5 Hacks to Make the Most of Your Morning Routine

For some people, morning can feel like the worst time of the day. There are so many things that you feel like you have to do, but you have almost no time to do them. You have to get yourself and maybe even your family members washed, clothed, fed, and ready to head to school, work, or elsewhere. It can be an exhausting way to begin the day. Though it may feel like there’s no way around all the hustle and bustle, you can slow down the early morning circus with some simple life hacks.

Creating a hectic-free morning is not going to be easy, and if you’ve got a big family, it might even be impossible. Luckily, with the help of these five simple life hacks, you can take the guesswork out of your mornings and make the chaos slightly more bearable. Maybe you’ll even want to get up in the morning when you know you’ve got a solid routine in place.

1. Stretch Time to Its Limits With Prep Work

There are some things that have to be done in the morning: eating your breakfast, putting on fresh clothes, brushing your teeth, etc. These all have to be done ideally before you head out the door. However, if you streamline things as much as possible with prep work, you can save so much time each morning.

One life hack for a streamlined morning routine is to lay clothes out before you go to bed the night before so that everyone in the household already knows what to put on the next morning. If there's a uniform, outfit, or specific piece of clothing that you know you want or need to wear, be sure it is washed and ready to go the night before to avoid any panic. This will help avoid last minute decision-making and emergency laundry dives, saving you a lot of time that would normally go wasted.

The same prep work can be done with breakfast. If you’re planning to eat something other than cold cereal, put it together the night before so that you can just throw it in the microwave in the morning. Then you’ll have a breakfast that is not only hot and delicious, but also quick and easy.

A bonus life hack is to work in an extra ten minutes of time in the morning for whatever it is you may need it for—traffic, road hazard detours, or other unplanned situations that can add stress to the start of your day if you haven’t allotted any spare time to them. If you simply give yourself a few more minutes to get where you need to be, it can make all the difference. It can also alleviate stress by allowing you to feel less hurried and more in control of the situation when you are running late because you’ve already given yourself a cushion of time to work with.

2. Get Organized Each Season

When thinking about life hacks to help with your morning routine, you need to think about what barriers are holding you up. Do you have to dig through your closet like Indiana Jones just to find a rain jacket? Are your purses buried under a pile of clean clothes? If so, maybe disorganization is one of your biggest problems.

Early in the morning when you’ve got limited time is not ideal for realizing that you should have put the winter clothes away weeks ago or that you should have pulled out your rain gear or winter accessories for easy access. Whether it’s the hallway closet or your kitchen junk drawer holding you up, get organized and make sure anything you need for the day is easily accessible. Clean out your closet so that it only has the essentials for the next three months, whether that means umbrellas in rainy season, ear muffs for snowy weather, or a light jacket for seasonally chilly nights. This will not only help you de-clutter your home, which is always nice, but also help you stay moving in the morning.

3. Balance What You Want to Do and What Needs to Be Done

Here's a life hack that many people do not think about. Don’t waste your time on things that can be done later when you're not under a time crunch. Do you really need to start that load of laundry before work? Do you absolutely have to send out that email while you’re eating breakfast? Can you take that phone call later when you have more time?

A great life hack to save a lot of time is to make sure that you are only doing what needs to be done in the morning. Trying to cram in extra chores when you’re on your way out the door will just make your morning more hectic than it needs to be and can prevent you from getting out the door on time.

4. Keep Things Consistent

You’re allowed to function on autopilot in the morning, but if you are constantly misplacing things or moving things around, you are forcing your brain to wake up and get into gear fast in order to compensate. Hunting down items takes time away from you getting out the door.

Keep things consistent by always leaving things in their designated spots will make optimize your morning efficiency. Your dog’s leash should always be in the same spot so that you can get out the door for your morning walk on time. The kids’ book bags should all be on their designated hooks and same for lunchboxes should be in their cubbies. The same goes for shoes, briefcases, purses, yoga mats, gym bags, and anything else you need to take with you in the morning. This life hack will help keep everyone moving in the morning, even if they are still half asleep.

Plus, with everything in its proper place, you can easily do a check to make sure nothing is forgotten before you go.

5. Take Advantage of Technology

Nowadays, there is an app for everything. Using the right apps can help you with your morning routine. Technology is one of the most important life hacks because it can help you figure out what you’re forgetting each morning before you get out the door.

Get an app that integrates your social media accounts, email accounts, weather updates, traffic alerts, and calendar appointments so that you can be alerted about all your daily plans and drawbacks ahead of time. This can help you plan ahead the night before or adjust your schedule in the morning.

Another good life hack is sync everyone in the family’s calendars so that no one misses an event, appointment, or carpool. If the whole family is synched up, you can all know what, when, and where everyone is at all times for safety reasons. It can also help keep people on track for busy schedules without constantly having to nag.