A strong morning routine sets you up for a productive day resulting in more wins and a sense of accomplishment. A structured morning helps to reduce stress and more wins help to increase motivation taking you further close to achieving your goals.
A strong routine will set the tone of your day right and make you feel more energized than feeling flustered and tired for the rest of the day. To help you with making your mornings more structured and stronger, try to implement one or all of the following strategies:
- Plan the night before
Check the weather forecast for the next day and get the kids to organise their clothes and shoes. Try to find out if there is something special happening at school the next day such as an excursion or sports carnival. Have your lunches and water bottles packed and devices ready and charged for the next day.
- Wake up early
Start your morning 15 minutes early than you think you need to. Think about an alarm clock for children who find it hard to wake up or have difficulty getting out of bed. Involve older children in setting the alarm for the next day so that they are involved in the practice. Leave shades or blinds open so that the daylights help to give the motivation to get up and start your day.
- Cut down distraction
Keep use of distractions such as tablet, television and other devices to a minimum on school day mornings. Many families have a no screen time rule in the morning. Think about leaving screens off, unless screen time is a special reward for getting ready on time.
- Learn to delegate
As kids start to grow to make them responsible for some things, they can take control of such as putting the pyjamas away in the laundry basket, assisting younger siblings with settling up cutlery for breakfast, getting the lunches out of the fridge and getting dressed.
- Don’t fret over breakfast
It can be a good idea to ask the kids what they want for breakfast the night before and plan out simple and quick breakfast ideas. Kids will be able to cope much better and think of alternative options when they know that you have run out of their favourite cereal.