stop wasting your evenings │ how to romanticize life after 5pm 🌙

Hey there, welcome back to my channel. I'm so glad you're here. I just got back from work and lately I've had this feeling that my evenings have just been wasted away and I feel like working a nine to five it's really easy to fall into that routine of just coming home, laying down on your couch and just taking out your phone and scrolling and before you know it a few hours have passed and I have this feeling that if I don't learn to take control and my life just gets consumed by work and spending time on my phone or watching Netflix, life gets a little bit meaningless. But this week I'm gonna try and turn it around and make the most of my evenings after work and I'm gonna take you all along. The first habit I'm trying to implement is when I come home, as soon as I get in the door instead of sitting down with my phone, I put my phone in a drawer, put it away, I then pour myself a big bottle of cold water because I feel like I'm usually pretty dehydrated at this point and then I will come sit on my couch and just stare into the wall for a couple of minutes and really that's all it takes. Taking the time to just sit without any stimulation after a long day at work with no music, no screens, no nothing, it really helps me not just go on autopilot and lose track of my time but instead check in with myself, listen to my body and get a feel for what it actually is I need in this moment, which is more often than not just a little break and not a phone bombarding me with input and information. But it's so hard to do if you keep your phone on you so I find that just putting it in a drawer out of sight out of mind really really helps. There is nothing wrong with resting, there is nothing wrong with the occasional scroll but I do feel that in a world where everything is designed to steal our time and attention, just going on autopilot is the enemy, autopilot is the enemy, autopilot steals your life. We want to be the ones who are in control, we want to be mindful with how we spend our time in our evenings. So it is currently 5.39 and the plan for today is to do a little Monday start of the week reset. I usually do a big Sunday reset on Sundays where I clean the apartment, I do meal prepping and all these different things to go into the week and feel really prepared. But this weekend I just had a great time with my friends and I didn't get around to doing any of that and when I don't do my Sunday reset routine I go into the week feeling a little bit frazzled, like I'm not really on top of things. So to start off the week right we're gonna do just a mini weekly reset this evening and get ourselves in the right headspace for the rest of the week. So I'm just gonna start out with doing a quick clean of the apartment. I like to use my little smartwatch to set timers. Timers are my favorite productivity tool ever. I'm gonna set myself a 30 minute timer and we're gonna clean the space. I also did some groceries on my way home from work so I'm thinking after cleaning we're gonna do a quick meal prep for the next few days and then spend the rest of the evening cozying up, setting some intentions for the week, all the stuff I would usually do on Sundays we'll do in a mini version here this Monday evening. So let's get down to business. Okay, 30 minutes on the clock, let's go! So I just finished cleaning and the apartment is looking so gorgeous. It's amazing what you can do in 30 minutes. Now it's time to do some meal prepping for the next few days. After a long day cooking is the last thing I want to do. So I love to meal prep on Sundays so that I know that there is just a healthy meal ready for me and I don't have to like make any decisions or put in put in any effort really because there's so many other things I would rather spend my time on. But I didn't do it yesterday so we're doing it now. Of course fueling your body with healthy meals helps with your energy levels and getting the most out of your evening so we're doing that. I'm making some quinoa with some chicken, some spinach, some sweet potatoes, some green beans, just all the good stuff. I'm heading into my luteal phase and I feel like my body really just needs healthy nourishing meals for the next few days so this will be perfect for that. I'm gonna go to my local swimming pool in the morning before work so I want to get to bed pretty early. So let's get started on cooking. Guys I finished meal prepping and look at all this beautiful food. I fried some chicken, some beans, have some spinach all rinsed and ready, crumbled up some feta and cooked some sweet potatoes in the oven and a bunch of quinoa and I'm just gonna put this together as a lovely bowl and keep the rest separate so it's super convenient and easy for dinner throughout the week. So I just sat down on my couch with a cup of decaf tea. My dinner was lovely. Now I'm just gonna spend some time doing a little bit of journaling. I have my gratitude journal and my regular journal and I'm just gonna do a little bit of reflection, think about how I want this week to go and if I have any special intentions I want to set. I'm also just gonna take out my phone and do a bit of planning in my google calendar. Hey friends, it is 9 p.m exactly and I am in bed. I did my skincare, I reset the apartment, I packed my bags for tomorrow, put on my pj, sprayed some lavender mist on my pillows and now I'm gonna cuddle up with my book. I'm currently reading it and I'm just gonna and I am loving this. I talked all about it in my previous vlog. I'll link it somewhere up here if you haven't seen it. Wanting to make the most of your evenings can be really difficult if you also want to get to sleep really early and I know for a lot of people going to bed at 9 p.m would be such a struggle and falling asleep this early. I find that one, waking up at 5 36 really helps obviously but I think having a really good bedtime routine with getting off screens, putting on your pjs and then having a really strict sleep schedule and reading before bed just always makes me feel so sleepy so it is perfect. Reading a really good book will also be really helpful because you'll want to get into bed as soon as possible to get to reading. So this was the first night in my little week of evening routines and I'll see you again tomorrow after work. Hey friends, it's Tuesday at 6 p.m. I got home from work a bit later today. I had a very long but productive day at work and right now there is nothing I would love more than to just collapse on the couch and take out my phone and just scroll for an hour but we're not gonna do that. We're gonna put the phone in the drawer because today we're talking about something much more fulfilling, passion projects. For me, having something outside of work that I really care about has given my life so much meaning. Doing YouTube gives me perspective and new energy and honestly I think it's made me better at my actual job too. When you have something that you care about that's all your own, you stop caring and obsessing so much about all the small things that don't really matter and I think it's kind of like in relationships when you have your own thing going on, you don't lose yourself and you show up to the relationship with more confidence and balance because you're already fulfilled yourself, you know what I mean? I have a theory that that works with your job as well if you have other things you care about outside of work. I really believe we all need to have something that's just ours, whether that's art or writing or cooking or even building a business but it really doesn't have to be profitable or productive as long as it brings you energy and meaning. For the past year, that for me has been my YouTube channel. Of course, I have loved every second of building this channel and I'm really proud of how far we've come in just 9-10 months but I have so many other dreams as well. I've always thought that I had a bit of an entrepreneur inside me. I love the idea of building a brand. I would love to one day write a book, I'd love to start a podcast and of course I'd love to grow this channel to be able to do it full-time. It's definitely a dream of mine to be my own boss one day but one thing I'm doing that's brand new, where I'm just trying to dip my toes into having my own business, is I've actually just opened an Etsy shop and I've started designing my own products and tonight I thought I would show you a bit of that. So I just sat down with my computer and a cup of tea because recently I have been learning how to design and sell products online. I actually just put my first product up for sale. I've been wanting to do this for the longest time but I've finally gotten started. I'm using the platform called Printify and I'm so excited to say that I'm actually partnering up with Printify on this part of the video. So if you don't know, Printify is a print-on-demand website where you can design and sell your own physical products. It's super beginner-friendly, you just sign up for free, choose one of their 900 customizable products and add your own design. Printify offers some of the best product prices on the market and they seamlessly integrate with platforms such as Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, which makes everything very simple. For my first design, I used Canva and their AI tools to design this little graphic that I then uploaded onto Printify and added to this cute enamel mug. I tried to design something that really matches the cozy vibes of this channel and to be honest I'm just obsessed with how it turned out. Then I connected it to an Etsy shop which took just a few clicks and now I have a fully functioning online store with products that I designed from my bed. Like literally, I did all of this without leaving the covers at any point. So obviously I'm still brand new to all of this and like with anything it's gonna take some practice but I'm honestly just so surprised with how easy it was to get started and now I am just fully invested. I just want to keep designing more and get better so if you are thinking about starting a side hustle or maybe you just have a creative itch you want to scratch, definitely go check out Printify. I'll leave a link down in the description and if you want to be my first customer, I'll also leave a link to the enamel mug that I designed. This is just the first chapter of this journey so if that is something you would want to come along for, please let me know and I'll be happy to share all the details about starting an Etsy shop and designing products using Printify. So I think I'm gonna spend the rest of the evening playing around with some new designs, maybe adding my design to some new products. I'll have to do some research on how you do marketing for an Etsy shop which is the next step in all this because I've designed these beautiful products but I also want someone to come and see them so I'll be doing some work on this new little business. Hey friends, it is Wednesday and I just got back home from work after another very long busy day and I am so pooped. I am definitely feeling the luteal phase coming and I did wake up at 5 30 to do some editing before work this morning which was really good. I got a lot of stuff done but I'm also so tired now which means I wasn't too gutted when I got the text that my plans for the evening were cancelled. So if you've been watching my videos, maybe you will know that every Wednesday me and my two girlfriends have a little dinner club where we take turns on hosting weekly dinners for each other and it's so lovely and I was gonna go there to my friend's house this evening and take you along and talk all about how important it is to make sure you make time for community throughout the week but it looks like it's gonna be another night of just me myself and I and my favorite company. As an introvert it's definitely one of those things that I have to actively make myself, make plans throughout the week after work. Really I mostly just want to go home and chill out but since living alone I can get a little bit too cooped up here in my cozy little apartment and not see a lot of people even though I obviously see my co-workers in the office every day. I do want to make sure that I make time for the people who are important to me and whenever I go I always end up enjoying it so much obviously and my friends are amazing so I do miss them when I don't see them but we just moved our plans to this Saturday so that's fine. I also have some other plans with friends on Friday so as an introvert I don't mind that the plans were canceled this evening. I took advantage of the extra time so on my way home from work I stopped by the mall to go buy a bathing suit. I actually recently signed up for this gym membership that kind of resembles the American Class Pass in Copenhagen. It's called Bruce Studios. The concept is that instead of being attached to just one gym you have this membership where you can go to classes across over 100 different studios in Copenhagen and then it's not just regular gyms then they have Pilates, they have yoga, they have sauna places with ice baths, they have gyms, they have CrossFit, boxing, dance, pole dance, like all these different classes across all these different gyms around Copenhagen and the membership is quite expensive. You can go to each studio eight times a month which works perfectly for me because I have decided that the perfect workout split for me is doing Reforma Pilates and swimming. So lately I've been taking up swimming I've been to my local swimming pool a few times which is also a part of the Bruce membership but I only have a bikini and when you go when I go to the pool at like 7am I am the only person there in a bikini with all these people in like a one piece with their swim caps on and their goggles and their nose clamps and whatnot and I'm just there in my bikini so I decided I had to go get myself a one piece so I did and I ended up just getting this super super basic black swimsuit from a brand called Arena I don't really know them and it wasn't very expensive and then on top of that with going to Reforma Pilates the place I go they requested you wear specific socks and gloves when you do the thing and I don't know that it's for hygienic reasons or they just don't want anyone to fall off the machines or if it's just because they sell them at the studio so they make it mandatory that you have to wear it so that they will sell more but I didn't buy at the studio I went to the sports shop today and apart from the swimsuit I also picked up some of these grip socks I already have some some workout gloves that I got from James I always wear gloves in the gym just because I don't want the callus on my fingers from carrying the weights so I already have those so that's perfect but I've just been wearing regular socks to Pilates so far and I do kind of slip and slide around so it's good I got these non-slip socks from from this brand now it is 5 30 and I am so tired so we're not gonna do anything crazy tonight I don't want to push myself I've been working really hard in the name of today's theme which is community I'm gonna call up James my fiancé so if you don't know I'm in a long distance relationship with my fiancé James he lives in England because he is studying his PhD there I call him every single day on the bike from home from work and we talk for at least 30 minutes every single day but every now and then we do like to set aside some time to have a little online date where both of us know that we'll have as long as we want to just chat so I think I'm gonna heat up some dinner you know I meal prepped the other night and then I'm gonna call up James and we're just gonna hang out and chit chat about everything and nothing and I miss him so that'll just delicious okay let's call up James oh I should check but I don't I haven't seen massages anywhere I've seen breathwork and sauna hey friends it is Thursday afternoon at 5 15 ish I just got back home I just got off the bike so I'm super sweaty but I'm just about to go get changed and then I have a Pilates class and I'm in a bit of a rush but I also do want to have a little snack before I go the class is at six until seven it is the fourth time I'm going to a reformer class and it's so growing on me I'm absolutely loving it however usually I am definitely a person who works out in the morning I have the most energy when I wake up in the morning I'm definitely a morning person and then it just like it's all down from there and I never work out in the evenings my biggest problem with going to classes after work is that well the likelihood of me just canceling a few hours before is very big but with this new subscription you have to cancel 12 hours before which basically means the day before and the day before I always think I should go to the workout class so it's too late to cancel so I'm just gonna have to go because I don't want to pay the late cancellation fee which is very smart actually because a few times I've wanted to cancel a class on the subscription but realized that it was too late and then gone to the class anyway which is not super convenient but it is very good for your discipline I guess or people with lack of discipline I should say maybe you've noticed over these few evenings this week I'm trying to cover all the different areas of my life like the first evening we did planning and reflection like organization cleaning that kind of stuff then we had working on hobbies or passion projects on Tuesday then yesterday was all about community even though my community bailed on me no shade and today it's kind of two birds with one stone because I want to talk about both the importance of taking care of your body moving your body getting some exercise in as well as trying new things and learning new skills and for me Reform My Pilates has definitely ticked those boxes it is a great workout but it's also something that maybe a few years ago I would have never imagined that I would be the type of person who would have the courage to just sign up for Reform My Pilates class all by myself never having tried it and just go there and be okay with failing it is quite a steep learning curve because you have to learn to use the machine and you are just gonna look like a dum-dum the first few times you go to the class but I feel like I'm going through so much like emotional growth with this and I have over the past few years gotten a really good relationship with exercise and moving my body that I've never had my entire life and that confidence that I've slowly built with pushing myself is now manifesting in me just signing up for workout classes I've never tried and going there and not feeling bad about making mistakes which I think yeah a few years ago I would have never imagined that so I'm very proud of myself but I am running out of time I have to leave for Pilates any minute now but I did just make myself a little after work snack because it'll be quite late before I get to have dinner so I'm having some a very Danish snack some rye bread with cheese and a rye bread with ham and just some cucumber on top this is very standard but I'm just gonna inhale this get ready and go to Pilates that was amazing four times in and I definitely feel like I'm getting a grip of the whole reformer Pilates thing getting better at a new skill is just the most satisfying feeling ever highly recommend go try something new very soon you can do it I believe in you if there is something a course a skill anything that you've been wanting to try and you need a push put it in the comments and we'll all give you some encouraging words because sometimes you also just need someone to believe in you and I don't know if that's just me but that's kind of difficult to come by in life I think a lot of people when they care about you they don't want to see you get hurt and they can be a bit too honest with like are you sure you want to try that oh I think that sounds difficult sometimes you just need people to be like you can do it I believe in you you want to start a youtube channel absolutely I think you can do it you want to start ballet at 30 you can do it you want to start a business you can do it okay if there's anything you've been wanting to try even if it's just a very small thing like like bake a cake and you haven't done that before literally it could be that put it in the comments and I and everyone else will be really good with giving each other encouraging words that would be so much fun putting yourself out there daring to fail is the scariest thing ever but also the most rewarding thing ever so do it get out of your comfort zone I believe in you I came by this saying recently if you knew that you were 20 or 50 failures away from success how much would you want to fail how often would you want to fail me I would want to fail every single day and I love to reframe failure like that to like if you want to learn something if you want to become great at something you have to fail if you are protecting yourself from failure you are protecting yourself from growth and we don't want to do that I'm such a cliche I just like go to a workout and now I feel so happy what's up with that I'm sorry guys it works anyway that was my little rant for tonight I am gonna have some food head to bed maybe call up James and I'll see you tomorrow hey friends it is Friday and I haven't filmed much today I got off work around four and then I went to meet up with two of my good friends Emma and Catherine and we just shared a bottle of wine in the sun and now it's 8 p.m and I'm back home I went by the supermarket I got myself a frozen pizza but I got one of the gourmet ones these are delicious if you're Danish and I am just gonna eat my pizza and hit the hay I am so tired but I've had such a great week and I'm so glad that you wanted to watch and come along for a week of evening routines also I just hit 9 000 subscribers today and I'm just so proud of myself we're getting really really close to that 10k mark that's definitely a big milestone it was a goal for the year to hit 10 000 subscribers and it looks like we're gonna make it in July maybe August and I'm just so proud of myself I set the new goal to be I really want to hit 10k before I go to Paris so if you're not yet subscribed please go ahead and like and follow that would mean so much to me a year ago I hadn't even gotten the idea to start this channel so I'm just really proud of myself for sticking with it even though it's definitely not easy to do live a balanced life with a full-time job and a YouTube channel but I think I'm doing good and I'm so happy that I get to share my life with you guys you mean the world to me thank you thank you so much for being here I love you and now I'm gonna chill out take care