Quick and easy hacks to have a hassle free morning every morning – without having to reach for the coffee before you can be productive! Add one at a time to your morning routine until it becomes a habit – and before you know it your mornings will be running without a hitch, and you won’t have to have 5 cups of coffee before you wake up properly.
When was the last time you remember your mornings running smoothly?
Where there are no fights for the bathroom, no lost items to search for, no last minute nipping back into the house for something….. I could go on!
“MUM – I can’t find my PE Kit….”
“Honey, Where are my keys?”
“We’re going to be late…”
– these are all commonly heard shouts heard in most family homes in the rush and frazzle of a school / work morning!
But it really doesn’t have to be this way.
You too could have a hassle free morning if you follow a few key tips and hacks as detailed below, and I really hope that this helps you to get to wherever you need to be on time, with the right items, dressed correctly, and ready to get going!
…. life doesn’t have to be hard first thing in the morning – so let’s make a few changes and see where it leads!
{ Related: 25 morning habits that will change your life & The secret to a successful morning routine – work backwards! }
#1 – Start The Evening Before
Most of the best prep for your morning should be done the previous night. Why? Because you have more time, you’re more relaxed, and you can focus on what you need without rushing around.
I wrote a post on starting the morning the evening before which you may want to check out HERE – and some of the key tips I want to highlight here are as follows: –
- Set out the breakfast table before you go to bed – Simple but effective. If you have breakfast that’s suitable, set out things like bowls, plates, cutlery, cereal, bread for toast etc… ready to go in the morning so people can very easily help themselves. This will also stop you having mornings where there’s no bread or milk and a dash to the shops is required (or worse – people go hungry or you just don’t have breakfast at all and end up snacking all morning).
- Sort out the clothes you want to wear the next day – Right down to the underwear – then you’ll be sure you have everything, and also have time to wash/iron/polish something if necessary. I like to hang everything on my wardrobe door.
- Get your bag ready for the following day – Phone, keys, paperwork, purse, cheque book, diary, laptop etc…. – whatever you need to have to hand the following day – even things like your gym kit if you are going there after work – check it’s all packed ready to go.
TIP – have a list in your gym kit of everything you need to have in it so it’s easy to pack and see if anything is missing – and include a toiletries bag that is always ready to go as this saves so much time.
- Be friends with your diary! – BE PREPARED! – know where you’re going, what time you need to leave etc… and work back from there as to when you need to get up (may be different every day).Add into any spare time anything that you can from your TO DO list, and make the most of the time you do have. If you need to meet someone, then its also worth sending a text to ensure they have remembered as well to avoid a completely wasted few hours of travelling somewhere and waiting for them to turn up.
- Prepare your lunch – Make packed lunches and put in fridge ready for next day. If you work in an office then a great cheaper lunch is easy to have from leftovers of that nights meal – simply box up and put in fridge and then heat up at work.
TIP –Freeze the drink as then it will be lovely and cool by lunch the next day, and will keep the lunch box chilled in the morning as well
#2 – Give Everyone Responsibility
- Don’t try and do everything yourself – You need to get yourself ready for the following day, so show everyone else what you expect of them, help them out a few times, and then leave them to do it themselves. This gives them great habits to follow through when they leave home as well. Everyone needs to be responsible for themselves as much as possible. Get them to all sort their clothes, bags and schedules for the following day. Ensure children get more responsibility as they get older, and of course help younger children as they will then start to pick up these habits and want to do it themselves independently asap.
- Let people take the consequences of their actions. If you have someone in the family who is constantly making everyone late – make it a consequence that if they forget something then you aren’t going back. Having to deal with the consequences at school/work will soon make them more aware of what they have to do – its a good life skill! If you constantly get things like permission slips, requests for baked goods for a fair, dress-up day costume requests etc… at the last minute then again its got to be their problem when they get to school empty handed – trust me – they won’t do it often after that!
TIP – Any paperwork you do get, file into the right day in your diary or top up diary (see the upcoming paperwork ebook for more details) and then you won’t forget! And schedule a time to get the things done a few days before
TIP – Get into the habit of getting your children to unload all their bag each day after school and handing you the paperwork.
TIP – Get homework done at a set time each night – so that there are no last minute panics in the morning
- Delegate morning jobs – Give people jobs in the morning – someone to make drinks, to unload the dishwasher, wash dishes etc…
#3 – Have A Bathroom Schedule
The bathroom can be one room that can cause the most issues in the morning, and if you have just one bathroom its even more crucial to make this as easy as possible every morning.
Everyone has to use it, and some people need it for quite a while!
As such, it’s crucial to start looking at the bathroom situation in your own home, and make changes so that there are less arguments each day.
- Think about when people leave the house – and then schedule their bathroom time accordingly.
- Give people a 10 minute limit.
- Make them wipe down the bathroom when they’ve finished, so you’re not trying to get ready amongst loads of mess – which will take time to sort AND put you all in a bad mood…
{ Related: 6 Tips to create the perfect Bathroom Schedule }
#4 – Colour Code
A simple trick that works just as well for adults as for kids to be honest – and that’s to colour code everyone’s stuff.
If everyone has a specific colour in the house, then it makes it really quick for people to see where their stuff is, and whose is whose.
Try doing this for things like Bathroom towels, hallway baskets (you can add in bags for the morning etc… so you can grab and go), toothbrushes, combs and hairbrushes etc… and see how you go.
#5 – Create A Place For Everything
An oldie, but a goodie!
The simplest way to stop losing things and having a hassle each morning trying to find them is to create places for everything in your home and to ALWAYS PUT THEM BACK THERE.
Think about a place that would work in terms of where you naturally need to use something, where you have storage space, where you automatically want to put them etc…
For the morning specifically – the things to find a place for ASAP are: –
- Keys
- Bags
- Coats
- Spare change
- Sports Kit
- Lunch Boxes
- Shoes
#6 – Simplify Wherever Possible
Look at a typical morning right now.
Chances are there are specific parts of the morning that are harder than others, and therefore the most stressful.
To create a hassle free morning you need to tackle these ASAP.
Here are some examples: –
- ISSUE – Doing your hair takes FAR TOO LONG. SOLUTION – Look at ways to style it differently so that you can simply dry and go, wash it the night before etc…
- ISSUE – Do your children really struggle to get out of bed each morning? SOLUTION – Try rewarding them for getting dressed early with a rewards chart, or maybe on a Friday let them have breakfast watching TV for 10 mins if they’re ready in plenty of time.
- ISSUE – You are trying to do things that don’t matter each morning. SOLUTION – Don’t try and do everything! At a minimum all beds should be made and breakfast dishes sorted as this is just a nice thing to come home to, but if you are short of time in the morning, don’t try and clean the house or do jobs that could wait until the evening – just do what’s absolutely critical and no more.
#7 – Give Yourself Time
Most of our stress in the morning is due to lack of time and the subsequent rushing around.
As such – it makes perfect sense to give yourself as much time as possible in order to get that hassle free morning we are all looking for…
- Wake up 15 mins earlier so that you have time to get ready before the rest of the house wakes up. This would also help with bathroom queues, and you can be more focussed on getting the rest of the family ready once you are completely sorted. 15 minutes really is nothing in terms of lost sleep – but could make a significant different in stress levels for you.
Another part of giving yourself time is to allow for those unexpected issues that always seems to happen.
Even the most organised morning routine needs some space for things that you didn’t know would happen. Someone has a fall, something gets broken, you get an urgent phone call etc….
If you can always try and make sure you aim to be ready 10 mins before you actually need to leave the house, then you’re much more likely to get out on time – WHATEVER HAPPENS!
#8 – Stay Calm
Easier said than done sometimes, I know – but SO WORTH IT if you can manage it…
After all – there’s nothing worse than frayed tempers first thing in the morning, and avoiding getting stressed can help so much.
If there’s time could you do even just 10 mins of exercise? This will really set you up for the day! If you have to be in the house then some weights, situps, press-ups etc… work really well, but if you can get out of the house then a walk or a quick run are perfect. Even walking the kids to school will work well (park a little further away if you really do have to drive) as giving them fresh air in the morning will help them too.
Above all, stay calm and this will immediately help your morning to be less frazzled.
I really hope that there are a few ideas here that will help you achieve the hassle free morning that you’re looking for…
If you want to really tackle creating a morning routine for you and the family, then this post is definitely your next read.
It has loads of advice, and even a free printable to help.
