Breaking Our Date Night Routine
Are you OVER your date night routine?? I’m no expert by any means but I’m a firm believer in the adage, “if you don’t like it, change it.” I’m also a lover of new experiences and rarely regret trying something out of my comfort zone so why not apply that same way of thinking to date night??
Typically, us trying to plan date night sounds a little something like this: “What do you want to do for date night?” “It doesn’t matter, whatever you want to do.” “Well is there anything you want to do?” “No, I don’t care.” … and on and on it goes. If this sounds all too familiar to you and your significant other than chances are you’ve fallen into the same old same date night routine. For B and I, we typically end up settling on going to dinner and/or a movie and I’ve decided it’s time to break out of the rut! If you’ve been finding yourselves bored with date night, it’s no ones fault but yours (in this case ours).
First, we decided on a date night night. For us, making date night the same night every week is something we can build into our schedules and prioritize to the same level as any other commitment or appointment; so we chose Wednesday’s. As B put it, it gives us something to look forward to in the middle of the week. Deciding on the same day every week, we know, no matter what comes up, Wednesday nights are our nights together. Once we decided on a night and a plan, B & I sat down and each wrote a list of 20 date night ideas. Things we’ve always talked about doing, fun new ideas, things we thought the other person might love, things we’ve always wanted to do but feared the other person would turn down, and at all different price points. Then I wrote each date idea on a popsicle stick, color coordinated them based on budget (I found Washi tape the easiest way to do this), and stuck the bunch in jar. My hope for this idea is that it helps us break out of the date night shuffle, force us both to try new things, and remove the stress of the back and forth in trying to make last minute plans.
How it works: The gist is easy, each week you’ll pick one stick, without looking, and you HAVE to do that date on your chosen date night of that week…no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. (This is where color coordinating by budget helps, though you can’t look at date’s you should be able to pick an idea that’s within your budget for that week or month). The first week you’ll pick two sticks, one for that first weeks date night and the next for the following week. Moving forward you’ll always pull the next weeks date when you get home from the present weeks date. This should give you enough time to plan the following week! We’re taking out the guess work & the last minute planning AND giving ourselves something to look forward to from date night to date night. As you approach your last stick in your jar, sit down and write out 20 more ideas each; keep the date ideas you loved, tweak the ones you want, and get rid of the ones that just weren’t for you as a couple. The best part about this is it becomes less about who wants to do what and more about finding new things that you both enjoy doing together!!
Below I’ve included both of our lists to get you all started! You can copy them if you’d like, use some for ideas, or come up with lists entirely your own!
