TikTok’s “5-9 Routine” Trend Is Here To Boost Your Productivity

The beauty guru nighttime routine videos of your youth have evolved to fit a new medium. The latest TikTok trend, the “5-9 routine,” invites users to share the ways they spend their hours off the corporate clock. The continued rise in remote work over the last few years is the silent undercurrent behind this trend, as the post-work routines of the masses include shutting a laptop and moving from the couch to the bed. The great irony, of course, is that the viewers of this trend have likely interrupted their own 5-9 routines with a few hours of endless TikTok scrolling.

What Is The ‘5-9 Routine’ Trend?

Most often, these viral routines include trips to the gym and living room yoga, dinner prep, light cleaning, laundry, a shower and skincare routine, and a few chapters of a book. Put simply, the 5-9 routine trend is just another name for chores and self care. Before the word was banned from the internet and labeled millennial cringe, “adulting” would have been an accurate title for this trend. The tag #5to9 on TikTok has more than 13M views, with the most viral videos collecting comments like, “You do more from 5-9 than I do in the whole week,” and “These videos are my motivation.”

One viral TikToker, @matthew.campos, has spearheaded this trend with his Emily Mariko-esque, almost ASMR-style videos. As much virality as you can gain from vacuuming a rug, he’s earned with more than 3M likes and 179k followers on the app. Even Fenty Beauty dropped into his comments section to say, “the blueprint.” Productive and well groomed, he is “that guy.”

Another reason this trend might be so hugely popular online is that it combines a few genres of viral video – dinner inspiration, skincare routines, book recommendations, kitchen organization, etc, all into one compiled video clip. The comments on @theorganizedaddict’s viral 5-9 routine are filled with questions like, “Where [did you] get your Grocery list book from?,” and “What’s the pasta sauce??” proving that the 5-9 routine trend has led to product recommendations and recipe inspiration as the FYP often does.

How Can You Join The ‘5-9’ Trend?

If you want to jump on this trend, it’s pretty simple, just walk the world through your evening. If you shake off the work day with a long walk, a glass of wine, a steam, start there. Not all 5-9 routines require a clean kitchen and a candle, some evenings are best spent out in the world. Maybe your post-work hours are spent at the post office, running to Target, or getting dinner with friends. Don’t let toxic productivity get to you, your after work hours are your own, and sometimes that means starting This Is Us from season one and crying in the comfort of your own home.

People in the adult world who have survived the last few years of unprecedented times are adjusting to being productive again IRL when their lives, often including their work, exist on a 13-inch screen these days. It’s a good thing people have been absorbing “how to’s” since the early days of YouTube because with the help of the 5-9 routine trend, the ultra online are one step closer to finding work-life balance.