My Morning Routine – Updated in 2023

The time has come that I feel like it’s time to do an updated Morning Routine. Some things have changed, some are completely the same from the last morning routine I wrote a couple years back. The biggest change is that I’ve been dealing with chronic pain for the past couple of years. I have been through physical therapy – finished that about a year ago, but the pain is starting to come back again (this is to be expected with what is going on with my back). So, back to the doc, physical therapist, and more I go! Anyway, when I wake up in the morning I don’t know if it’s going to be a mid-pain day or a high pain day, which, as you can imagine, makes a massive difference. I stick to this routine generally, but on a high pain day I tend to take a little longer to get out of bed in the morning. 

Before we really get into this routine, I want to note that a morning routine isn’t a lot without a solid evening routine. I’ll be talking about that in an upcoming blog post. 

So, weekdays my alarm goes off at 6:00AM. During the school year the boys get up around 7:20-7:30AM, and I need to have at least an hour for myself before I go get them up. One of my intentions for this year was to get out of bed when my alarm goes off, which, most of the time I actually do. There are some instances where I don’t, but most morning my alarm goes off and within 5 minutes I’m out of bed. The biggest help for this is some sort of a sunrise alarm clock going off when my alarm on my phone does. I wrote about this in my “magical winter” post HERE, but I found this great alternative on Amazon (which you can find HERE). It’s not a full-on sunrise alarm clock, but it’s working for me for now. 

I’ll put on some sort of calming or inspiring Spotify playlist depending on what mood I’m in/what I need to set myself up for the day. Beyond that I do not look at my phone. I have the Do Not Disturb set on my phone, it goes on at 9:00PM and goes off at 7:00AM. I try not to look at anything on my phone until 7:00AM, with social media/Email/Whatever until 8:00 or 9:00 AM. I just find that if I start my day on my phone, it instantly shifts my mood and mindset- even if it’s just good things I’m seeing. 

I hop out of my bed and will typically start the day with a couple of stretches to get my back moving and loose. My chronic pain is in my back and the biggest thing I can do to help it is to stretch it out first thing. From there I jump in the shower, either just a quick shower or a full on wash my hair, shave, and do all the things. Now, this is where my morning has changed the most- I used to try and do some yoga or a quick cardio blast or something to move my body, but I have found that it just didn’t work for me. I either didn’t do it, and then beat myself up for not doing it, OR I would do it and then rush through everything else I need to absolutely get done before I get the kids up. So, I still do these things, but later in the day. 

Around 6:30-6:45 (depending on the hair wash situation), I’m typically sat in front of my mirror putting on a little bit of makeup and then getting dressed. My wintertime wardrobe is vastly different from my spring/summer (and not just because it’s cold), but I’ve talked about all the wardrobe and clothing things HERE. 

At about 7:00AM, I head downstairs to open up all the blinds and get breakfast started. If you follow along on my social media, you’ll know this part of my routine quite well as it’s one of my favorite things. I start by going into the sunroom and opening up the blinds on our biggest window. During winter it’s still relatively dark, but in the summer the light just floods in. Then I slowly go around to the rest of the windows downstairs opening the blinds, turning lamps on, and creating the cozy morning space. 

Once that is done, I return to the kitchen where I put the kettle on and prep breakfast. It’s simple most morning, bagel for myself, pop tarts or donut holes for the boys. Some mornings I’ll make a breakfast for my husband and myself – breakfast burritos- once the kids are on the bus. When we are able, we typically will have some sort of berry as well. The boys get up around 7:20AM during the school year, get dressed and such, and then come downstairs to eat breakfast. 

Both boys ride the bus to school, and I’ll walk with them down to the bus stop (which is just a couple houses down from ours) and wait with them. Once they’re on the bus, I finish up my tea and visit with Robert. This little chunk of time is meant for chatting and planning. It’s also when I typically will do a little journaling and look at my tasks for the day/map out how I want my day to go. 

I try to have my “day” start at 9:00AM with unloading and putting away the dishes in the kitchen. Then I’ll do the cleaning chores I have set out for the day (I deep clean one section of the house a day, and do a light tidy up the entire house every evening) and finally, around 10:00AM or so I’ll head into the office to get started on my computer tasks for the day. 

And that’s it! It doesn’t really change too much as I’ve found that it really works. I think the biggest game changer to my morning and day is getting up before my kids. Even if it’s just 10 minutes, it makes a difference. 

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What If You’re Not A Morning Person

You hear it all the time, the most productive people are morning people. You will succeed in life if you are a morning person. Get up earlier, get more done. If you’re not a morning person, here is how to become a morning person (oh Hi- I’m guilty of doing that one too, here’s my post if you want to read it).

I’ve been guilty of being that person too. I PERSONALLY feel that I get more done, feel more together, and just feel better, when I get up early and have an earlier start to my day. Part of this comes from having two very young children, close together in age, that are always exploring and needing attention. Once they are up, and until they go down for naps, most of my attention is on them. I also work and run two blogs, so this means if I want to workout, do my hair and makeup, etc, I have to be up before them doing that. I have found that FOR ME this are essential to my overall well being.

Here’s the thing though, in all of our hurriedness to get everything done, get to the top of the chain the fastest, and to be viewed as a success, we have forgotten that we are not all the same. We are not the same person, we do not share the same interests, we do not work the same way, we do not all thrive under the same instances.

So, I am here to tell you to forget everything that I have ever said about being a morning person. Actually, if we want to be a Morning Person (because you want to try it, or feel like you would be better getting up earlier), then go back and read that blog post and give it a shot. Don’t feel like you have to though because, honestly being a morning person is not a necessity to being successful. Let me repeat: BEING A MORNING PERSON IS NOT A NECESSITY TO BEING SUCCESSFUL.

 Did you catch that? Maybe go re read it? Got it? Ok. Now, let’s talk about what is a necessity to being successful. TIME MANAGEMENT. If you know how to use your time properly and appropriately to be at your most productive, it doesn’t matter what time you get up or what time you go to bed. Time Management is your best friend. It is what allows you to be productive, to feel like you’ve got your “life together” and what allows you to be successful in what you are doing.

I’ve touched on Time Management before…kind of. I don’t have a full post devoted just to Time Management (but stay tuned, it’s coming!), but I’ve talked about Routines (HERE), Priorities and Prioritizing (HERE), as well as my own planning (HERE). However, that being said, I do have a post coming this next month talking all about Time Management and putting my thoughts from those three separate posts into one easy post for you!

 

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