In this solo instructional segment, Lisa Woodruff explains how she re‑imagines the traditional "evening routine" by moving most of the planning and low‑energy tasks to an afternoon/end‑of‑workday routine. She describes ending her formal workday around 2 pm, then spending a 20‑minute wind‑down to clear her desk, review her calendar, and write a prioritized next‑day task list on an index card or legal pad. This list includes appointments, errands, and the most critical tasks for the following day. After the kids are home, she treats any remaining work as "bonus" time. In the evening, from about 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm, she works in her bedroom‑office, primarily checking email and social media (activities she enjoys) and doing creative projects such as custom photo albums. The overall message is that shifting evening responsibilities to the afternoon, combined with a brief, structured wind‑down, helps her maintain energy, stay organized, and balance professional work with family life.
Chapters
Today on the podcast, I want to talk about your afternoon routine and your evening routine. And I realized as I reflected on this, I don't usually hear people talk about an afternoon routine. I hear about an evening routine, which to me is like the last 30 minutes before you go to bed, which— who has energy at that point? Nobody. Like, if it's anything besides brushing your teeth and taking your contacts out. Who's going to do that much work at night? Like, I'm a morning person. I can't do a big evening routine. What I realized was I needed to shift that evening routine to my after-school, afternoon, end-of-workday routine. So I want to talk to you about my after-school, end-of-day, workday routine, and then I'll also talk to you about the evening routine that I have. So my official workday ends at 2 o'clock. If at 2 o'clock I'm done working for the day, I usually say that's a good day. And if I have extra activities to do until 5, those are bonus. So once the kids are done with school, or if the kids don't have school that day, any work that needs to get done I look at as bonus work. And I'm really starting as the kids get older to do work You know, if they're off school or they have a snow day or it's summer, I'm still doing work work during the day and the kids are realizing that I'm working. And that was a huge transition for me to realize that I'm not a stay-at-home mom. I actually work for a living. Whether I'm ending my workday at 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, whenever I'm ending my workday, I have to stop 20 minutes in advance. And this is what I do. I pick up everything on my desk and I put it away. I look at my calendar for the next day and find out what is due then, where do I need to be, are there any errands, what's going on the next day. I write out that schedule for the next day on a little index card or a legal pad of paper, whatever I need, however long that list is. I look at my to-do list and my goals for the week and I pick out what tasks have to get done the next day, absolutely have to get done. Write those on that list, and I put them in in order. So let's say, let's say I have a podcast interview at 10 o'clock, and I have a coaching call at 1 o'clock, and I have to leave to pick up the kids at 2, and then I have to take the kids somewhere from 4 to 6 the next night. I write all of that on a piece of paper, and I leave space above and below if there are any spaces in there. I typically work from 7:30 to 9. What happens is I come upstairs into my bedroom, which is also where my office And I say, I'm just going to check my email. And I spend quite a bit of time checking email, checking Facebook, responding to everyone, clicking that I like everything, and I enjoy it. So it is work time, but I really enjoy it. I really enjoy responding to emails, checking out Facebook, or this is also the time when I'll work on custom photo albums. So I have people mail me photos and I make albums for them. This is also the time when I will work on custom photo albums, which I also do in my bedroom.
