This month I’ll be working on what the FlyLady calls the most important routine of the day: the Before Bedtime Routine. It’s her Habit of the Month for September, which I think is an ideal time to focus on it.

After a summer of late nights and skipping this habit because I’m “too tired”, I’m ready to be more disciplined. I’m ready to add some structure to my evenings to make them a time to prepare for the next day, and to improve the transition into an earlier bedtime.

This is what mine looks like:

• Food plan (for the next day, in MyFitnessPal)
• Tidy the kitchen (do dishes, load the dishwasher, run the dishwasher, a.k.a. “Shine My Sink”)
• Tidy the living room
• Check my planner
• Look at my index cards
• Start my to-do list for the next day
• Lay out my clothes for the next day
• Get ready for bed (brush teeth, p.j.’s, etc)
• Examen, night prayers
• Read
• Lights out by 10:00 pm

That looks long as a list. It’s only on four index cards. I estimate that it takes about an hour. I need to test it out to see if that’s true. And of course, I would need to get started pretty early if I want to read for a long time. I’ve really gotten away from doing this regularly. My shortcut is run the dishwasher, tidy the living room and hop into bed.

I’ll report back here in October with the results.