10 Tips on Creating a Productive Mom Morning Routine
I know we’ve all seen it! The perfect morning routine videos all over youtube. I’m even guilty of watching those videos where you see perfect looking women manage to wake up at 4am, work out, journal, make a 3-course breakfast, take a spa like shower, cure world hunger and make thousands of dollars all before 10am! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but you get my drift.
As much as those videos are motivating, they also can make us moms really overwhelmed. Like how in the world can I create the perfect morning routine with four little ones pulling me in every direction all morning? The thing is, you can’t create the perfect morning routine for you and your family by copying someone elses. The perfect routine is what works for you. For example, If you currently don’t regularly exercise, why are you adding exercise to your morning routine? If you want to add activity to your morning routine, incorporate something realistic like taking a short walk in your neighborhood.
Now that we understand the thought process around developing a productive mom morning routine for yourself, here are 10 more tips to add.
Set a wake up time
Please, I beg of you! Do not make an unrealistic goal of waking up at 4am if you know you do not have it in you. Setting a wake up time is meant to give you enough time in the morning to get things done. It is not in any way meant to make you suffer.
I personally give myself a wake up period. Instead of making it my goal to wake up at 5am. I allow myself a 30 minute window of waking up between 5-530am. When setting up your wake up time or time window, think about these things:
How much time you need to get dressed and ready for the day (I need 30 mins)
What time do I need to wake up the kids (I wake them up at 630am)
What activities take place between waking up and picking up the kids (getting dressed, devotional time, completing a quick task)
What time do I go to bed and how many hours of sleep do I need?
When you keep these things in mind, it helps you determine a realistic wake up time and ensures you are not setting a time that is too early or too late.
Get out of your pajamas
Please ladies! Hear me when I say that getting ready for the day must include more than brushing your teeth. Brush your hair or put on that wig. Put on a cute loungewear set. Wear perfume. Even, dare I say it, wear some makeup. Do whatever you need to do to look awake. If you look awake, you just might be a little more awake than sliding out of bed and going straight to deal with the kids. It might seem like it takes up time but really think about how much time it takes to put on fresh clothes. Not that much time.
Prep for morning activities the day before
Tell me a person who never had a situation in the morning where they were never short on time? I’ll wait. Yeah, no one is that lucky, especially if you’re a mom. In my household, I manage morning routine all my myself. Thats one mom versus 4 little children. Recipe meant for being late all the time. To avoid this as much as I can, I prep as much as I can the day before so I am not doing a whole lot of running around in the morning. Some activities to prep the night before can be:
Planning out school outfits
Prepping breakfast/ meal planning
Having backpacks and coats ready for kids to grab
Cleaning
If you can buy lunch, do it!
If your kids school has the opportunity to provide lunch for your kids, let them do it! Sure, we can plan to make lunches the night before but do we really? Lord knows I don’t or I just warm chicken nuggets for them and call it a day. Most schools now a days provide healthy and balanced lunches. My kids school even provides an app which shows the planned meals and provides substitutions for certain items. Just look into it. Gone are the days of PizzaHut Wednesdays and kids selling Costco chips at school. Let me know in the comments if thats what you experienced as a kid!
Plan “You” Time into Your Morning Routine
Why in the world would anyone want to wake up earlier over sleeping in? Well, no one really but when has and extra 10-20 mins of sleep time helped you feel more awake throughout the day? Never! But what does is using that 10-20 mins to do something for you! I give myself 30 minutes of “Mommy” time every morning and I use that time to listen to a daily devotional on Youtube while sorting one load of laundry in total silence. Sometimes I even have enough time to drink a cup of coffee! When I started doing this, I almost always had way more energy by the time it was time for me to greet my kids in the morning and I was actually more productive throughout the day. I think starting the day slow reduces my stress compared to waking up in a frinzy. Try it out. Give yourself 10-20 minutes every morning to yourself and tell me how it makes you feel.
Implement fail proof systems in your home that everyone recognizes
If I leave everything to memory every morning, I will never make it out the door on time. Because I know this, I set alarms and reminders with Alexa in my home for literally everything. I have Alexa telling me to wake up because I have to start my day now. She literally says this every morning at 530am, Monday through Friday. Not only that, I have loud blasting praise and worship music playing immediately out of my bathroom which further forces me to wake up. I don’t just do this for me. For some odd reason, my kids don’t understand the concept of “hurry up!” Because of this, I have Alexa tell my children to hurry it up. Tip for you parents, kids listen to Alexa more than they listen to us! Every weekday morning at 725am, Alexa says, “Okay Ada and Ari, it’s time to get ready to leave for school now.” The real time to leave is 730am so that little bit of 5 minutes gives them enough time to laugh at Alexa talking to them, take their last bite of their breakfast and grab their backpacks as the head towards the door with their dad. I still need to work on dad leaving the home office on time to drop them at school so I think I’ll set up an alarm in our office.
Give the Kids Morning Tasks
I know us moms are awesome, but don’t hog all the work! Give those children some work too. They are capable! My older kids do shoe duty. Once I’m done dressing one small child, they come in and help with shoe selection and putting the shoes and socks on. It’s a small task, but it frees me a bit to move onto another task. Also give your kids chores like cleaning off their bathroom countertops after smearing toothpaste everywhere or cleaning the dining table after everyone is done eating breakfast. Any little bit helps you and trust me, its better than being left with a kitchen that looks like a tornado went through it after everyone has left the house.
Have an Organized Fridge and Pantry
Let me tell you this from experience. The last thing you want in the morning is a screaming two year old have a tantrum because you told them they can have peanut butter on their waffles but you didn’t realize you were out of peanut butter so now they have to eat their waffles with syrup and they’ve decided in that moment they hate syrup, even though they eat it all the time. Trust me. To avoid this kind of scenario, have an organized fridge and pantry where its easy for you to know whats available for breakfast and where its located. If you have older kids, it makes it easier for your children to maybe make their own breakfast. I know it can be a daunting task, but it’s necessary if you want a productive morning.
Setup a Backpack Station
If we don’t intervene, kids will almost always make sure they have all the things they need to take to school at various spots in your home. Backpacks will be in the bedroom, the pencil box will be under the couch, crayons will be in under the bed and homework… the homework will just be missing. Then literally 30 seconds before entering the car to go to school, your child will frantically say they forgot something and spend forever looking for it. To avoid this, have a designated spot for all things that are for school. For us, we use our mudroom to keep a pair of school shoes, backpack and jacket. That way when its time to go to school, all they need to bring with them is in that one spot. We also don’t allow school supplies in the house so we have a set of extra supplies in the house.
Relax
The last tip is take it easy! Don’t be so tough on yourself if your morning routine doesn’t go as planned. Do what you can do and enjoy the morning with your little mini me’s.
Want to see our actual morning routine! Check out my latest Youtube video where I share my “5am Productive Mom Morning Routine” below!
Which of these tips do you already implement in your home and which of these tips are you interested in trying? If you have any tips that work for you in your home, please share! The Onyee’s Lifestyle community would love to know!
Until next time,
