want to be productive. Alcohol lulls you into a tired mind, making it challenging to stay alert. While you are at it, you should also avoid carbonated drinks as much as possible once the evening starts rolling in.
Read and Listen to Podcasts
Activities like reading and listening to podcasts have been found to contribute immensely to nighttime productivity. The unhurried nature of these activities facilitates a restful night as your body relaxes from the stress of the day.
For example, you may enjoy better sleep quality and peak productivity daily with just a few pages of fiction. Similar activities include light exercises, like yoga and meditation.
Avoid Blue Light
A lot of the processes that happen in the human body occur subconsciously. One such is how our internal clock works, which associates blue light with the day. Whenever the eyes come in contact with the blue light from electronic device screens, the brain believes it is still day.
To avoid this, stop using blue light sources at night. Additionally, consider not using a mobile phone or computer for at least one hour before you sleep. While trying to keep your biological clock in good condition, you can work on your evening habits. Do household chores like cooking the following day’s meals to relax before bed instead.
Maintain a Consistent Pattern of Sleep
You need a healthy sleep routine to achieve your evening productivity hack. First, try different sleep patterns to see which works best for you. You can spend a week trying out one style before attempting another the following week. Once you find a routine that works for you, you can stick to it.
Maintaining a consistent sleep pattern involves regular sleep time and waking time. You can start by using an alarm clock to remind you of sleep time. As time goes on, your body clock will get used to it, and you can enjoy improved productivity when you feel relaxed.
Take Good Care of Your Health
For a long time, being a night owl was seen as unusual. However, modern society is growing more aware of the reality of some people being natural night owls. These people have a genetic predisposition to sleep late and peak hours towards the end of the day.
Whether you belong to this group or your night habits are self-induced, you should be mindful of your health. In addition, you should become aware of the possible health complications of being a night owl. This will enable you to practice habits that will keep you healthy in the long term.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many see the evening as an excellent time to concentrate and achieve more. As a result, most of these people regularly ask questions about improving productivity in the evening. Read our answers to some of the frequently asked questions.
How can I be more productive at night after work?
Yes, you can improve your productivity at night, even after a regular workday. The key is to prepare for your evening schedule and work towards achieving it. Make a to-do list of action steps for your tasks.
Pick each step and work towards achieving it without putting undue pressure on yourself. Finally, evaluate your daily achievement to ensure you are progressing.
Why am I more productive in the evenings?
You are more productive in the evening because there is a reduction in your cortisol levels as the day draws to an end. The stress hormone is high during the day and reduces gradually in the evening. This reaction is because your body prepares to sleep, making you more relaxed. You can channel this ease into more work and increased productivity.
Final Thoughts
Humans sleep for about 36% of our lifetimes. Therefore, it makes sense that many people want to know more about enjoying maximum productivity during their waking time. This guide highlights some helpful tips to improve your productivity levels at night.
You should now have a solid grasp on how to be more productive in the evening, and by extension, the rest of your day!
