Hands up if your morning is some variation of the below:
Wake up, hit the snooze button, hit the snooze button, grudgingly get out of bed, drag self into shower, see the time, freak out, hurry, hurry, hurry … no time for breakfast, ARGH I missed my bus and now I’m going to be late for work.
I’ve made little secret of the fact that I am super-passionate about having a morning routine that allows you to leave the house in a chilled out fashion. I really believe the way we start our day is super-crucial to the way the rest of our day pans out – mood-wise and productivity-wise.
But what if you’re not a morning person? Are there some simple things you can do to start each day in a more dignified fashion? Of course there are! Here are six:
It all starts the night before
1. Lay it out baby
Ever found yourself panicking at 7.30am because there’s not a single pair of hole-free stockings in the entire house and your first meeting is at 8am? Try this the night before: lay out all the clothes you need for the next day. This will quickly identify anything crucial that is missing from your ensemble and also means you won’t have to ask yourself that mind-numbing morning question “what am I going to wear today”.
2. Do the token tidy
Nothing frazzles a morning faster than being faced with a pile of unwashed dishes in the kitchen. And I realise the last thing you might want to do each evening before bed is tidy up but all it takes is five minutes. Get those plates in the dishwasher and restore your living area to a semblance of tidiness. This means no little jobs will be nagging at your brain while you’re trying to enjoy your breakfast.
3. Hook up with a good book
Many people delay going to bed simply because they can’t be bothered getting off the couch. Best tip for getting to bed ‘on time’? Get your hands on a great read. This should be enough to tear you away from the comfy couch and comes with an added bonus. Reading before bed winds the mind down and clears away the stresses of the day making it easier to fall asleep AND stay asleep.
In the morning
4. Get up half an hour earlier
Hey – what? That’s not a tip, that’s torture! Don’t knock it till you try it though. Since you’re falling asleep earlier these days, getting up half an hour earlier is not going to rock your world. Do you usually find yourself gulping down some form of lukewarm liquid from a travel cup as you bolt out the front door every morning? Getting up 30 minutes earlier means you’ll have time to drink a hot cup of coffee while reading the paper or browsing Facebook. What a nice way to start the day!
5. Stay on task
Woo – you’ve got all this extra time on your hands in the morning. Why not take the opportunity to pop a load of washing on! Err … no. Your mission is to have breakfast, get dressed and leave the house. The end. Add anything else into the mix and you’re back on your way to situation ‘frazzled’.
6. Make your bed
No really – make your bed. This has two benefits. The first is that right off the bat, you’ve already accomplished something for the day so you’ll leave the house with a spring in your step. Secondly, when it comes time to crawl into bed that night, you will send a fervent ‘thank you’ to your morning self for leaving such a lovely gift for the end of your day!