Do you feel frazzled and stressed in the morning
How I start my morning has an enormous impact on the entire day.
When I start off my day very organized and make time for myself first, my day is more productive, I’m a happier person and it gives me more time to focus on my own goals! When I’m slow to start, it makes me want to stay in PJ’s all day and just complete the bare minimum. Whether you are rushing out the door for work or are a stay-at-home-mom, being as organized as possible as early as possible in the morning will impact not only your mood and day, but your family’s also.
BONUS Tips for Mom’s Juggling Kids in the Morning:
(the more kids are taught to help themselves, the smoother YOUR morning will go!!)
- Teach your kids as young as possible to wake themselves up on time
- Have them help pack their own lunch the night before once they’re in upper elementary school
- Have your kids pack their school bag, sports gear and lay out their clothes the night before
- By middle school or high school, they can make their own breakfast. I want my son to have a hearty breakfast in the morning and don’t want to give him cereal. Our go-to healthier options are hard boiled eggs (cooked earlier in the week), oatmeal, fruit and smoothies.
I’ve talked to many stay-at-home moms who sometimes feel they have this false sense of having the entire day to get whatever they need to done (myself included!) So whether you have a lot of time, or are simply super busy during the day and don’t have time, starting out as organized as possible as soon as you wake up makes an enormous difference to how the rest of your day will go.
I’ve been a stay-at-home and work-at-home mom for over 16 years, when the kids were younger I sometimes felt as if I had the entire day to get everything done. By having that mentality, some days it would take me literally ALL DAY LONG to get even basic tasks completed that could’ve easily taken me just 1-2 hours if I focused on them in the morning.
This is something I’m continuing to work on as a work-at-home-mom. I get so excited about my blog and want to work on it first thing in the morning, but unless I put myself on a set morning routine, it’d be 5 PM and my bed would still be undone!
By trying my hardest to stick to a set morning schedule, act like I’m leaving for the office and complete this list of 10 tasks by 8 AM, it not only makes our home run more efficiently, by it really helps create a positive outlook for my entire day.
I hope the 10 tasks I try my hardest to complete every morning, will help you too! Some of them seem very simple and maybe there are for moms who are naturally very organized. I for one am not and have to follow a set morning routine or will neglect myself in particular.
I get up 1 HOUR before my son so I can squeeze in time for myself. Because I work from home, I’m able to take a mid morning break to exercise. If you leave for work, you can get up even earlier to make it a priority, go on a walk at lunch or exercise right after work.
Get Hydrated
This is the very first task of my day, each and every day! Our bodies start getting dehydrated during the night and it’s import to hydrate first thing. It’s not that I love to drink water, but it helps to wake me up and puts me on a good first step to making sure I drink enough during the day.
Coffee or Tea
I’m personally a coffee girl, but limit myself to one cup in the morning so I don’t get the jitters. If I need an extra pick-me-up my go to drink is a homemade green tea latte. I created my own recipe with almond milk that’s also sugar-free, which you can find here. Madi and I prefer to have this cold, but many enjoy green tea latte’s as a hot beverage too. What I love about matcha green tea, is it creates a “calm alertness.”
We stopped buying them at Starbuck’s as an afternoon treat once we created our own.
15-30 mins of Alone Time/Reading
This 15 minutes is crucial to me! My husband laughs, but while I’d say I’m more of a morning person, I can’t just wake right up and definitely need transition time.
Do whatever makes you feel good, just sitting and sipping your morning beverage, reading a chapter in your most recent book or thumbing though a magazine.
Relaxation or a Morning Home Workout
This isn’t one I do enough, but when I do, it helps so much!! Just having few minutes of focused deep breathing and clearing your mind, really makes me more happy and positive in the morning.
Tackle the Laundry Pile
After taking 15 minutes of alone time with my coffee and book, I’m ready to get my day started! FYI, if I don’t get my morning alone time, boy do I start my day cranky! My family knows to let me have transition time. 🙂
My first task is to put in one load of laundry that washes in cold water. We don’t want to use the warm water or else someone will end up with a cold shower! By this time, it’s only around 6:20 AM in the morning, so by getting a jump on the laundry means I get TWO loads washed by 8 AM!
Unload the Dishwasher
Unloading it before the family eats breakfast helps to keep the kitchen clean and means they’re more likely to load the dishes themselves.
Shower and Get Dressed
I sneak in a quick shower and get dressed while my hubbie is eating his breakfast, because having a shower first thing is another key way for me to wake up. If I stay in PJ’s and don’t bother showering until 11am, how much do you think I get done in the AM? Nothing! Because I’m acting like it’s a weekend morning, not a weekday.
Make Beds (have the kids make their own)
This is pretty self-explanatory 😉
Start Rosie
Who is Rosie you might ask?? Rosie is our Roomba robot vacuum that has been a huge life saver and time saver having dark wood floors and two shedding yellow labs! I would literally be spending 30 minutes per day cleaning floors if it wasn’t for my Roomba! No, Roomba’s aren’t cheap but for us, it’s been worth every penny.
Roomba’s work very well but aren’t perfect. Rosie gets most of the hair and dirt on a daily basis, and then once per week I do a full house vacuum with my regular vacuum.
Review Calendar for the Day
The last task that’s critical for me to do before 8 AM, is knowing what’s coming up during the day! For the most part I have appointments and commitments memorized, but every now and then, things get busy and I have an “oops” moment forgetting about something on my calendar I have to deal with.
Not only do I check my calendar for the day, I also make sure I know what’s for dinner so I can plan out what time I’ll be prepping.
I hope my morning tips help you as much as they help me! I’m not perfect about this every single day, but feel so much happier and calmer when I start my day in an organized mindful way <3 Jen
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