3 Tips to Transform Your Morning Routine

Consider your morning the first few hours of your day. You can have a morning routine that lasts 10 minutes, or 3 hours. It’s up to you. - CreateGoodMornings.com

My Morning Routine: What's Working for Me

This month, we have been talking about mom time, and finding the resources, tools and strategies that can help you make better use of the time you have & actually free up time to do the things you love most. Like spending more time with your family.

Ever since my Day in the Life experience, I have been continuing some of the changes I made that day, and they have been working well for me. I am not a morning person, and in the past, thought of mornings as something to be survived.

But surprisingly, I love them now! When they go smoothly, I even sometimes like them better than evenings. Here's what I have been doing as part of my morning routine...

(1) Pick 3 things you want to do every day, take note of 1 or 2 things that might need to be added on specifically that day. When possible, schedule the add-ons the night before.

My daily priorities include having a quiet time, having a cup of tea each morning before my son gets up, and working on my blog/business. It also includes homeschooling, and one goal is to  start our homeschool day sooner.

The add-ons might include having to get ready for an appt., or to run an errand that day, or something specific I am working on that day for the blog.

Over to you: before you read the rest of this post, take a few moments to think of what your 3 things would be.

Be sure to include whatever you struggle to get done each day. And what are the kinds of things that get added on?

(2) Identify the priorities and order them accordingly.

I enjoy my quiet time more in the evenings, but I notice that I occasionally miss doing it altogether if I don't do it first thing. So I make it the first thing I do, but I don't insist on perfection since I am still waking up. Then, later, if I can do it again, I do.

I also often do blogging tasks right away, after my quiet time. Because, with my chronic illness, if I don't tackle it during the morning, I may run out of energy to do it later.

And if I don't, I sometimes procrastinate, which cuts down in family time. Or it used to, before I realized what was happening.

What about you? What are the things you need to get out of the way first?

(3) Schedule them - create an ideal schedule for each day.

I say ideal, because who knows if it will happen exactly that way? But I have noticed that if I take it from to-do list to planned schedule of events, I am more likely to follow it.

When I don't set any time goals at all, it's all over the place. I often just don't move, partly because of my illness. So I know it's frustrating when things push into the afternoon that I hoped would be finished in the morning, but I just regret it, rather than changing it.

So I give myself a time deadline, and am much more likely to finish close to the time I set.

I do think it's important, though, to fire perfection as an ideal. So if you plan to get to a task by 1pm and you get to it by 1:10pm, I don't think it will help anyone if you chide yourself for getting to it late. Just notice what got in the way and think of how to move it out of your way next time.

Would an ideal schedule help you? Take a moment to think through what that would look like.

For more tips for creating & perfecting your morning routine & finding more time for what matters most to you, get access to my free lifestyle library.

See you tomorrow!

Love, Jeanine