Earlier this year, I asked my Instagram followers if there were any posts they wanted to see from me. Several asked for morning and evening routines, and today I am happy to oblige. Almost two years ago, I wrote a post about my daily routine in quarantine, and I re-read it before writing this post. Truthfully, since I am still working from home, my days look very similar to what is described in that post. So instead of re-hashing my whole day, essentially writing the same post, I thought I’d take a different approach this time by sharing my morning and evening routines, and highlighting the products I love using for both.

I am the type of person that really thrives on routine. One of my favorite things about coming home from vacation is getting back into the swing of daily life. And given my penchant for the predictability of routine, I think that’s one of the reasons why the start of the pandemic was so hard for me—my whole routine went away over night. I quickly went to work re-establishing a new routine that worked with the realities of working from home—and here I am still following it almost two years later.

Another thing you should know about me is that I’m a night owl. I love to stay up late and I do some of my best and most creative thinking at night. Our culture loves to glamorize the early bird, and if that works for you, great! But I am here to say, you can have just a productive of a day if you get started on the later side. Given this, as you’ll see below, my morning routine is pretty condensed as I love to sleep as late as possible versus having a leisurely morning.

PS—these pictures are just ones I wanted to share, and I needed some imagery for this post. If you want to read about my living room in this Arlington apartment, check out here, here, and here.

MORNING ROUTINE

8:30am: my first alarm goes off, and as much as I want to be the type of person that pops out of bed on the first alarm, I am just not. So I roll back over for a few more minutes before starting my day.

8:45am: my real alarm goes off, and I am up and at ’em for the day. I quickly make my bed and then put on my Apple Watch so that I can get a stand hour first thing. I purchased an Apple Watch last summer after holding out for years, but I really love it—since I love going on long walks, it’s fun that it helps track your distance + steps, and it really does help motivate me to keep moving throughout the day. That’s especially valuable to me since I mostly sit at my desk all day.

8:50am: I head into the bathroom to do my very quick morning skincare + makeup routine. In the morning, I brush my teeth, splash my face with cold water, and then use the Kiehl’s Powerful Strength Vitamin C Serum. Once that’s dry, I use a very tiny amount of my favorite moisturizer, Atopalm, and then finish off with sunscreen. Lately, I’ve been using Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen and the Solara Vacation Glow—I alternate depending on my mood.

On a typical workday, I wear very little makeup. I use Maybelline Fit Me Concealer on my under eyes and then set that with the Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder for Under Eyes. I fill in my brows with the IT Cosmetics Brow Power and set those in place with Benefit’s Gimme Brow. To finish it off, I do a few coats of the IT Cosmetics Superhero Mascara.

8:55am: I quickly get dressed for the day. Usually, I wear leggings—and these high-waisted 7/8 leggings with pockets from Old Navy are by far my favorite. I am 5’4″ and buy the petite length and they hit in the perfect place. They are super comfortable, hold up well in the wash, and I love that they have pockets. And then I pair my leggings with some sort of comfortable shirt—lately, I’ve been loving this Nike Cropped Sweatshirt and I own the Rebecca Minkoff Janine Sweatshirt in multiple colors. The latter looks great on Zoom because of the ruffle sleeves!

9:00am: I quickly make a smoothie to enjoy while tackling my inbox, starting to Slack with my coworkers, and answering any personal texts that I am behind on. (I try not to check my own personal social media until later in the day given I have such a short runway in the morning to get ready and to my desk on time!) To make my smoothies, I love the Nutribullet. I usually do 1 cup oat milk, several large handfuls of spinach, 2 scoops of collagen peptides, 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, 1/2 of a frozen banana, and a small handful of an additional frozen fruit. I mix it up, but always keep frozen strawberries, mangoes, pineapples, and blueberries on hand.

After my smoothie is done and my inbox is triaged, it’s off to the races at work! My days are usually filled with many hours logged on Zoom and a lot of deck building.

EVENING ROUTINE

5:00-5:15pm: It’s usually around this time I wrap up work for the day and make sure my desk is cleaned up for the evening.

5:15-6:30pm: While a couple of nights I will have social plans with friends, I do try to keep most of my weeknights free, especially earlier in the week. Over the years, I’ve found that I sleep so much better and focus so much better if I spend my time after work exercising and eating healthy instead of hitting up happy hour. As such, once I’m done with work for the day, I like to get out of my house to work out. Since I’ve been home all day, it’s a great way to break up my day and move my body. Most week nights, I try to attend the 5:25pm Orangetheory class or, if the weather is nice, I’ll take a long walk around my neighborhood to hit my 10K steps.

6:30-7:00pm: Once I am back from my workout, I usually cook and prep something simple for dinner. Lately, I’ve been loving these sheet pan chicken fajitas, this egg roll in a bowl, this sheet pan lemon rosemary dijon chicken, or a simple shrimp and veggie stir fry. I try to mix it up and make sure I’m eating a variety of recipes so I don’t get sick of any one food or cuisine.

7:00-7:30pm: I eat dinner and then clean up the kitchen—wiping down the counters, putting leftover food away, running the dishwasher if needed.

7:30-10:30pm: I usually use this time to veg out on the couch. I watch TV, catch up on social media, text with friends and family, and work on my blog. I don’t typically write blog posts during the week anymore as most of my brainpower is sapped by my day job, but I’ll do things like editing + resizing photos, setting posts up, pulling links, responding to emails, posting to social media—all tasks which set me up for success on weekends when I usually have more time to write longer posts or do tasks that require more brain power.

10:30-11:00pm: Around this time, I’ll start getting ready for bed. While doing so, I love this bluetooth shower radio, which makes it super easy to listen to a podcast while I am doing my routine. I shower, and then get into my nighttime skincare routine. While in the shower, I was my face with Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser. Then, after my shower when my face is dry, I’ll use the Pixi Glow Tonic Toner, Clinique Eye Cream, and Atopalm Moisturizer. Two or three times a week, I’ll use my prescription Retin-A to help with aging and then a different two or three nights a week, I’ll use the Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate. It really just depends on what my skin needs! After I’ve completed my skincare routine, I’ll use my water pik—one of my best buys of 2020!—brush my teeth, and pop my retainer in. (I had Invisalign as an adult and finished about five years ago, so I am religious about wearing it!)

11:00-11:30pm: I’ll then get into bed and spend about half an hour on my phone—usually watching Instagram Stories, catching up on the news on Twitter, and then watching some TikTok videos. I love a mindless social media scroll, so it’s a nice way to have a moment of self indulgence before calling it a day. I’m able to get off my phone pretty easily because…

11:30-12:30pm: I spend the last hour of my day reading, and I am usually reading something I’m excited to pick back up. If I don’t get off my phone, there’s no time to read, so it’s usually pretty easy for me to put the phone down. I love my Kindle Paperwhite—which I’ve written about extensively here and here—as it allows me to read in the dark. And because it doesn’t have blue light like my phone, it’s a great and calming way to wind down every night. Most nights, I fall asleep mid-page…and then at 8:30am, we start over again!