My morning routine

I am not a morning person. However, I’ve got to a point in my life where getting up is bearable. How I’ve achieved this is by honing my morning routine.

There used to be a time when every morning, whatever mood I’d woken up in, I would leave the house frustrated and rushed. This state of being had an immediate impact on my partner, who was trying to leave the house at the same time, and put a storm cloud over the first few hours of my day. Something had to change. We made a commitment to improving our morning routine and over the past year we’ve been perfecting it.

Preparation

The key to our morning routine is to start the night before. We prep breakfast, lunch and anything else we need to take with us so that all we have to do the next day is get ourselves up and dressed. Sometimes I laugh to myself when I pass through the kitchen on my way to bed; on the side by the kettle are two cups with tea bags in, two bowls, cereals etc. The slight ridiculousness of this level of preparation is worth it though.

Structure of our mornings

The timings for this routine don’t really matter, we follow the same structure whether we’re off to work on a weekday or having a lazy morning. I’ve included weekday timings though so you can see how much time we spend on each stage. And it’s important to note that when we first changed our routine, setting the alarm 30 minutes earlier was key.

6.30 – first alarm

6.45 – second alarm, first person up and in bathroom

7.05 – second person up and in bathroom, first person makes breakfast for both

7.20 – return to bed to read with a cuppa and breakfast – this is a crucial stage, spending quiet time reading in the morning sets the tone for the day

8.00 – out of bed to dress and get everything together

8.25 – leave the house (or move into office if working from home)

Conclusion

Your morning routine has to work for you. If you’re looking at other people’s routines for guidance, don’t focus on the details, it’s the process that matters. For example, all the advice about getting up immediately when your alarm goes off is lost on me – I’m a snoozer and nothing’s going to change that. As a result I’m usually the second person in the bathroom (and yes, that does mean I’m the lucky one who gets breakfast made for them).

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Featured image by David Mao on Unsplash