Why I chose to start a morning time? As a homeschool mom of five I felt the need early on to create household routines for my family so we could function well. Living day to day without a system was draining for everyone. We needed structure. Flexible structure, which is why schedules were hard for me to get behind.
It Starts with a Good Night
Your morning routine starts with an awesome evening routine. Dinner, bath, reading, and bedtime. The kids were content knowing what to expect and Sean and I were happy they were sleeping well. For more info on an evening routine, check out my post here. With our evening routine established, we added a morning routine.
Step 1 Establish a Wake-up Time
What time are getting to sleep at night? You need a good nights sleep that also offers a little wiggle room. I shoot for nine hours because I function well on less but I have it if I need it. In developing my evening routine I established the goal was to wake up at 6:30am.
Step 2 How Long Will Your Morning Routine Last?
Consistently, how long in the morning do you have to put this routine into use? Aim for at least 5-6 days a week. The more often, the better. I will plan to be done at 9am, because we tend to start our Morning Basket Routine at that time of the day or have activities to leave to.
Step 3 What Activities Do You Need/ Want to Accomplish
Think of basic things like getting up, getting ready for the day, breakfast, helping kids in the morning. I will say Wake up, Read Bible, take meds & vitamins, brush teeth, get dressed, basic hair, maybe basic makeup, make breakfast for me and family, check on the little guy, stretch, have coffee, chores, kids chores, and watch World Watch News with kids.
Step 4 Estimate How Long Necessary Morning Routine Activities Take
15 min. Wake up, brush teeth, get dressed, basic hair. I’m pretty fast, maybe too fast.
10 min. Read Bible
1 hr Make Coffee/ Breakfast/ Eat/Cleanup/Watch News
15 min. Chores/Kids Chores
15 min. Stretch
30 min. Misc for working in kitchen, check email, blog, etc…
Step 5 Deciding an Order of Events
The point of a routine is keep it consistent if you can so it becomes habit. I will choose the things I do first for myself then as the kids are up I will do Breakfast and Chores with them. Try to keep them in an order and do them in the same order every morning if you can. For instance: Wake up, Brush teeth, get dressed, etc…
Step 6 Follow Up
As you try this new morning routine for a few days, you may realize you have a lot of extra time on your hands in which you can put more items on your list or you may have to lighten it up.
For Example
- Wake up at 6:30a
- Finish at 9a, I will have 2.5 hours
- Refer to Step 3 for my List.
- In Step 4 I estimated 2 hours with 30 min of flex time.
- Follow up and reassess.
Sample Morning Routine
6:30a Wake up/ get up, brush teeth, get dressed, stretch, coffee, Bible.
8am Breakfast/News/cleanup/chores
9a Done
Tips to Get You Started
-Set your alarm and practice getting up the first time it goes off.
-Get a lot of sleep.
-Have great coffee or tea to look forward to in the morning. I look forward to my coffee every morning.
-One of my daughters loves her alarm clock that becomes brighter as it nears the time to wake up. Here‘s an option on Amazon thats like it since hers is no longer available. Some of my kids prefer to leave the curtains open so the sun does the same thing.
-Remember this a routine, not a schedule. Allow it to provide a basic structure in which you develop awesome habits for your life, not a guilt trip.
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