Hey guys, Masha here from Masha Plans.

Today I want to share with you my top secret for a successful and productive day: creating routines!

Routines are an amazing way to bring structure to your days and make them less stressful and more productive.

I actually have a huge blog post on how to build routines on my blog, which you can take a look at.

But today, we’re going more specific and more creative - we’ll be talking about creating an evening routine and actually doing an evening routine spread. Because of course, your journal can help you to create a perfect routine and have fun doing it!

SECRET TO GOOD EVENING ROUTINE

Before we dive in, let me just drop a few tips on how to build a perfect evening routine.

• Cut on coffee

This is the hardest one! But for better sleep, your after-lunch coffee should probably be the last one. At least if having good sleep is something you’re struggling with.

• Avoid strenuous exercises

To have a calmer and better evening, try to do something like stretching or yoga instead of the active gym. It’ll help you to wind down and prepare your body for sleep.

• Brain dump

We often are plagued with ideas on how to solve things, what chores to do tomorrow, how to be better at work. All these worries can create a lot of stress you don’t need for the evening. 

A good tip here is to brain dump before you sleep. Write down all the things that are in your head - ideas, thoughts, to-dos. Write it down and leave it until tomorrow.

• Bullet Journal

Calming your mind is very important and your Bullet Journal is always a great help. SIt down with your journal for a minute, write down your tasks for the next day, fill out your trackers and gratitude log.

• Don’t overdo it

When you first start creating a routine for yourself - don’t try to include EVERYTHING there. This approach never works and you’ll end up abandoning it altogether.

Think of what routine you have right now and start with small things you can add to it or change to make it work better for you.

• Avoid blue light

I’m guilty of this myself. Before sleep, I check my phone or maybe put on my favorite TV show. But this really isn’t the best thing for a good night.

Try to replace it with other things - listen to a podcast or read a book.

Ok enough with the tips, let’s get to the fun part of creating an evening routine spread.

SUPPLIES

For supplies, I used my square Archer and Olive journal which I’ve been absolutely obsessing about it lately!

If you ever want to get one, or anything from Archer and Olive - be sure to use code MASHA10 that will give you 10% off your order.

I also decided to take out and use some goodies that came in the Archer and Olive March Subscription box, which is full of so many amazing items!

I’m using here acrylograph pens and stickers from the box.

STEP 1: SKETCH

As always I start by sketching the page. There isn’t much sketching to do here, so it’s mostly just drawing the letters.

I wanted to create an evening routine spread that is very clear so I opted out for not so many decorative elements.

STEP 2: COLOR

Time to bring the new acrylograph pen colors to life and OMG do I love those!

They match perfectly, so I didn’t really have to struggle to pick the colors. They also match perfectly with the stickers as you’ll see below.

I created a frame to kind of add some interest to the page. Even since I started doing framed in February I sort of like adding them.

STEP 3: STICKERS

Next step - stickers. I thought the stickers from the box with clouds and air balloons are just perfect for an evening routine spread.

I wanted to make sure they don’t take too much space from the page, so I opted to add them just to the corner and I’m really loving how it all turned out.

STEP 4: ADD ROUTINE

Finally, time to write down the routine. I added text for each step and them used a gold Acrylograph pen to lead me from one step to another

When I was done I realized I still have a lot of space on the bottom right corner, so I decided to draw a cloud to kind of fill it out.

I absolutely could’ve just added more steps to my routine to fill out the page completely, but I don’t want to overdo it and want to be realistic.

If you decide to recreate this page and do your own evening routine spread, be sure to tag me @mashaplans and @archerandolive on Instagram, we would love to see your creations.

Keep Bullet Journaling and Don’t Be A Blob!