Every Mom Needs To Do These 7 Things (So your Mornings don’t Suck!)

Everyone has had that morning.

You wake up, squint and glace at the clock, ugh! How is it already 7a?!

You dramatically plop back on the pillow and cover your face, thinking to yourself ‘i do NOT want to get up but you know that if you don’t you’re going to be late and its a morning full of rushing…you take that chance and go back to sleep…fast forward 20 mins now your hopping thru the hallway half-dressed headed for the warmth of your morning coffee.

Mornings can suck! It’s as simple as that!

It happens to us all, this is me most mornings lol I’m not going to lie, if you know me at all you will know I don’t sugar coat things or pretend, I’m a mess sometimes and its a miracle if I show up to anything on-time, my parent’s joke I’d be late to my own funeral if possible lol and they are right, its a thing.

Some things I have started to implement though have helped my ‘late disease’ as my dad fondly calls it lol

So there is hope, these have all worked for me and hopefully, they will help jumpstart your brainstorming so you can customize these to fit your lifestyle and get your mornings running smoothly!

What is Productivity?

Productivity is getting things done properly without wasting time.

Being organized is an important part of this puzzle but not the only piece, making sure that what your doing in the right order is important, but making sure how you’re doing each item is equally as important!

Why do we struggle with morning routines?

We just get stuck in a rut doing the same thing, moving from one thing to another not really looking at what we’re doing and if there is a better way

We have established habits that are hard to break, it has been shown it takes 3 weeks of doing something before it becomes a habit

We are busy- sometimes it’s just hard to set aside the time to really look at what our mornings look like and how to change them

We just do things the way they have always been done

My kids have a favorite My little pony episode that speaks directly to this, Apple Jack spends her entire day doing chores that should only take 15 mins because she has adapted how she does things based on occurrences and setbacks, but never reassessed how they could be done more efficiently until a new set of eyes- her friend Twilight sees how she is operating and is in disbelief and helps here rearrange her methods until the chores take a few minutes instead of hours!

I want to be your twilight, I want this post to do that for you! (🤣can you tell we love my little pony lol) It’s funny how kids shows can totally mirror real-life problems!

7 Best Tips to Start Your Day off Right

I’ve broken these tips down into short sweet bullet points, leave a comment below if there is a specific topic you’d like me to write a post on in more depth!

Tip 1: Set clothes out the night before or even the week in advance (if you wanna be an overachiever 😉)

Start with baby steps, but this can be scaled to a full-scale operation. At first, you might just lay out your clothes for the night or your kid’s clothes, then once you get in the groove of doing that you move up and start laying out everyone’s clothes the night before, and then if you feel up to it you can even layout the entire week in advance!

You don’t have to lay them all out together

An easy way to do this is to simply make the 1st 7 garments hanging in your closet be the items you picked out for the week in order, that way you don’t have clothes literally ‘laid out’ everywhere but you have picked out what you will wear

I would suggest doing the same thing for matching jewelry, and accessories like bows and shoes I would line them up in their respective locations if possible so in your jewelry box perhaps you have your items laid out in order, or you can place the necklaces on the hangers with your outfits, the sky is the limit on how you can plan ahead!

I usually keep it low-key and just pick my dresses and then hang them in order Monday thru Friday which is just 5 hangers and I’m ready to go for the week!

I do the same with my kids. It makes mornings so much less hectic!

Then each night before I will pull my kid’s clothes from the closet and lay them out on their dressers so in the morning they can dress themselves and there is no question of what they are wearing, this has saved so much time each morning!

Another way I have planned my son’s clothes ahead especially when he was younger (he’s 4 now) as I put his clothes away I’d just pair pants with shirts and put them in the drawer together so it was a no-brainer!

I usually do a combination of these methods for all of us, but in reality, some weeks we get dressed directly from baskets because we’ve been too busy to put actually clothes away and that’s ok too.

I try to live by 80% is good enough, it’s tricky because I want everything to be perfect all the time but it’s just not realistic so I’m working on letting 80% be good enough and you should too!

So if you look around and you’ve got like 3 baskets of clothes stuffed full of clothes from the dryer, cheer yourself on at least everyone will have clean underwear tomorrow!

Don’t feel bad about it, life is fluid and everchanging, sometimes we have time to go Marie kondo and kick butt with our laundry, and sometimes clothes get shoved in baskets for 5 days, both are ok and expected no one can be ‘perfect’ all the time, your human and busy, enjoy life, laundry never ends unless you plan on running around naked 😂

If you can’t find time this week to put clothes away to prep, don’t feel defeated, you can literally pull 5 things out and stack them in order on the basket and that is good enough!

You’re a busy mom, make sure you give yourself some grace and don’t fall into the trap of mom guilt that we all, myself included can feel!

Tip 2: place items that need to go with you by the door/pack lunches etc the day before

Prepping stuff the night before is the only reason I ever make it anywhere let alone actually on time 😂, seriously, my friends can attest to this!

If the next day is a play date, pack your bags with sunscreen, hats, snacks, and anything else you might be needed and set them by the door or you can even put them in the car, but let’s be real that’s not happening 🤣

Pack any lunches, snacks, or toys you will need

Create a morning checklist of things to grab that you can’t prep, or of stuff you did prep. (yes I’ve forgotten things I’ve prepped, crazy i know!)

Tip 3: make ‘you’ time before kids get up

Think of this time as a reward and look forward to it each morning which will help you get out of bed.

It doesn’t have to be a lot of time even just 10 minutes can make a difference in how you feel the rest of the day!

Lord knows I’m lucky if I don’t hit snooze like 5 times before I actually get up, so 10 mins early are about all I can do most days (I’m a night owl, myself) but I do know plenty of moms who are early birds and can totally do 1 hr before, so choose your timeline based on your preferences and be brutally honest and realistic with yourself, to set yourself up for success.

I’ve been there where I think to myself ‘ok, I’m gonna get up 2 hrs earlier than the kids, and I’m gonna do my bible time and planner and maybe even get some work done!’

Where in reality I stayed up til 1 am binge-watching 1883 and now I’m 20 mins late waking up at my normal time, so instead I’ve adjusted my plans to where I do those things in the evening after the kids go to bed, that’s where my happy time is when I have energy and time, so you can find your happy place by looking at your habits, are you up late, a night owl, or are you an early bird where you could get up earlier and get things done, both are ok and neither is better than the other just do what’s right for you!

You can do anything during this time, yoga, tv, quiet time, prayers, playing your favorite game on your phone, its whatever makes you happy!

Tip 4: Pick a Guilty Pleasure

This could be anything, from your special coffee to a quick phone call with your best friend, checking out your favorite show, or reading your favorite blog ‘wink wink’

If you love to craft but haven’t been able to find time, perhaps this is something you could look forward to doing during this time.

This should be something that you look forward to, which will help you roll out of bed in the morning.

Each day doesn’t have to be the same, maybe Mondays are prayer, Tuesdays are crafting with your Cricut, Wednesdays you are able to sleep in a bit, Thursdays you do your nails, and Fridays are watching your favorite show.

Just some ideas! Think about what you love to do and create your own mix!

Tip 5: Think Ahead

Write out Your To-Do List the night before.

This is not only a helpful way to jump-start your productivity in the morning but it will also help you get any last-minute things off your mind which will help you go to sleep faster!

Helps keep your mind from wandering at night!

I do this every night! It’s a must for me, I struggle to fall asleep most nights because my brain won’t shut up, doing this each night has helped quiet my brain enough to sleep faster!

You don’t have to write on paper, you can also type it up on your phone, I LOVE using the google tasks app to do this, I love checklists and it has tons of options to organize I have lists for everything, its just like my brain- 17 tabs open 🤣

I have checklists for meal plans, recipes, to-dos, thoughts, projects, blog tasks, appointments, important things coming up, shopping lists, house projects, and all kinds of other stuff!

Tip 6: Have an Activity Set-Up

This activity doesn’t have to be super extravagant like the bounce house pictured above, simple is best, because it will be the easiest to do and stick to.

My kids would watch tv while they waited for breakfast, but they seemed to struggle with the transition to starting school and anything else for that matter, they just didn’t want to stop watching, and when they did stop they weren’t the happiest of campers!

However, if they hadn’t watched tv they were raring and ready to start school!

So a new habit in our house is to do a simple no-prep activity before breakfast instead and they have to earn tv time by finishing their school and this simple transition has saved our mornings!

Each night before I go to bed I lay out a new activity for the kids in the morning to do while I make breakfast.

These can be set up the night before and requires little to no prep (I usually lay it out on the dining room table the night before so they know to go straight to the table and start)

Here are some ideas to get you started and links to some cool sites that offer these (these can be adapted for all ages, when I ran my daycare for years all kids loved these! Some ages I’ve used these with – 18m, 23m, 3yr, 4yr, 5yr, 7yr, 9yr) My current 4 and 9 year old looks forward to these each morning!

Want to know how to do these activities?

I have a whole post dedicated to these awesome activities and how to do them! I have all kinds of ideas and suggestions for each of these activities!

Tip 7: Meal Prep

This is my favorite especially when it comes to breakfast!

Sometimes I will simply double a pancake recipe so that I will cook once but we will eat it for 2 or 3 mornings! Or if I’m feeling extra ambitious then I might set aside an hr or 2 and batch cook up a storm! I’ll make pancakes, oatmeal bars, french toast, muffins, etc, and have an entire week’s worth of breakfasts! Both are great and can be a lifesaver in a rushed morning!

Can be small or large batches, just for tomorrow morning, for Wednesday because it’s going to be a busy day, for all of next week or anytime in between

It will help save time and stress

Ensures you’re eating good food and not just grabbing coco Krispies (I’ll be honest with you I totally did that last week, nobody is perfect lol but batch cooking can make it happen less often!)

Will save you money! If you are making your own pancakes rather than buying them or running by Chick-fil-A for delicious chicken mini’s will save you so much money in the long term!

Conclusion

Mornings can be busy, but that doesn’t mean they have to be stressful!

With these handy tips, you can completely turn your morning around and free up so much time you won’t know what to do with all that time lol

Do you have an amazing morning tip that you do each day that helps? Is there a tip that you would like to hear more about? Leave a comment below! I would love to know!