Find the Good in your Afternoon Routine

Today I want to share the little things I do as part of my afternoon routine to Find the Good.

This is part of a series I’m creating. I’ve already shared How I Find the Good in the Morning and the Evening.

Out of all my routines – this is probably the hardest one to stick to at weekends and during school holidays. The school pick-up acts as a signal to start doing these things and without it I do struggle and lose track of time.

How I Find the Good in my Afternoon Routine

1. Transition from School to Home. When we get home we have certain activities we try to do every day – a snack, reading, spellings & sometimes jobs around the house like taking the recycling out.
2. Empty/Check Bags – I get my son to check his school bag for notices and empty lunch/snack boxes when he gets his reading book out. If I’ve been out and about I unpack anything from bags that I’ve brought back with me.
3. Change out of uniform – I encourage my son to get changed into non-uniform as a signal that school is done for the day. It means the uniform is less likely to get dirty/damaged with playing.
4. Know what’s for dinner before it’s time to cook. I do a weekly menu plan and try to check it each day so I know what’s for dinner and how long it will take to prepare.
5. Tidy the Kitchen before preparing dinner. We don’t have a dishwasher so I often find myself washing up 3-4 times a day. It always helps to start meal prep with a clean slate.
6. Take a Break – usually by this point I’m ready for a quick sit down before I tackle dinner!
7. Check my to do list/bullet journal – to ensure I’ve completed any priorities for the day and tick some more items off if needed.
8. Start preparing dinner – trying to keep the kitchen tidy as I go.

After dinner I transition to our evening routine.

Other Ways to Find the Good in your Afternoon Routine

• If you struggle with an afternoon ritual why not set a daily calendar reminder or alarm? This may help you transition from daytime to evening time.
• Keep an eye on laundry. If I’ve done laundry that day – I do what needs done next (hanging up, folding, putting away). There’s nothing worse than remembering the washing machine is full of damp clothes at bed time!
• Tidy your “work space”. When I worked in an office I usually tried to tidy my desk at the end of each day as a signal it was nearly home time. *NOTE TO SELF: I think I need to build in a quick 10 minutes tidy into my afternoon routine to keep on top of clutter.
• Start thinking about tomorrow – is there anything you can prepare now (food, outfits, paperwork etc) to save time in the evening or the morning?
• Take a break – if you feel like the afternoon is dragging by – stop what you are doing for a few minutes – grab yourself a snack or drink and move around to revive energy levels.
• If you’re more awake in the afternoon plan in your most important tasks then. But if you tend to flag have some items on your to do list that are a little easier!

I find when we get little jobs done in the afternoon it makes the evening run much smoother. Do you have a specific afternoon routine? What does yours consist of?

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