A change in the right direction requires a good start, and where best to begin than your mornings. Everyone knows that starting your day right is important, and if you don’t know it yet, you will eventually figure it out! I know that if my mornings are off, my whole day sort of falls flat. I usually don’t get things done and I end up having to stay up late (which then throws off the next day as well, continuing the cycle). It gets worse when you become a mom because then you end up getting NOTHING done, and even if you do get something done, you’re never caught up with anything (at least that’s how it gets for me). It’s starting to sound like another bad habit that is pushing the cycle of failure.
If you want a great finale to every day you must have a kicker start. Here are the 5 things you should do before noon to have a productive day…
Here is a quick outline of this informative post:
I. Early Bird
II. Prioritize in Spirituality (SPIRIT)
III. The Main Meal of the Day (MIND)
1. Early Bird
I mean 6AM early. You have to get a head start if you plan on taking on the day! I cannot stress this enough!
So this first goes towards those who don’t work a general 8-5 job or maybe stay at home. As a stay-at-home mom, if I sleep past 9 AM on any given day, my day takes a hit (my baby wakes up between 8 and 9 AM, so I’m usually good on that one). If I dare to sleep past 10 AM, count it all over and I’ll be lucky enough to get half the things I wanted to get done finished. I end up just slugging through the rest of my day. Every mom knows that in order to get things done you need to get up while everyone (especially baby) is still sleeping!
Now if you have an 8-5 job, waking up early is a given. However, most people who do still don’t wake up earlier than 7AM, unless they have a long drive or they have to do their make-up. My husband only gets out of bed when he absolutely has to, in order to not be late. When you get up extra early (and that might mean earlier than 6 AM) you aren’t rushed and could actually prepare yourself for the day ahead. Most importantly, you can complete the rest of the steps before you head out the door.
Tips for Success:
- Set your alarm. Well, that’s a no-brainer, but you must start somewhere!
- …and then set a few more! Yes, in order for me to get up I have MANY alarms as most times I just sleep through them
- Put your phone across the room. You want to make sure something gets you out of that warm and comfortable bed (oh the agony!), and annoying alarms will definitely force you out!
- Go wash your face! Yes, and with COLD water too! You need something to wake you up before you get pulled back into bed. Or, jump into a COLD shower, anything that will stop you from giving in to the temptation of oversleeping! What also gets me from falling back asleep is putting on my contacts, once they’re on my day begins (I mean have you ever fallen asleep with contacts? It’s horrible!).
Tips for Moms:
- Get a good reason. You do need sleep, so giving up some of your precious rest definitely needs a good reason (apart from making your days more productive). What gets me out of bed quick, is the need to pump! Whether it be that baby slept through the night and the ladies are painful rocks, or that baby just finished feeding on one side and went back to bed, pumping is a great excuse that forces me out of my lazy retreat!
2. Prioritize in Spiritual (SPIRIT)
Whether you’re a believer or not, it has been scientifically proven that taking care of your inner self is essential to good health and a happy life (read here from Mental Health America). Of course you can always skip this step (I wouldn’t advise), however, this is the BIGGEST factor that determines if my day will turn out well or not. I do not lie when I say this. I need to start my day (that means specifically BEFORE doing anything else) with prayer and contemplation on God’s Word (the Bible), it prepares me for what lies ahead and gives me inner peace and happiness. I know that once I have asked God to bless my day and to walk with me through it, He does and it just changes the course of my entire day. My faith is my spiritual care.
Tips for Success:
- Seek. Find what gives healing and speaks life to your spirit. For me, it is a 30-minute Bible study with prayer.
- Plan. Determine the amount of time you’d like to devote to this and when in the morning you plan on doing this. I would suggest planning for this BEFORE you moving on to anything else in your morning.
- Commit. All that is left is your follow through, and trust me, personal experience definitely leans on the side of this making a HUGE difference in the rest of your day!
Tips for Moms:
- An exception to stay in bed. If you have a light sleeper (baby) in your room, you can postpone getting out of bed and waking them up by getting this one done in bed (if you can).
3. The Main Meal of the Day (MIND)
Breakfast is definitely the most important meal of your day in that it is essential brain-food to get you started in the morning (sure it’s essential for your body too, but your brain needs that glucose first and foremost!). On top of that, a healthy and hearty breakfast puts you in a clear mind to start your day mentally alert.
Tips for Success:
- Search. Scout the web for some healthy breastfast recipes and pick the ones you would like to and are willing to try out. Make sure your breakfast recipe is well-rounded with fruits and vegetables (other than just potatoes)!
- Meal plan. Make a week plan, a week in advance (necessary for the next tip), of what you will prepare for breakfast each morning.
- Be supplied. Try to have all the ingredients ready and available. You can ensure this by completing your grocery shopping for the week on Sunday (you can also save a lot of money if you do all your shopping at once, once a week).
Tips for Moms:
- Prepare ahead! My little one doesn’t sleep much longer after I get out of bed (I feel like she senses the absence of my presence in the room!), so I really don’t have time to plate a hearty breakfast, let alone eat it, all from scratch. I find that prepping the night before is a huge help even if baby does wake up. If everything is prepped, all that is needed is the sauteing and cooking, which really only needs one hand (since your other one is occupied).
4. Morning Warm-Up (BODY)
How can we forget about morning physical prep when we’ve covered both spiritual and mental morning preparedness (attention to all three is essential to starting your day right!). I will admit that this is the one I struggle with the most! I’m just not the workout type, and I have always had to force myself to go out for a morning jog. However, I have noticed that when I do squeeze in some sort of workout in the morning, I have much more energy for the rest of the day and I’m also more awake!
Tips for Success:
- Start small. Don’t overdo it if you’re doing physical exercise for the first time in months (or even years). Take it easy and start with a simple workout for about 10-15 minutes in the morning and then increase the intensity as you get more adjusted.
- Plan. I get more excited about working out after I have sat down and planned it out. Once you have a workout plan, it is easier to intensify as time progresses.
- Keep motivated. As the days go by, this will be the step you will be inclined to skip, so make sure there is some way you can motivate yourself to persist. I for one try to imagine how I’d look (this is a bonus to having a great start to my day) if I continued to work out. So just keep your eyes on the beauty prize, while also reaping the benefits of having a more productive day!
Tips for Moms:
- Be efficient! I know that squeezing in a workout is often impossible, especially with babies, so efficiency becomes the alternative. Take the baby out for a calming stroll as you power walk or do lunges while you are trying to console and carry the baby. Anything! Just keep moving in the morning, at least for 10-15 minutes.
5. Hard Work First
I would call this the transition from your morning into your actual day. Getting the hard work (or the most difficult work for you at least) done first will set the rest of your day up for success in that everything else that you will need to complete will at least be easier than what you have already done. You will be much more motivated to finish everything else on your to-do list (of course if that list is realistic). You can’t go wrong with aiming high from the start!
Tips for Success:
- Plan. Before you can even prioritize in what you’d like to be done first, you need to have a list of things you need to get done for the day. You can do this the night before so that your mind is clear and fresh for the morning.
- Prioritize. Now you can prioritize in which things on your to-do list are important but will also require the most work, and try to plan to get those done first (and if not first, then at least as early as possible).
- Stick with it. From personal experience, I had always done the complete opposite. I thought that by doing the simplest tasks first, I’d build up to the more difficult ones. The problem is that I always ended up either putting that task off for the next day or getting to it at the end of my day while spending the entire day dreading that moment. So no more! Get what you dread done first, and then ENJOY the rest of your day!
Tips for Moms:
- Utilize. Either you will be able to put the baby back to sleep or you’ll have to use some sort of temporary distraction to get that difficult task done early so you can focus more on baby throughout the rest of the day. Regardless, we have to use what we have to get what we need to get done! I usually put my little one into an activity gym (if I can’t put her back to sleep) and then put her into her swing when she starts getting bored, buying myself sometimes up to an hour or more (you can imagine I am flying around the house using all the time I can get!)!
How about your mornings, do you feel that they set you up for success? What do you do in the morning to make sure the rest of your day is productive? Please share in the comment section below!
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