Effective Morning Routine Ideas

Create a calmer and more productive morning with these simple morning routine ideas. Easy tips to help you save time and stay on track!

 

Morning Routines

I think that one of the keys to a productive day is getting a good start in the morning. When my mornings are less than ideal, I seem to have such a hard time getting back on track and moving on with the day.  I am definitely NOT a morning person so getting up and going in the morning has always been a bit of a struggle for me – even on the “good” days.

I have always had a set organized morning routine for our kids, but I never really took the time to create one for myself.  No matter what time I got up, I always seemed to be scrambling in the end to get out of the house on time.  A couple of months ago, I finally sat down to come up with a little morning plan and it has really cut down on a lot of the morning chaos.  I guess it all comes down to being intentional with all of the activities that I was doing in the morning and identifying all of the time suckers that were slowing me down.  It definitely took some discipline and getting used to when I started it, but after about a month, it really became more of a habit and was much easier to follow.

Tips for a Smoother Morning Routine

Get enough sleep.

Obviously, it will be much easier to get up in the morning if you are regularly getting the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night.  Going to bed on time has always been difficult for me as those last few hours at night seem to be the only “me” time that I can actually get in my day.  Maybe it is just me getting older, but I really don’t function well {and definitely have no patience!} when I am overtired. Getting enough sleep is actually one of my main goals this year so I will be writing a lot more about this {and what I have found helpful} in a later post.

Work on changing your way of thinking.

The first thing that always used to go through my head when my alarm went off was ” I am so tired.  I really don’t want to get up.”  It was then followed by a few hits of the snooze button and thoughts of what excuses I could use to not go in to work.  As hard as it is, I try to never hit the snooze button more than once, and focus on thinking positive things that I want to get done during the day instead of repeating to myself how tired I am.  This may seem strange at first, but changing your “inner voice” can really make a difference in how you are feeling.  It might take a little bit of time before you notice an effect, so stick with this one!

Make your bed.

Maybe it’s just me, but making my bed just makes things seem so much more organized {and it also eliminates the temptation to lay back down again!}.  I also love the feeling at night of crawling into a nicely made bed.  When I first wake up, I usually pull all of the covers down to air things out a bit while I get myself ready.  Once I’m done, it really just takes a couple of minutes to make things up and it makes the bedroom look so much tidier!

 

Take care of yourself first.

You know how you are always told to put your mask on first before your little ones during those safety talks on airlines?  Well, the same thing applies to your morning routine.  This has truly made the biggest difference in my morning routines.  If possible, get up before your kids {or at least before they need you} and get all of your own personal care routine completed – showered, dressed, hair done, teeth brushed, etc. I know that this can be harder when you have little ones, and yes in the case of early risers, you may need to change a diaper and set them up with a snack or toy first, but try to get to your own care routine as soon as possible.

 

Organize Your Bathroom Space.

Having an organized bathroom space will make it so much easier and quicker to get ready in the morning. Keep your most frequently used items in bins so everything is in one place and you can quickly grab what you need. This lets you run more on “autopilot” and helps to keep you focused on the tasks at hand. For example, I put all of my skin care items that I use on a regular basis {for either morning or night} into an acrylic lazy susan.  It’s divided up into morning skin care, evening skin care, washing, and treatments. You can see all of my bathroom cabinet organization tips here and make-up organization ideas here.

 

Know how long it takes you to get ready.

You’d think that I would have learned better by now, but I am constantly underestimating how long tasks will take me.  On a day that you’re not hurrying to get out of the house, time yourself to see how long it actually takes to get everything done that you would like to achieve on a typical morning.  I underestimated my time by almost 20 minutes {thus the reason I barely had time to wash my face and brush my teeth!} and that doesn’t even include those unexpected occurrences that always seem to pop up.  Once you know how long it takes to get everything done that you are expecting, you can determine how realistic your wake-up time is.  If you are over on your time allowance, adjust your alarm clock to an earlier time or see if some of your morning tasks can be eliminated or switched to another time of day.  I also recommend adding on about another 10 minutes just in case something happens {like a jug of spilled milk!} that you weren’t expecting.

Prepare the evening before.

This may vary a bit depending on if you are a morning person or a night owl, but if you function better at night, try to get as many of those little tasks out of the way as possible – making lunches, packing up items needed for the next day, filling out school paperwork, etc.  A little preparation goes a long way!

Say no to screen time.

This is the hardest one for me, but probably the one that makes the biggest impact. We have always had a no screen time rule for the kids during school mornings, but I didn’t seem to think that I needed to follow the same rules.  While I do need to get on the computer for blogging related tasks in the morning, I do now make sure that I am completely ready to go first before logging on to the computer {or even checking my phone}.  This was a hard one at first since I was used to basically rolling over and grabbing my phone, but I promise that it gets easier and is a good motivator to get your jobs done quicker!

Write your plan down.

I cannot tell you what a difference writing something down makes!  Even if you don’t actually refer to your plan every day, having it written down just seems to make it more real.  I wrote mine down in the front of my planner but you can write it down anywhere that works for you.  Write down EVERYTHING that are priorities for you to get done – what you need to do for yourself to get ready for the day, what you need to do for your kids, and what you need to do around the house {you can see my morning cleaning tasks here}. There will likely be days that you don’t get everything done or you need to switch things up for one reason or another, but it gives you a good basic plan to start with.

 

Be consistent and stick with it.

Like I said at the beginning of the post, starting on a morning routine took some getting used to.  There were many mornings that I hit my snooze button at least three times before getting up and more than a few times that I grabbed my phone to check Facebook or Instagram.  BUT, after seeing how much calmer I was when I stuck to the plan and how much smoother the morning seemed to go for everyone, I realized that it really did make things easier.  And when I fall off the morning routine bandwagon {which definitely WILL happen!}, I always get back on. 🙂

It really is a nice feeling when you have already got so much done by 8:30 in the morning!

More Organization Ideas

For more ideas to help you keep your life organized, check out these posts..

How to Organize Your Life with a Notebook

How to Tackle Procrastination

Daily Habits to Get Organized