Become an early bird and catch the worm. It is not easy to transition from being a night owl, but this article is for you if you have a stable Monday through Friday 9-to-5 gig or even a shift that you have had for a while.
Let’s start with a few assumptions. First, how you’re living as a “grown-up” in years but not experiences and responsibilities is not working for you. You feel like you are reacting after your alarm has startled you awake. You go to sleep every day at a different time, even though you have the same daily schedule. You know things can go better and smoother, but you don’t know how to achieve early-bird status: Every. Single. Day.
Second, you need to decide what you want to wake up for and how long each part of a successful morning takes the night before. Aside from work, you can incorporate perks into your morning time by getting up earlier so that you can look forward to these things by adjusting what you actively or passively do in your evening schedule and then having it show up in your morning struggle to get out the door.
Third, you know that planning on planning for the day does not work for you the morning of. Agree that the night before is prime time for morning success, and you want and are willing to put in the work to change.
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If this is still you, check out the following tips to see how you can improve your nighttime and morning routine.
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1. The Workday Wardrobe (5-10 minutes of prep time)
Picking out what to wear saves physical time and mental space. Those with uniforms can consider themselves lucky. If not, continue to follow for a clothing selection success plan.
Check the weather, check your closet, and make sure that your outfit, including everything underneath your attire, is clean and folded or pressed and hung up, ready and work-appropriate for you. Not having to fish around for everything you need to put an outfit together is a game changer. It also can help you by going through your closet to circulate less worn items back into your workday wardrobe rotation and have the courage to get rid of the items you have outgrown in size, function, or fashion for your current role.
2. Pack your lunch (10-15 minutes of prep time)
For health, wealth, and grocery shopping ease, packing your lunch is worth five gold stars. It’s healthy because you know what’s in it and can control packing by portion size even with pre-packaged, processed foods. It’s cheaper than eating out every day. It’s pre-planned from when you went to the grocery store to shop for the week. It doesn’t have to be fancy or show off any complicated cooking skills. If you are short on time and not a foodie, a sandwich or microwaveable leftovers from dinner will do nicely.
Since you won’t have to spend time and money, you don’t have to get lunch during your workday. You can take ten minutes to eat at your desk or in the breakroom and then take a 20-minute walk around the block, building, or parking lot. If you have a one-hour break for your midday meal, you can level up your digestion and fitness by eating for 20 minutes and using 40 minutes to walk. You don’t need to break a serious sweat, just change your shoes and move about while listening to your jamming playlist or a self-improvement podcast, or chill out and engage in silent meditation in awe of the sights and sounds of Mother Nature. This is a great chance to get fresh air and a mental break, then return to work, well-fed and fully refreshed. If you also get a 15-minute morning break and/or a 15-minute afternoon break, try to squeeze in a quick walk of ten minutes each time and take five minutes to rehydrate and freshen up. This is what you can gain by packing your lunch the night before.
3. Coffee, tea, or water (5 minutes of prep time)
Keeping hydrated keeps you going throughout the day. Your beverage is your choice. It doesn’t have to be expensive like something from a coffee shop specializing in liquid desserts. You can sip from a cup or have a loose tea experience with instructions that take a two-to-four-minute infusion to brew to hot perfection.
Set your coffee maker or choose your tea in advance so that with the click of a button or turning of a dial in the morning, you can have something hot to pour into your thermos or travel mug at a fraction of the cost and time. Grabbing a water bottle and filling it from home, then keeping it in the fridge the night before after packing your lunch, will also get the job done and get you started on the right track. Whichever drink you set up to make, keep in mind that you are paid to work, not refill at the water cooler or in the breakroom, resulting in requiring more visits to the bathroom. Sip slowly.
4. Make time for the most important meal of the day (10-15 minutes of prep time)
Want to clear your head and have a balanced morning? Eat breakfast. It’s not called the most important meal of the day for nothing. Sweet like a smoothie or savory like a tofu scramble and tempeh breakfast burrito, this is the biggest addition to your day and the one that, when pressed for time, you are most likely to skip. Make time for this extended-release winner and see that it leads to improved job performance, and with a few minutes of preparation the night before you, too, could have time for breakfast.
The once-impossible meal you chose to skip in favor of fifteen more minutes to snooze could earn its board and keep with a boost to your morning mood, too. Prepare your ingredients (for example, chopping vegetables and opening and rinsing canned beans for the burrito or mixing yogurt and old-fashioned oats for overnight oats) the night before for a first meal you’ll never want to miss again.
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5. Wind down and set a realistic alarm (5-15 minutes at the end of the day)
Congratulations! You’re almost done. Once all of your morning prep activities are done for the evening, you need to wind down. Set the stage for sleep. Take a warm bath or a hot shower. Turn down the lights. Charge and put away your devices. These things will become your signal that it is time to go to sleep and that your nighttime routine is almost done.
Determine how much sleep you need and set your alarm accordingly to have seven to nine hours of sleep, 45-60 minutes to activate your morning routine the night before, and enough time for personal hygiene if you shower in the morning. Then add time for your commute, if you have one. The total number of minutes to perform all these tasks in the morning and arrive at work is how long it takes to complete your morning routine. This time span dictates what time you need to get up in the morning.
Investing about one hour the night before results in a smoother tomorrow. You will benefit from this easier start. No more running around trying to get it all together with less time than necessary to have breakfast and a shower. Forget about making lunch for later on with barely enough time to get out of the house without feeling that you forgot something and looking less than your best.
Act, don’t react. Plan, don’t respond. Once you have your evening routine down, the morning falls into order from former chaos. You’ll get sufficient sleep and start to anticipate your alarm. You’ll experience a better way, tweaking it as needed for perks like early morning stretches or exercise, religious prayer or meditation, reading and journaling, adapting to a different work schedule, or tweaking to rise earlier to add anything else that would enhance your morning. With a good nighttime routine, you never have to compromise the basics for maximum efficiency in the morning. Your nighttime and morning routines work in harmony to decrease your stress and increase your peace of mind.
