The Surprising Ways Mel Robbins' 5-Step Evening Routine Enhanced My Life

      Many of us have honed our morning routines (or at least are working on perfecting them). From the first shifts to breakfast menus, we invest considerable time and effort into determining the best way to kick off our days. However, evening routines often lack the recognition they warrant, despite their numerous advantages, such as stress reduction, support for circadian rhythms, enhanced mental clarity, and opportunities for self-care. If you’re like me, your evenings are often consumed by excessive TV watching, compulsively scrolling through social media, and staying up too late (in other words, we lack a proper winding-down process). Acknowledging that my current evening routine isn’t sustainable prompted me to seek change.

      Shortly after I resolved to establish a healthier evening routine, Mel Robbins released a podcast episode discussing her own nighttime habits. Known for her accessible personal development advice (you may be familiar with her “Let Them Theory” or “High Five Habit”), her structured evening routine adds to her repertoire of practical wisdom. Given my situation, I decided to try Robbins’ five-step evening routine for a week to see if I could finally break my detrimental evening habits. Here’s what I discovered.

      Mel Robbins’ 5-Step Evening Routine

      As Robbins notes, her straightforward five-step evening routine is especially necessary when there’s “zero gas in the tank.” Comprising just five simple practices, Robbins asserts that this routine will not only help you wrap up each day but also improve your sleep and set you up for a better tomorrow.

      Step 1: Choose your bedtime

      Selecting a bedtime serves as the foundation for all subsequent steps in this routine. For optimal sleep (approximately eight hours), Robbins suggests aiming to be in bed for a total of nine hours. This “rule of nine hours” is based on the idea that it takes about 20 minutes to actually fall asleep—even for those with ideal sleep habits. Thus, instead of going to bed exactly when we wish to fall asleep, we should be in bed about an hour prior to allow our bodies time to relax and transition to sleep.

      To establish your ideal bedtime, determine when you want to wake up in the morning and count back nine hours (for instance, if you want to wake up at 6 a.m., your bedtime should be 9 p.m.). Once you identify your preferred bedtime, consistency becomes vital (the key to establishing any routine).

      Step 2: Tidy up so you begin tomorrow fresh

      Robbins likens this step to “flushing a toilet.” She encourages us to think of our day as akin to using a bathroom: when you’re finished, you flush. As trivial as it may sound, Robbins raises a valid point: why leave our spaces messy, causing ourselves stress over cleaning later? Similar to a “closing shift,” she recommends setting aside time to tidy your home before bed, allowing you to start the next day with a clean slate. This doesn’t require a deep clean; you just need a few minutes to manage the clutter from the day, such as putting away dirty laundry, organizing your desk, and clearing other messes in your home.

      Step 3: Simplify tomorrow

      This step focuses on easing the burden for your future self. Our willpower and decision-making abilities peak at the beginning of the day, but they gradually diminish with each decision we make—ranging from minor choices like what to wear to significant ones like how to approach a work project (hello, decision fatigue). To make the next morning easier, prepare some things for yourself the night before. For Robbins, this means laying out her workout clothes, filling up a water bottle near the coffee maker, packing her lunch and prepping breakfast, among other small tasks. Remember: “Anything that you do tonight to facilitate tomorrow morning is a gift to yourself,” she advises.

      Step 4: Take five minutes for yourself

      Intentional time spent with yourself, free from constant stimulation, daily demands, and endless responsibilities, is crucial. This step can be completely tailored to your preferences in the evening. When considering how you want to retreat and de-stress, Robbins strongly advocates for tech-free activities because “it’s a myth to believe that mindlessly scrolling is time for you,” she argues. “It’s a falsehood to think that lounging on the couch with your phone while flipping through trailers counts as self-care.”

      Tech-free activities might include taking a walk around the block, journaling, gentle stretching, reading, or simply sitting in gratitude. Just think: during the timeframe you’ve mindlessly watched five to ten TikToks, you could have engaged in something that enhances your mental or physical health and truly rejuvenated yourself. All it takes is five minutes—and if you can spare more time for self-care, go for it!

      Step 5: Put your phone away before settling down

      After a hectic, busy day, many of us unwind by doomscrolling or binge-watching TV until we’re too tired to stay awake