The night routine basically follows the same principles as the morning routine, but it has a slightly different purpose. While the morning routine is more focused on getting you ready for your day and checking the most important boxes in your life, the night routine is more about reviewing the day and winding down. It is also typically shorter than the morning routine.

Yes, there are people who are extremely disciplined and don’t have a night routine. They work until the last minute before going to bed. This is also possible, and has its advantages, but it’s not something I would generally recommend, given the theme of balance that is an aspect of Mindful Self-Discipline.

Personally, at this phase in my life, my night routine is two and a half hours. The first two hours are family time, and the last half an hour is prepping for sleep, day review, and some affirmations or visualization. Within the family time slot, things are unstructured—I may be playing with my daughter, talking with my wife, watching a movie or going for a walk. But family time itself always happens at the same time, and it is focused (I’m typically offline at that time).

For your night routine, decide the relaxation and winding down activities that make sense for you, and the amount of time you wish to spend on them, and then plan your routine backwards, starting from the time you want to go to bed. The most important element of the night routine is your sleep time—if you can get to sleep on time, and do nothing else in your night routine, that’s already great. And just like you did for the morning routine, set up an alarm to remind you every night when to start—and don’t snooze it.