My go to night time routine

Creating an evening routine is my number 1 way to ensure I have a productive morning. When I am organized before I go to bed, I cut out all the morning chaos and even catch a few extra ZZZ's because I planned my day the night before. 

The main reason I get most of my tasks done, is because I prepare it all at night! There's nothing worse than waking up and not having a plan of action for the day (unless you're on vacay and the plan is to have NO plan!) So prepping myself for the upcoming day just helps my brain map out what I will be doing. The more you do in the evening, the less you have to do in the AM :)

1) 10 minute tidy ~ I set a timer on my phone for 10 minutes, and I go around and pick up around the house. I start with main rooms: front entrance, living room, toy room etc. This is a quick pick up of items that don't belong, so 10 minutes gives me enough time to run around and put everything back in it's place :)

2) Kitchen Sink Rule ~ When I first read this on a blog years ago, I dismissed it, but I started implementing it a year ago and now I can't go to sleep without doing it! The rule was to always make sure your kitchen sink is empty and DRIED before you go to bed. No dishes, no wet cloth, and sink dried and shiny. Theres nothing more calming than walking into your kitchen bright & early and seeing a clean, empty sink. Just try it!! It starts your day off right

3) Load laundry/set timer ~ My washing machine has a "delayed start" button so I set it an hour before I wake up

4) Lay out agenda ~ I leave my agenda on my office desk, opened, so I can look at it in the AM and have a clear idea of what I have going on that week

5) Set alarms ~ I take full advantage of the alarm app on my phone, and I set an alarm for EVERYTHING. My alarm is regularly going off with reminders (don't worry, it plays popular songs instead of annoying loud tones) I set them for everything including- "Mail cheque for venue", "PVR the Bachelor", "get Stella from school", "book order due"... I like this better than the reminder app because you can SNOOZE something if you can't do it immediately (don't worry I always get Stella from school!

6)Tomorrow to-do ~ I jot down everything I need AND want to do the next day. Then I circle the "frog" to make sure it gets done first. This list goes beside my agenda

7) Remove Makeup/mask ~ I take off my makeup as soon as I know I am home for the evening. Then I try to do a facemask every other day. I have a couple fancy, pricier masks that I use weekly, but I have a TON of the sheet masks you can buy at a drugstore. (3 for $5 at Shoppers) It's a gooey, thin white sheet with eye and nose holes that you place on your face and take off in 15 minutes.