Set Yourself Up for Successful Mornings
I have been getting myself up earlier than the rest of my family now for over four years. This means, every weekday morning, I get myself out of bed (without snoozing) sometime between 5:00 am and 6:00am, depending on my workout and what we have going that day. Maybe you don’t want to get up that early, or need to get up that early, but maybe you are still hitting that snooze button and scrambling to get yourself out the door in the morning. Either way, hopefully some of the planning items I do will help you with your mornings as well.
It’s been said a million times, and I will say it again. A successful morning always begins with a successful evening routine. The only way I can get ahead of everything to come is to plan and prepare the night before.
Before I started really getting a handle on my morning routine, I used to hit the snooze button, jump out of bed at the last second, struggle finding clothes for me and clothes for my kids, forget parts of my lunches, and have to go back home to get bottles, laptops, and other stuff I always had a tendency to forget. It was wild. “Running home at lunch” was just way too easy and I would get really down on myself about my lack of “getting my shit together”.
Once I started implement my Miracle Mornings, I felt so much more together and I realized how much I loved that feeling, so I started looking for more ways to stream-line my mornings. I realized doing as much to prepare the night before was the best gift I could give to my morning-self. Here are the things I do in the morning to keep my shit together.
First, I look at my calendarS for the next day. Yes, that is plural. I have separate calendars for home and work, and I need to see a full picture of my day.
The first calendar I look at is my personal calendar. I check the length of my workouts so I know how early I need to wake up and what equipment I might need. I also check to see what activities are happening that day (baseball games, soccer practice, dentist appointments). This helps me know if I need to double-check anything before going to bed, such as if we have clean sports uniforms.
Next, I take a quick peek at my work calendar. I try to avoid checking my work email and calendar after hours, but I do take a look at it the night before just to make sure nothing has changed and that I’m prepared. When I worked in the office, I checked my calendar to make sure I was getting into the office early enough for any morning meetings. Even now that I’m working remote, I have coworkers in all time zones, so sometimes I do have early meetings and I need to make sure I give myself time to get the kids to school and get home. I also like to know if I have a really busy day ahead in case I can do some extra prep work to make it easier, such as putting together some snacks or getting to some tasks that I realize I don’t have time for the next day.
I also take a look at the breakfast and lunch calendar that my kids bring home. There are certain breakfasts and lunches that my kids really like at school, and when they bring home their latest monthly food service calendar, we go through and circle the meals they want to eat at school. I check this calendar the night before since sometimes this changes when we need to get to school to make sure the kids have time to get breakfast before class begins. Also, I really enjoy have one or two mornings a week where I don’t have to pull together a breakfast for them, so I always check the calendar to see if the next day will be one of those easier mornings for us (me).
In addition to the calendars I check, I also make sure my kids have their backpacks prepared for the morning. They gather up teacher papers and library books and stick them in their backpacks, and then they make sure their coats, boots, gloves, etc are all put together where they should be. This helps us to not do the morning scramble to try and find all the random things they need in the morning. If I don’t do this the night before, I find our mornings can completely fall apart with the one missing glove or library book that is due. This one is huge for me!
Then, I double and triple check my to do list. I have a blog post describing my to do list (Toodledo app on my phone) and it is my life line. Before getting ready for bed, I open my to do list one final time and look for anything I’ve missed or that I need to know about to prepare for the next day. Maybe I’m out of blueberries (I eat them every single day) and I added them to my list. If I remind myself of this the night before, I can set myself a reminder for the morning so I can zip into the grocery store after dropping my kids off and grab the couple items I need. If I didn’t check this the night before, I might not know/remember until the morning, and then it may be too late to factor in that grocery store stop before getting back home to meetings and work.
I will also check my library book due dates to make sure there isn’t one that I have due the next day that I could also handle after dropping off the kids. Essentially, I make sure I am aware of any small errands that I need to do so I can try to fit them in after school drop off and avoid making a trip into town during the day.
As you can see, I am always trying to optimize my time and my days. As a busy working mom of two kids, I like to make sure I’m planning ahead. Feeling on top of all my tasks, errands and calendars gives me peace of mind. I know I hate that sinking feeling when I’ve forgotten something or when I need to do extra work because I didn’t prepare. Being less hard on myself is important, but sometimes, I just need a good calendar check and some prep work to really feel at ease.
Do you have any routines or hacks that you do in the evening to set yourself up for a successful morning?
