If you are anything like me, you have trouble with time management. I feel so frustrated because it seems like I
spend all of my time between Monday and Friday, working and sleeping. There is so little time left for personal
things, including both chores and fun stuff.
I have been working really hard to make some changes to my routines to
make the most of the time before and after work. I want to confine work to a normal time
period (8:00 to 5:00), make my commutes as short as possible, have some fun in
the evenings, and still get a full eight hours of sleep at night. I am not particularly successful at any of
these, but some of the changes I have implemented have definitely made some
improvement.
This week I want to focus solely on the mornings. First, I want to share with you the old
routine. My alarm used to go off at
5:45, but I would routinely hit the snooze button two or three times, resulting
in my getting out of bed around 6:20-ish.
I would go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. Then, I went downstairs where I fed the cats
and cleaned the litter box. Next, I
would make my and my husband’s lunches which usually consisted of salads or
leftovers for me, a sandwich for him, and some fruit and snacks for both of
us. I would make us each a smoothie for
breakfast (coconut vanilla yogurt, chocolate protein powder, a banana, and a
little milk…delicious). I would drink my
smoothie while watching one ten minute Youtube video and/or surfing the
internet. Around 7:30-ish, I would go
back upstairs where hopefully my husband was completely cleared out of the bathroom. I would take a shower, fix my hair, put on
makeup, and get dressed. Downstairs I
would gather my stuff and head out the door around 8:15. This would result in arriving at work around
9:00.
My morning routine did not make me happy at all. I always felt tired. I was wasting a lot of time and not getting
done what needed to be done. My routine
took more than two hours and I could not figure out what was making it so long. Plus, I was leaving for work really late
which was making my commute worse and was forcing me to stay later at night to
make up the time. Looking at my goals, I
knew I wanted to both sleep later and leave earlier. This meant that I needed to take a really
hard look at what I was doing each morning and determine what could be either moved
or eliminated from the schedule. I had
to make some choices about what were my priorities, but I managed to make
enough changes to eliminate an hour.
The very first thing I did was change my alarm to ring at
6:20, and I only allow myself one snooze.
If I cannot wake up in ten minutes, then I need more sleep and have to
go to bed earlier at night. The second thing
I did was force myself to shut down the computer at night and not allow myself
to start it again in the morning. Even
though I tried to limit myself to checking email and watching one short Youtube
video, I had to be honest that I was losing time by clicking on random links that caught my attention. The third thing I changed was my morning hygiene
routine. I moved my shower to the
evenings. I streamlined my hair (ponytails)
and makeup routines (foundation, under eye corrector, and blush…lipstick I put
on at work). I might wish to be model
perfect, but I just realistically do not have time to spend on straightening/curling
my hair or applying a full face of makeup.
The last thing I did was to condense the breakfast/lunch process
which was the hardest since it affected my husband as well as me. With his reluctant approval, I have
eliminated the smoothie and replaced it with granola bars and
microwavable oatmeal bowls that can be eaten at work. Lunch I changed to all prepackaged items
which can be easily thrown together in a bag. They are not the healthiest options, but it greatly reduced a time consuming
process.
Now my morning routine looks more like this. My alarm rings at 6:20, and I hit the snooze
button one time before getting up. I go
to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and wash my face. Then, I go downstairs where I feed the cats
and clean the litter box. I put together
a few items for my husband’s lunch. I
actually do not have to make mine because I put together a week’s worth of grab
and go items on Sunday evening to keep at work for the week. Next, I go back upstairs where I put my hair in
a ponytail, put on my makeup, and get dressed.
I am usually out the door around 7:40 which gets me to work around 8:15.
My routine is still not perfect. I would like to get to work before 8:00 which
means I need to leave in the 7:20 range.
To accomplish this, I would need to either wake up earlier or shorten the
process even further. I have made some
compromises that I wish I would not have had to make, like the less healthy
lunches and the more casual look. I run
into some scheduling issues with my husband as he is not always out of the
bathroom yet when I go back upstairs to get ready. I also still find myself adding extra things
to the schedule that eat away the time, including picking up things I see lying
around, folding laundry that did not make it out of the dryer the night before,
or just plain wandering around in a daze.
I will continue to work on my morning routine, trying to find better
ways of doing it. However, I am proud the improvement that I have made already.
What about you? Do
you find the morning routine hard to control?
Do you have any tips to help me with mine?
See you next week!
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