.simplified mornings.

Are you a morning person?  I am.  Early mornings don’t bother me and the thought of laying in the bed until 9:00 or even 8:00 sounds kind of miserable.  Even on Saturdays and Sundays, the latest I can sleep is maybe 7:00.  Even though I don’t mind mornings, they’re still hard, especially with football, Josh’s running schedule, getting all the things done, and getting out the door.  Over the past year, we’ve worked hard to simplify our morning routines because when you take away the trouble of making spur of the moment decisions, life becomes a little smoother.

Before coming up with our morning routine, we identified our pain points.  These ranged from big issues (like being perpetually late) to small issues (like forgetting our gym clothes).  Once we recognized the hiccups in our morning, we came up with easy ways to counteract them.  Spoiler alert:  it all boils down to discipline over regret and if that’s not what you want to hear, you might want to scroll somewhere else.

1. Pick out your clothes ahead of time.  For us, this varies from week to week.  Sometimes we’re really on top of it and pick out everything we need for the week on Sunday.  Other times, we just handle it each night before we go to bed.  I like a little spontaneity in my wardrobe, so I prefer the latter, but if anything needs to be ironed, it has to happen on Sunday or it won’t happen at all.  It takes literally thirty seconds to pull together an outfit the night before and thirty minutes to try and decide what to wear during the rush of the morning–I don’t know why, it’s just physics or something.  Eliminating a decision in the morning by completing it at night simplifies your day significantly.
2. Pack your bags at night.  Pack your lunch and stick it in the fridge.  Pack your tote and stick it in your car.  Pack your gym bag and throw it by the door.  Again, the physics that cause these things to take seconds the night before and ages during the morning aren’t to be understood by us mere mortals–it is what it is.  Discipline over regret means you can hit your snooze and rest easy for those glorious extra nine minutes because you know all the things are already packed and taken care of.
3. Drink some water.  The first thing I do when I wake up is drink a giant glass of water with a capful of Bragg’s ACV in it.  It wakes me up and helps me focus.  I use it to wash down my vitamins and then start in with the coffee or tea.  Americans don’t drink enough water as it is, so give your dehydrated morning brain the gift of a little hydration.
4. Make your bed.  I talked about this a little in an earlier blog post, but we wholeheartedly believe in the power of having a made bed.  There is no greater treat than crawling into a freshly made bed at the end of a long day.  It takes us less than a minute–give it a shot for a week and see how you feel!
5. Invest in yourself.  If you aren’t rushing around trying to make all the things happen while fighting against the physics that seem to work against the human race in the morning, you will probably find yourself with a little extra time on your hands.  I’m serious!  Use this time to invest in yourself and fill your cup.  It’s a great time to do your devotional and prayer time while enjoying a cup of coffee.  You can jot some things down in your gratitude journal.  You can have an actual conversation with your spouse.  How you invest in yourself is totally up to you.

What is your morning routine like?  Could you see yourself applying any of these disciplines to make life a little easier?

XOXO,

Court

PS:  The second I wake up, I slap on my Apple Watch.  I can’t stand not closing all three rings and the sooner I put it on each day, the sooner I get them closed.

PSS:  I just started using this coffee creamer and it’s SO good.  No carbs, no sugar, and it’s dairy free!