Read this if you want to spend your evenings in meaningful and productive ways, rather than doom scrolling and Netflix binging.

If you are doing a 9–5, your evenings can be very exhausting.

I do a 9–5, and sometimes I do feel that exhausting catching up to me by the end of the day. Because of that, it’s very easy to spend our evenings on autopilot.

We put some Netflix on, get a drink maybe, and spend the rest of our evening consuming content passively. Even worse, sometimes, we just stay on our phones and become a victim of the famous infinite scroll.

With apps like Instagram (Reels) and TikTok, it’s becoming easier and easier to spend our time passively. We lose track of time while we keep on scrolling forever.

That’s why many of our evenings become nothing but a blur. Looking back, we can’t find anything meaningful that we did.

I realized that a couple of months ago. Since then, I have actively tried to plan out my evenings every weekday. A lot of times I don’t follow through, don’t get me wrong. Either work gets into my evenings, or I am just extremely exhausted and choose the more comfortable options.

However, more often than not, I find ways to spend them in a meaningful way.

Read A Book

If you have been following me for some time now, you know how I developed a reading habit a couple of years ago. It’s been going really well.

I have been consistently finishing at least one book every month. In most months, it’s 2–3. How do I make time for books?

Every morning before the work day starts I have a dedicated reading time. I also read books before going to bed.

One thing that I started doing, however, is to spend whole evenings reading books. When I am really into a book, I grab myself some coffee or bubble tea, sit on my couch, and spend the whole evening reading.

I find it very therapeutic and positive for me. More often than not, it’s some non-fiction book that I am diving deep into.

Passing my evening reading is one of the calmest and most therapeutic ways one can pass their evening.

Watch A Documentary (Or educational YouTube)

I will admit, sometimes it’s too difficult to do something that requires my focused attention. Sometimes, watching a Netflix show or some YouTube is exactly what I want to do.

That’s why I have created a curated list of YouTube subscriptions and Netflix shows that are educational. As a person, I have always enjoyed watching documentaries. Really good documentaries can be fun to watch, at the same time give you something new to learn about.

Similarly, there are dozens of YouTube channels dedicated to creating informational videos and documentaries. You would be surprised by the depth of quality content available on a free platform like YouTube.

When I am in the mood to pass my evening watching something, I choose these types of content.

Spend Time With Loved Ones

I just moved to Toronto where I have both my sister and my girlfriend.

The best part though? I have my little niece here who just turned one year old. She’s the cutest and most precious thing ever!

I love going to my sister’s after work to spend time with my little niece. That’s my new favorite thing to do!

Time literally flies when I am just watching my little niece try how to walk or make up words that don’t exist.

Every time I come back home from that, I feel re-energized and ready to take everything on the next day.

Side Hustles

As you know by now, apart from my full-time job as an engineering manager, I try my best to write here on Medium, maintain my personal blog, and make YouTube videos.

These things take time to build. I don’t outsource any of my work. I do all of the filming, writing, and editing myself. I love doing them!

For instance, writing is very therapeutic for me! I don’t see it as a job. On most nights, coding comes very naturally to me too. I love building things for fun!

So many evenings you will see me spending my time on these side hustles. Not because I want the extra income all the time, but because I love doing these!

Journal

I will admit — I don’t do journaling often during the evenings.

I usually do journaling as a means of reflection. So, you will see me doing monthly journals, quarterly journals, and of course, annual reflections too.

However, sometimes, I find myself journaling during the evenings. More often than not, it follows some significant events that happened in my life.

I am using “significant” very loosely here. It can be a bad fight with my girlfriend or family, or just feeling very negative about myself for too many days in a row.

When one of these journaling nights comes, I can see it from miles away. I usually get myself some Bubble tea, dim the lights, sit with my iPad, and write away every thought and feeling that I think will help.

There you go, folks! That’s how I spend most of my evenings.

I would love to know about yours. Please respond below if you want to share what creative ways y’all spend your evenings.

I hope you found this a valuable read and have some takeaways that you can go ahead and implement in your wonderful lives.

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