Time Management For Mums In The Morning

If your mornings are stressful or you are always running late you need to make changes. So the first thing is that you need to make some changes to your morning routine.  The thing is thinking about making some changes are two quite different things.  Setting out the challenges, working out what you need to do by putting pen to paper will help you develop a new routine.

Sop what are the problems?  And what are the possible solutions.

• Ask yourself is the problem that you get up too late or you try to do too much in the mornings.

• Of course it maybe the children that are the problem.  They won’t get out of bed, take too long to get dressed or can not find their shoes etc.

• Do you leave home late every morning and end up shrieking at the children to get a move on.  Why does that happen?

Analyse the problem, grab a note book and write down the issues that can make mornings so stressful.

Now list everything you need to do before you leave the house.  Include showers, makeup.  In fact every single thing you can think of.  Put timings next to your list and then by adding up your timings you will be able to work out what time you should be getting up.

You might also decide to ask yourself what you can do the night before to make mornings easier.

What don’t you need to do and what can you delegate to someone else to do.

And if the problem or dare I say excuse is that you are always tired when you get up in the morning, or you have not been sleeping too well then you may also need to look at what and how much you are doing each evening.

Drinking coffee last thing at night or too much wine can interrupt a good night sleep.

Brain storming your morning challenges generally proves very interesting and enlightening as it highlights the issues in a logical methodical way.

• Discuss your morning routine with your family.  It does not matter whether your little cherubs are four or fourteen include them in your “making mornings more organised project”.  Ask them for their ideas on how they can make mornings more fun and less stressful.

• Try making getting up in the morning fun.  For you that may mean five minutes to yourself before everyone else wakes up.  If  it is the waking up in the morning that is the problem why not using an Neals Yard Energy aromatherapy remedy to roll 

•  For the rest of the family it may mean a game.  For example “Beat the Clock is a game when the first one to be dressed wins.

• If you find you forget things in the morning because you are half asleep.  Write a master morning list with timings against actions.  For example 7:30 am have breakfast. 7:45 tidy kitchen and make packed lunches.  Pin it up on the notice board and get everyone in your household to use this as a reference point as to what they should be doing – and have done by a certain time. This will not only act as a prompt but if they are old enough to read the list will stop you having to prompt other members of your family all the time.

• Set your oven timer or an alarm clock placed in the kitchen or hall to act as a warning that you have just ten minutes before you need to leave the house.  This will stop you having to chase around after everyone else.

• Have an everything for tomorrow drawer or place where the family puts everything they need to take with them next morning.

Making changes to your morning routine may also mean making changes to your evening routine four or five nights a week.  It may not be easy at first, but developing a routine, will eventually become a habit.

Then you may even find that you are one of those annoying people who are up bright and early, have done their chores, made breakfast and are fully made up and raring to go by the time the kids get up.