Welcome to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

Hello and welcome back to the Elevated Edit podcast.

Just last week a friend and I were talking about our morning routines.

And admittedly I am someone who runs semi different morning routines for every day of the week.

Some mornings when I know I want to be creative, that day, maybe I'm working on content or an outline or something along those lines where I'm wanting to come up with original ideas, I will run a little bit slower morning routine.

I'll sleep, you know, as late as I want, which is usually about 6:30, and I will go for a walk and journal and just listen to quiet, calm music and then I'll be in a good place to create content.

But other days I want to be all in very like logistical work and small tasks.

And so I'll wake up at 4:30 ish, which is really my super high energy time.

And I will completely get in such a flow.

Like I'll look at 11:30 and I'll be like, where did the last, you know, several hours go?

Like, I will just get so in flow.

And my friend was a little different.

She had a pretty similar morning routine for every day of the week, which I should probably do a little bit more, but it's, it's all good.

But one thing we did agree on was that some mornings we just wake up and we're not feeling it.

And like for her definitely, but for me, I'm like, yeah, you know, it's, it's so funny because sometimes I'll not want to do the 4:30am morning routine.

And then other mornings, even if I'm like giving myself until 6:30, like I still won't want to get up and do it.

And we were both trying to figure out, like, why do we just wake up wanting to run our morning routine, Excited to run our morning routine some days.

And then other days it's like, wow, I don't even want to get out of bed.

Like I don't want to do anything.

And we went back and looked at our Google calendars and we kind of analyzed everything.

And what we realized was that the days that we were struggling to run a morning routine, we didn't have a solid evening routine.

And we realized that if our night routine was a mess, then our morning routine didn't stand a chance.

Have you ever had those mornings where you just wake up and you're groggy and you're behind and you're scrambling and you're just like, oh my goodness, it is not even 7 o'clock in the morning and I'm already behind for the entire rest of the day.

The, the likelihood is you didn't mess up with your morning routine.

You probably messed up with your evening routine.

You're probably just like us.

This whole time you thought you've had an issue with your morning routine, but it was really your routine the night before.

And so y'all know me, I dove all into this and I did a ton of research and I'm going to share it with you today because I think it's really important for us to, I think a give ourselves grace.

Because I feel like on Instagram, all you see are the flashy morning routines.

Like, I don't post my lazy girl morning routines, but I do post my, like, oh, she was up at 4:30 doing all the things.

Because those are the days that I am like, executing, you know, like, I'm like, oh, let me like snap a picture here.

Let me execute this here.

And on my lazy girl days, like, I'm not on social media, you know, and so you're, you really genuinely are seeing only the highlight reels.

So today I'm going to break down why your evening routine is actually as important or arguably more important than your morning routine.

And I'm going to give you three simple ways to make it work.

So this is the science of a strong evening routine and realizing that your morning routine actually starts the night before.

So I talk a lot about decision fatigue on this podcast because I think it's something that is so important, especially for women, because we are in this modern age being forced to make all of these micro decisions throughout the day, and it can be super overwhelming.

And decision fatigue builds up throughout the day.

So if you're not setting things up at night, you are forcing yourself to start making decisions in the morning when, like, your energy is still low, but you're already having to use that decision muscle.

Like, you're wasting your decision muscle on tiny things in the morning that you could do in the evening.

And then when it comes time for you to show up and excel at work, or show up in excel for your kids, or show up and excel in whatever area it is like you're Struggling because you've used a lot of your decision energy already.

Use it first thing in the morning.

And I know I definitely just.

Last Monday, I had a day like this where my morning wasn't.

My.

My morning routine was completely out of the window.

And I think I was stressed out about it the night before.

And so I, like, didn't run my regular evening routine because I was nervous about, like, the next morning because it was so packed.

It was like, backs, backs, backs, back.

And so instead of, like, running a really good evening routine and it kind of being, like, very, like, calming for my nervous system, I was, like, anxious and, like, over, like, overthought everything.

And I didn't actually plan anything, and I didn't sleep well.

And so Monday, on top of an already crazy busy morning, I was, like, so scattered because I didn't run an evening routine.

Therefore, I didn't have a great morning routine.

And then, like, the whole day, like, I literally got home Monday evening, and I was like, what just happened?

Like, it was.

It was wild.

And then unfortunately, because Monday was crazy, I feel like I was behind all week.

Like, mentally, I was struggling to catch up all week long.

And it all started on Sunday evening when I didn't run my evening routine the way that I should have.

Like, when I was doing research on this, I was like, oh, my gosh, all this is making sense.

Like, all of the pieces are starting to come together.

I love, like, that's why I love that we have access to the Internet and ChatGPT and AI and books.

I mean, unlimited and YouTube, podcast.

I mean, it is so easy in this day and time to learn so much and for free in such a short amount of time.

Absolutely love it.

And then, of course, we talked about sleep on this podcast before.

It is something I've really tried to work on the last year.

I am someone who struggles with sleep.

Sleep quite a bit because I.

I'm an ideas girl, okay?

I get an idea.

Like, it feels like every second sometimes.

And when I lay down at night and I haven't ran a good evening routine, like, it.

It is a struggle for me to go to sleep.

That's why I keep a journal beside my bed.

And I'll just, like, I'll fill up a hole.

I'll do a brain dump, and I'll literally fill like, like two or three pages with just ideas.

Like, two or three words.

I was like, idea, idea, idea, idea.

And then I can finally go to sleep.

And then I wake up in the morning, I'm like, oh, I'VE got to go through all that.

Great.

Lovely.

Thanks, Blakely.

Sometimes some of the ideas are really good, and most of the time, I just scratch them because I was like, why did I think that that was a good idea?

But a strong evening routine, it helps your brain shut down properly, which leads to better focus, better energy, and more productivity the next day.

Like, I'm telling you now that I'm aware of this and I look back on it, I'm like, oh, of course.

Like, the days that my morning routine just feels effortless, I am putting in a lot of effort the evening before, and I can definitely tell a difference.

And then the last piece of, like, research that I really looked into, and it makes so much sense to me, because if my dishes.

Like, if there's dishes in my sink, I don't sleep well.

And it's.

It's not even like a.

I don't even think I have.

Like, it's about the cleaning.

It's just, like, that's a task that I know first thing in the morning when I go and, like, make myself a cup of water, that's the first thing I'm gonna see.

And so I think when I go to bed and the dishes are still in the sink, I'm like, automatically, I'm like, okay, great.

I'm gonna wake up and add.

Do dishes to my checklist for the day, you know?

And so that is one of the.

The things that I've really noticed is that my environment does matter.

If your night is chaotic, your morning will be too.

But if you set things up ahead of time, your morning feels effortless, like, you're already winning before you even get out of bed.

And something else I found really interesting in that research is they mentioned a lot about being, like, overstimulated and waking up in reaction mode.

And I was like, oh, my goodness.

Like, there are some days where I will wake up and I won't even realize I'm in reaction mode.

But, like, I'll be, like, scrolling before I even.

It's those days, like, literally, I'll pick up my phone and I'll be scrolling, and I won't even realize that I'm scrolling.

I'm like, oh, girl, stop.

Put.

Put Instagram down.

What are you doing?

Or, like, I will check notifications, like, endlessly.

Like, I'll pick up my phone and just, like, check my notifications.

Like, I will refresh my email, like, three times.

Like, it's like, I want panic.

Like, I'm, like, trying to attract panic, and I'll be Rushing.

Like, I'll rush through my task, and I'll rush here and rush there, and I'm just like, what is going on?

But it's a stress cycle that started in the morning because I had a weak evening routine, and the stress cycle started in the morning, and then it was with me all day long.

Like, I don't know about y'all.

Sometimes I can reset with, like, a walk or a workout or, you know, a nap.

But typically I have to, like, if I wake up in a super reactive mode, I basically just have to, like, get through the day sometimes and, like, start over the next day, and I'll just be like, what happened yesterday?

Like, I was just not on my game.

I was so off.

I was so reactive.

I was so, like, overstimulated.

I, like, woke up exhausted.

I.

You know, it was just.

It was an endless cycle.

And then those are the days where you think caffeine's gonna help.

And then caffeine just increases your anxiety, and it's just really a never ending cycle.

And, yeah, I was like, oh, my gosh.

Like, that is so relatable.

When all this research was talking about, like, reaction mode and, like, overstimulation and our sensitivity to, like, caffeine and different things like that, I was like, that's me.

That's me.

Like, I was literally, like, raising my hand.

I'm like, yes, this is.

This all makes so much sense.

And y'all know me.

I'm like, okay, we found our awareness.

We figured out what the problem is.

Now what are we going to do to fix it?

And so I wrote down three simple action steps that I am going to start trying.

I'm not going to promise myself that these are.

I'm gonna hit these every single day, but I'm certainly gonna try because I know I probably need to be doing them.

But y'all know this phone got a chokehold on your girl.

I love my phone.

Sometimes it's just hard for me to not be on it.

I just pick it up and I'm on it before I even realize what's happening.

I hope y'all can relate to that.

Okay, three simple action steps to help create an easier evening routine.

I'm not going to say better evening routine, but easier because we like for things to feel effortless around here.

At least I do.

Okay, number one plan.

Tomorrow before bed, if you wake up with a plan, you don't have to think.

You can just execute.

And I usually do a pretty good job of this.

I try to remove the friction from My morning.

So the evening before, I will lay out my clothes, like, workout clothes.

And then I'll have my water ready to go, and I'll have my journal sitting out, and I'll have whatever book I'm reading sitting out.

So that way when I wake up and I don't have a ton of motivation, I can fall back on my discipline.

And so I will just like, get out of bed, make the bed, go in the bathroom, you know, do my thing, wake my face up, wake my teeth up, the whole nine yards.

Go, make me something to drink, change into my workout clothes.

And then like, I'm like, okay, journal read.

And then I'm like, I'm in the flow before I even realize I'm in the flow, you know?

But the mornings when I really run that well, I do set myself up in the evening, I'm not just expecting myself to wake up and be like, okay, here is my, you know, here's my morning routine that I have to run and I should feel excited and motivated for it.

Like the majority of the time, like the first 15 minutes of the day, I'm like, why am I this way?

Why do I have goals?

Like, why can't I just.

Why can't I just not want all this big stuff?

Like, this is so much work.

And then like 15 minutes in, I'm like, okay, we're rocking and rolling, like, you know, we.

We found our groove.

But I'll be Honest, that first 15 minutes, I am like, I need to be less motivated.

I need to be less disciplined.

What is this?

Why am I up at 4:30 in the morning?

This is wild.

And then write down your priority.

If there's something that you need to focus on the next day, if there's something you need to ensure that you get done.

Like, just kind of have a general idea of what your next day looks like.

And if there is anything that you need to make sure that you cover in the morning, then go ahead and either handle it or go ahead and set yourself up.

Like, I will.

If I know I need to respond to someone the next morning, I'll type out the text that evening.

I won't send it to them because I'm not trying to have a conversation in the evening, but I'll go ahead and type it out.

So that way in the morning I can just copy and paste.

I think with Android, you can schedule text, which would be really cool, but I'm team iPhone for life.

And then I will, I will draft emails and I'll schedule those.

So, like, take Some pressure off of yourself for the next morning.

Like, you don't have to do.

You don't have to do the things in the evening, but just set yourself up so the next morning it'll be a lot easier.

This next action step, I really need to start doing this, but do some kind of, like, digital detox at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep.

I think they say it's supposed to be like, 90 minutes, but that is a lot for me.

Because if the last thing that you do at night is scroll on your phone, your brain is going to wake up in that reaction mode, because blue light kills melatonin and it makes it harder to fall asleep.

So try swapping your screen time for something that is better for your nervous system, like reading or stretching or journaling to help your mind wind down.

Like I said, I keep a journal beside my bed because I feel like my brain is constantly running.

And when I do stretch, like, sometimes I'll even stretch in the bed.

And those are literally the nights when I sleep so well.

But I have to be very intentional about it.

Like, I, I.

It's not like my body's like, okay, it's 30 minutes before bed.

I need to put my phone down.

Like, I have to be like, okay, Blakely, like, you know, this is.

You are going to bed in 30 minutes.

You need to stop looking at your phone, stop looking at the laptop, stop looking at the tv.

Like, stop looking at all this blue light and really, like, think about your next morning.

How do you want to feel the next morning?

And usually I can talk myself into it, but that one is really a struggle.

So if you struggle with that, you are not alone.

I'm over here struggling with you.

These phones, they're just.

I get on my reels, and they make me laugh because at this point, all my reels are, like, cat focused, and they're hilarious, and it's hard to put my phone down.

But we're gonna work on that together.

Okay?

And then action.

Step number three is have a power down routine.

This is something that I feel like I'm usually pretty good at just because I love my power down routine.

Our brains crave closure, so give it some kind of clear signal that the day is done.

I have a whole, whole power down situation.

Okay.

We shower, we oil, we face mask, we eye mask, we hair mask.

We have a little.

This is embarrassing because it's actually kind of expensive.

We have some alcohol, free wine, because we're trying to keep our nervous.

Our nervous system stimulated.

And so, or de Stimulated, I guess I'm trying to calm our nervous system.

This one's actually kind of embarrassing because it's actually really expensive.

But I have some alcohol free wine because I've been trying to just drink less and so I'll have like my alcohol free wine in my glass and then I'll just be like, just calm and I'll turn on some like a YouTube that has like an ocean side view and I'll just do.

It's a whole thing.

Like I love right before I go to bed, kind of having my power down routine.

And then reset your space.

If that looks like a quick tidy up, dimming the lights, soft music, whatever it is that like tells your brain, okay, we're wrapping up today, we're getting ready to rest.

Like let's move into the next day and set an alarm so that you don't stay up too late.

I'll do that.

Sometimes I'll be like, okay, I need to be in the bedroom at 8:30 and so I'll set an alarm at like 8:15.

It's like, okay, like if I haven't started my evening routine, my wind down routine, I need to get on it.

Like it's, it's time.

So whatever that looks like for you, whatever your power down routine looks like, just give your body something that's like, okay, we are, we're calling it a day, we're done.

And like now as soon as I turn the shower on, like I instantly get sleepy.

I'm like, oh.

I will say there occasionally are times when I don't run my power down routine.

And those are the nights when I like wake up at 2am and then I can't go back to sleep.

And so that one for me is almost completely non negotiable.

Like I have to do that or I can't.

I'm just so off and that's it.

I think those are pretty simple, not necessarily easy, but they are simple action steps that we can take to have a better evening routine so that we can have a better morning routine.

Because your morning routine is only as strong as how efficient and organized and calm you are the night before.

So I want you to try these three steps for a week and then just see if things feel smoother for you in the morning.

And remember, it might not be perfect, you might not hit everything, but just try like make your own routine, whatever that looks like.

Take some tips from this, take some tips from other podcasts and then just see how much smoother your mornings feel if you implement one thing I want you to document it on social media and I want you to tag me at the Blakely Ramsey because I want to hear how it goes.

I love seeing Yalls progress and I love like cheering you on the DMS as we all just try our best because yeah there's a lot of like external I feel like reasons to be worried and stressed and upset and like staying positive I feel like is sometimes a struggle.

But there's so many of us that are wanting to live that positive, joyful, abundant life and I really enjoy getting to connect with all of you.

Instagram is where I feel like I connect with the majority of you through, you know, voice notes and stuff.

So it's been really great and something that I am very thankful for.

And with that I hope you have a great rest of your day and I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I hope you found today's episode inspiring and full of actionable tips.

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Until next time.

Keep growing, glowing and elevating your life.

See you soon.

Sat.