Quick Tips for a More Productive Morning

I'm not a lot of things. But despite my chronic resting b*$%# face, I’m actually one heck of a morning person. For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed mornings. I am Mary freaking Poppins between the hours of 5 and 10 am. It’s my sweet spot. I’m my most productive, most creative, most patient and most motivated self in the morning (currently writing this blog post at 5 am, coffee in hand).

I think a large part of that has to do with the fact that I’m a true introvert, and at least 50% of my morning is spent solo — it’s how us intros recharge our batteries. Regardless if you’re a morning person or a night owl, a productive morning is truly just 80% preparation and 20% time management.

Here are my quick tips for a more productive morning:

1) Start the night before. Productive mornings are dependent on a productive evening (80% prep). A clean kitchen, packed lunches and prepped outfits have to happen before I go to bed in order for my mornings to run smoothly. I don’t stand a chance if I wake up to dishes in the sink (the actual thought of that makes me cringe). I want my children to become little morning people. Reducing the feeling of being rushed out the door is a job I’m willing to take on as a mama. I control the tempo of the morning because I want them to enjoy the process. If they start dreading the AM shuffle, it’s just a matter of time before they are 25 repeatedly hitting the snooze button only to oversleep a life-changing job interview (my irrational fear as a mother).

2) Lose the alarm. Have you ever been in public and heard someone’s ringer, but it’s actually the sound of your alarm? You instantly get that gut feeling of dread because you just associated that sound with getting out of your cozy bed. Even as a true morning person, I still hate the sound of my husband’s alarm. Mostly because he hits snooze upwards of 5 times. Snoozing your alarm away in the morning sets you up for failure. Not only do you now feel rushed once you actually pull yourself out of bed, but you physically just did a number on your yourself by messing with your REM cycle.

I highly recommend using a progressive or “natural” waking clock. They sell these everywhere, but the one on your phone does the job. If you have an iphone, it’s called “Bedtime”. It progressively plays soothing tones to naturally pull your body out of REM instead of jolting you through the ceiling into immediate self loathing. You wake up feeling more refreshed and hitting snooze is less appealing.

3) Wake up an hour early. If you don’t like mornings that one probably stung to read, or you audibly laughed. Listen, you don’t have to wake up an hour early to meditate or do yoga or run off to the gym or read a novel or solve world hunger. Just give your brain that time to wakeup and set your intention for the day. If the first thing you do in the morning is zombie walk to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and then inevitably start checking your emails and scrolling social media…fine—keep doing that, just do it an hour earlier than you normally do. You get your distractions out of the way before the clock starts ticking. I didn’t start doing this until I had kids. If I am rolling out of bed at the same time my kids are, I’m already behind and I can’t catch up. Mama needs a minute…alone…with coffee.

3) Lists are your friend. A portion of my solo morning coffee hour involves writing out a list for the day. I list everything from tasks that have to be completed, to appointments, to goals, to random errands I might need to accomplish after school drop off. The list varies depending on the day, but getting my thoughts from brain to paper helps reduce anxiety and set my intentions for the day. It becomes a great reference when I’m feeling off task from the natural chaos of work + kids.

4) Mile marker timers. I pride myself on my time management. My husband is a different story (maybe that’s why I’ve become so good at it, because his concept of time is garbage). I’ll write a separate blog post on our school morning routine where this time management method actually saves lives. But just trust me, mile marker timers are such a game changer for morning productivity. I use Alexa, but you can also set these on your phone. Before you start a task, set a timer. Simple tasks like breakfast, makeup, hair or getting the kids dressed. Break your morning up into tiny 5 or 10 minute milestones. It keeps you on track without having to constantly check the clock. Plus, if you have kiddos—they think it’s a game and buy into every step of the routine.

5) Give yourself a little grace. I like to think if I’ve accomplished my evening prep that even if I’m thrown some morning curveballs (sick kids, cranky toddler, burnt pancakes) I’m still doing okay. Someone is going to inevitably spill their milk, lose a shoe or insist on clicking their own carseat. If I accept that going into each day — it gets that much easier.

Oh yeah, and make your bed…you animal.

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