The Joy of a Morning Routine
I love mornings. My morning routine has helped me to enjoy mornings even more because it gives me a good jump start to my day. I have had a morning routine for over 20 years, and it has been adjusted and tweaked to the different seasons of life the Lord has me in, but it has been a constant part of my day for a long time – which means it has become a habit.
Starting our day strong is important because if the rest of the day doesn’t go as planned, you have accomplished much in these first few moments of the day. Most of the items on my list take no longer than 5-10 minutes except for time with the Lord and getting dressed.
Related Link: Podcast EP 21: The Routines of the Day – Making the Most of Your Mornings and Evenings
Whether you are single, married, young, or old a morning routine to fit your lifestyle and day can be a help to get your day started off well and productively.
Starting our day strong is important because if the rest of the day doesn't go as planned, you have accomplished much in these first few moments of the day.I can’t tell you how your morning routine should look but will lay mine out as an example and put some links at the end for you to check out and get ideas from. Below the items are listed, and after the list, I will expand on each one a little more.
Rise and Shine:
-Shower and tidy bathroom while in there
-Make bed
-Quiet Time
-Drink 8 ounces of water
-Exercise
-Laundry started
-Empty Dishwasher
-Breakfast (did you menu plan?)
-Vitamins
-Check Calendar
-Pets
–What’s for Dinner?
-Check Hot Spots (my desk, kitchen counters)
-Email checked
Shower and tidy bathroom – This one is truly important – showering first thing in the morning is a help and dressing from head to toe makes it easier to run a quick errand if needed or answer the door early in the morning without being embarrassed. Being a stay-at-home mom, I know how easy it is to stay in pj’s a little longer but waking up and getting ready for the day first thing helps with your attitude towards the work in your home. It is work to be a stay-at-home mom and being prepared and dressed for the job puts you in the work mindset to get your job done. I don’t get this right every day. There are sick days and lazy Saturday mornings but the majority of my days are ready to hit the floor running days.
Tidying the bathroom daily is a quick step that leaves the bathroom in excellent condition for whoever has to use it after you. This involves a quick counter wipe down, tidying and swishing the toilet, hanging towels, and cleaning the mirror.
Related: EP 69 Implementing a Realistic Morning Routine
Make the bed – Pretty self-explanatory An unmade bed makes any room look messy.
Quiet Time – Time in God’s Word in the morning. A time to meet with Lord and seek His guidance for your day. This is the most important time of the Joy of a Morning Routine. Some of my favorite resources to use during my quiet time in addition to my Bible are worship music, The Valley of Vision book of prayers, and my prayer journal. You can find my favorite book recommendations here.
Drink 8 ounces of water – 16 ounces would be better. Water is very cleansing in the morning and will help to flush out the toxins since your body has “essentially” been fasting overnight. A hydrating way to start your morning. Love this bottle to keep track of my water intake.
Exercise – This is an area I am continually struggling with to get a regular exercise routine in. I usually stretch every day (age helps you to add this one out of necessity) but even if you could spend 5 minutes exercising it is better than nothing. Walk-in place, climb your stairs, do sit-ups, do push-ups, squats, stretch while doing chores, and cleaning the house does count :). I love my Fitbit.
Laundry started – I don’t have a load every day but almost every day to get going. There are always towels and sheets to deal with too. If you keep on top of it, you will never have a mountain of laundry pile to deal with.
Empty Dishwasher – If we ran it early in the evening then I will empty it before bed, but that doesn’t happen too often.
Breakfast – This is on the menu plan, so there are no surprises as to what we are eating for breakfast. We are blessed to eat most of our meals together. I love this time of the morning together. We read from God’s Word together, and my husband will pray over the day.
Vitamins – Really have helped with my energy level. I use SuperMom from Beeyoutiful
Check Calendar – This one I do before bed too and again in the morning, so I don’t wake up to any surprises. I’ve woke up to forgotten appointments before and would prefer not to. (See How I Plan My Days.)
Pets – Feed, water, brush, and litter box. We only have a cat now.
Dinner – Check the menu plan to see what prep work needs to be done for dinner that evening. I check the menu plan for lunch too at that time.
Check Hot Spots – This is a Flylady term that is defined as anywhere you develop a pile of clutter. For our house, it seems to be the desk in the kitchen or the kitchen counters. I have learned to attack it quickly before it gets out of control.
Email Checked – Email is the most distracting item and some mornings I have to set a timer to get on and off the computer. I have been weeding out the junk in my inbox by clicking the unsubscribe link to unnecessary emails and advertising. Using my labels in Gmail has helped to organize my email and inbox so it is not cluttered and I can find items when needed.
As I am writing this post, I am on the email part of the day. The rest of the day is laid out with a list that was written the night before and checked again this morning. With the morning routine behind me, I feel ready to tackle the day – I like to leave scripture printed out around the house to be a reminder to “pray without ceasing” and to “rejoice always.”
What does your morning routine look like? Please share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.
Related Posts:
EP 68: Implementing a Realistic Morning Routine
Podcast Ep. 16: Simplify Your Housekeeping with a Cleaning Schedule
The Peacefulness of an Evening Routine
My Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Yearly Tasks
Love the idea of a morning routine I just wonder about showering and getting dressed for the day before exercising?
Hi!! I love your blog. Couldn’t help but comment on this because I also have a list in my Bible of pride vs humility. It is a great reminder as we seek to be more Christlike. http://www.evergreenbloomington.com/uploads/Manifestations_of_Pride_by_Stuart_Scott.pdf
I just want to say, I love your posts and I love flylady. My friend and I started Flylady in 2001. I plan on doing some posts related to her on my blog sometime soon.
Thank you…I just found it and printed it. You are such an inspiration!!
@Judith – thank you for the link update – I fixed it but it isn’t the same as the original so I may have to do a little more looking or type up my own PDF 🙂
The link to Proud People doesn’t link up any longer 🙁
I too have a morning routine and love the encouragement from Flylady. Her insight helped me tremendously as in adjusted to our family downsizing from 9 to 5 in a little over a year. It is just so wonderful to know there are some other women out there in the same season of life and be able to encourage those still in those busy years.
I am a relatively new wife (married nearly 3 yrs) and lately I’ve really been convicted to take up my role as a wife and homemaker. Reading this post on having a morning routine only adds more motivation to my new journey. I do have a blog and I made a post on creating a home organization binder (http://writeread-kensie.blogspot.com/2012/04/home-organizer-binder.html). This idea of having mini schedules for pieces of my day might get its own section.: )
Blessing on you and your family,
Kensie