Do you need to find more than 24 hours in your day and more than 7 days in a week??
Well, short of being the next Dr Who ( don’t discount me quite yet!!) we can’t manipulate wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, but there are ways of making sure that we spend the time we DO have in the most constructive, productive and creative ways possible!
Let’s take a look at your mornings. Do you find yourself rushing around getting things done?
Do you wake up as late as possible before you need to do something?
Does it take you a looooong time to come around in the morning?
Do you always lose things and spend time in the mornings looking for something?
Have you any idea what your ideal morning would look like? I mean on a normal weekday, where you have school / work / appointments - how would you love your morning to pan out in an ideal world?
This is where you need to start, because without having an ideal morning, or a GOAL to aim for you won’t be able to create the steps needed to get there.
Here are two examples of very different mornings appealing to very different people:
My goal is to stay in bed as long as possible, get up, shower, dress, leave the house on time and be able to pick up coffee and breakfast on the way to work.
A clear GOAL. We now know what the end result is and can work backwards to set things in place which will help us achieve that GOAL.
In order to pick up coffee and breakfast on the way to work this person needs to make sure they have their coffee mug and cash or card ready in their bag.
When is the best time to do this?
The money could be prepared at the weekend for the whole week or it could be something they prepare the night before as they rinse out their coffee mug.
The bag has what they need in it for a successful morning and so it needs to be placed somewhere that is visible and easily accessible as they leave the house.
Now we know they can get their coffee and breakfast stress free on their way to work.
Before they leave the house they want to achieve 4 things, get up as late as possible, shower, dress and leave on time.
Starting with the last thing they want to do - leave on time. They need to know what ‘on time’ is.
They must factor in how long the journey is and how long they need to pick up their coffee and breakfast.
Then working backwards, again, figure out what time they need to leave their house in the morning.
So, if they need to be at work for 9.00am, it takes 15 minutes to pick up coffee and breakfast and the journey into work takes between 35 and 45 minutes - then they need to be leaving their house at 8.00am.
Now they know this, they must figure out how long they take to shower and get dressed in the morning.
Say it takes 30 minutes, we now have a time for them - which is the latest they can leave it to get up every morning - 7.30am.
Even more time can be shaved off this morning schedule by starting to prepare for the morning the night before!
Getting their bag ready is one thing but they could also get their clothes ready and even shower in the evening!
Without the GOAL of an ideal morning and putting in place some structure to their morning it is easy to see how rushed and unorganised this person could feel every day, looking for cash, having to wash their mug, not having time to get coffee and breakfast… not a brilliant start to anybody's day!
I like to get up early, sit outside with a coffee, do some exercise, have breakfast with the family, clean the kitchen and make sure we are all ready to leave the house with plenty of time to get to school and work with packed lunches and bags all ready to go.
This is a very different scenario!!
But it is easy to work out how to get there because it is a clear GOAL.
We have the framework and know what needs to be done, we need now to create the timeline and prepare the morning to fit!
Again - begin with the end!
What time do you need to be at school?
This is your starting point and you slowly work back from there, working out how long you need to have bags ready (or did you do them last night?) , make lunch (again can be done the night before?), clean the kitchen, prepare and eat breakfast, exercise and take time outside with coffee.
As you knock the minutes off you will eventually arrive at the best time to wake up!!
No rushing or missing out on exercise because you know what time you need and have allowed for it!
If setting up a routine in the morning is new to you, be prepared for it not to work perfectly straight away! But in quite a short space of time you will find things beginning to click into place for both you and other family members! Don’t spring it on them though! Even reluctant partners will see the benefits of knowing when you will be doing certain things every day - not being haphazard and panicky but relaxed and organised!
As you can see, being prepared in the morning actually starts the night before! By planning ahead you can get your extra time in bed in the morning or wake up early knowing you have time to do all the things you enjoy before starting another day!
I have a book available on Amazon ‘creating habits-reaching goals. Journal of Habits’
In it you can lay out your ideal morning and reverse engineer it as I have with the above examples. You then have a habit tracker so that you can list all your new morning and evening habits and keep track of them over a month.
Why not give it a go and see how much time you can save / create in your mornings?
WANT A BIT MORE DETAILED HELP TO CREATE A MORNING ROUTINE - CHECKOUT NEXT WEEKS DOCC BLOG!!
You can comment below ↓↓ or look at the end of the blog for all the ways you can contact me privately. I love hearing from you with all your ideas and photos of the areas you are working on!!
If you want to delve deeper into finding a ‘system’ which will work for you, you can contact me via my email lindajharper@yahoo.com or using the chat bubble on my website, I would love to help you!
You can message me on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Linda-J-Harper-Professional-Declutterer-and-Organiser-107805011001601.
I am also on Pinterest and Instagram if you need some inspiration! https://www.pinterest.co.uk/adnilenaj1314/boards/
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