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Are you a morning person?  Bright eyed and bushy tailed when daylight peeps through the crack of your windows? Or do you hit the snooze button after the alarm goes off yearning to get those few extra minutes in before actually stepping foot out of bed?  The first thing that comes to mind when I wake up in the morning (aside from giving thanks to the almighty), I ask myself…..what is on my list of To-Dos?  There’s just something about checking items off of my “To Do” list which leads to a great start of my day. A productive morning leads to a productive day, and the best way to start your productive day is with a super-efficient morning routine.  Now many people decline routines because they would rather be spontaneous and sort of go with the flow (i.e. my husbandJ).  But over the years, I have learned that creating and adhering to a personal daily routine is the pathway to freedom, happiness, productivity, and fulfilling our true potential.   Take a look below at 4 reasons why you would benefit from a set routine:   1. Makes You More Efficient When we have a daily routine that we follow, it decreases the need to make decisions each day. It enables us to know exactly what tasks we need to do each day without having to contemplate, decide or think too much. When we are finished with one task, we know what comes next without much thought. Our day to day activities become consistent and as a result, we become more efficient.   2.  Reduces Your Need to Plan When we carefully design a set routine to follow, it eliminates the need to plan our activities every morning. It takes the presumption out of our day and allows us to wake up and ‘do’ instead of wake up and ‘plan’.   3.  Teaches Good Habits The secret to creating good habits is repetition. When we come up with a personal routine that works for us, the development of good habits are formed and it encourages us to repeat the same tasks over and over again. Similar to washing our face and brushing our teeth every morning, following a routine allows us to adopt habits that match our goals and aspirations.   4.  Prioritization The beauty of creating a set routine is that it forces us to prioritize and decide what is important to us. Rather than make these decisions on a daily basis, we already know what we need to do and in what order because we have carefully planned it. For example, I sometimes like to start my morning in gratitude by giving thanks to our creator and writing out or reading my goals, so I decided to incorporate meditation into my daily routine.   Over the years, I have developed an effective morning routine that helps me start the day right.  I have to admit before I became a wife and a mom, I was a little relaxed with my morning routine mainly because I only had to prepare for myself.  Still efficient but my morning checklist was slightly different compared to now.  Now I have OUR breakfast and lunches to prepare.  As you continue to read, I share with you an example of my routine including my top tips for improving your efficiency and making it work for you.   There are many ways to get into a routine, but the number one rule is to make it work for you.  I like many others have a super busy schedule.  I work a full time job that requires me to sit in traffic 1 hour 20 minutes each way on top of working 8 full hours (yikes).  I’m also a wife and a first time mom so trying to find balance and time to get everything done in a day’s work definitely requires a routine so that I’m more efficient. I’ll admit it – balancing everything that is important to me can sometimes be challenging.  But finding an efficient morning routine has helped me increase my productivity and fit more into my day. Below I will share 3 tips to get the most out of your morning and how I make it work for me.  

3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Morning

Preparation is Key!  As a wise man once said, “Today’s preparation determines tomorrow’s achievements”. I try my very best to prepare for the next day the night before. I cannot tell you the amount of time it saves me when I wake up the next morning and certain things are already taken care of and checked off of my list before the day even starts.  I know my moms can attest to this.  I promise you, if you can carve out some time to prepare the night before, it will do wonders for your morning routine. There are a few key things that I like to prepare for the night before to make sure that I’m ready to hit the ground running the next morning. These include:

1. Pack your lunch for work or school.Packing your own lunch saves you money.  On average, fast food lunch costs between $6-$12; but packing your lunch at home can save you half of that or more. Not only that, packing and bringing your lunch from home saves you time because you don’t have to leave work or school to get your meal.  Besides, a lunch from home can be more nutritious.  For my moms who are wanting to be more efficient in the morning, try preparing your food and the kids’ food the night before as it will save so much time in the am.

  Side note: Now, I haven’t gotten into meal prepping yet but for those that do, it definitely prepares you for the week ahead by saving time and money.  I totally recommend doing it.  

2. Pick out your clothes. One thing that can actually make your life easier and your mornings far less nerve-racking is planning your outfit(s) for the day the night before. Sounds simple enough, right? But how many of us actually do this? I know I can be extremely indecisive when it comes to picking out an outfit to wear to work. Sometimes, depending on my mood or the weather, I will have a fashion show with multiple wardrobe changes before I decide on what to wear and realize I have lost 30 minutes in the process with a pile of clothes on the floor.  There’s a reason our moms taught us this when we were young.  The funny thing is I practice this not only with myself but with my daughter.  Her clothes are laid out the night before as well.  It just makes sense and it saves a ton of time.  So before you go to bed, choose your entire outfit for the next day, right down to your shoes, bag, and other accessories.  Not only will you know ahead of time how your outfit will look, but it will leave you extra time to sleep longer or to get other things done in the morning if you plan accordingly.

 

3. Have your necessities ready to go.If you’re running late in the morning, looking for your keys, wallet, cell phone, laptop bag, etc.  is the last thing you should be doing to get out of the door.  Any and everything that is needed should be rounded up and put in the same place, ready to go when the morning comes.  A few years ago, I received a pretty cool gadget from my mother in law as a Christmas gift called a Tile Mate.  A Tile is a tiny Bluetooth enabled tracker and companion app that allows you to locate your items fast. You can attach Tile to anything you’d hate to lose and can always find it much quicker.  I have mine attached on my key ring and I use the free Tile app to make my devices ring when I’m in Bluetooth range so that I can easily find it by sound.  Let’s say you’re out of Bluetooth range…..one cool thing is that the app remembers the last place you had your things and even shows you where they are on a map.

  By preparing, my morning routine takes about 45 minutes to get up, get dressed,  get the baby dressed, get our (myself, husband, and child) breakfast and lunches packed and ready to go, grab my workbag and I’m out the door.  I can’t stress enough to you the importance of a great morning routine, as it will set you up for a successful day…..and life. Remember, this is your life and you have to do it the way that works best for you. Do you have a morning routine?