At the end of 2019, I started to try to be a morning person. Honestly, the key to this was a magical app that made me answer math problems to wake up.
I can get more into that in another post, but a few key changes have made it easier for me to get my morning going. These were the changes I made to my bedtime routine. These changes have made me so much more productive.
When I started this routine, I knew I wanted to make sure I got at least one workout during the day. At this time, I was working at 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., but I knew when my work schedule resumed to 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., I wanted to fit some activity into my morning.
So I started to picture my ideal morning.
I knew I would want to wake up early, get in about 30 minutes of cardio and a leg or butt workout. I wanted to have time to eat breakfast, and then time to get dressed and work on the blog a little.
The next step was to see how early I needed to wake up. I am fortunate enough to have a 10-minute commute, so I needed to leave the house around 8:20 a.m.
Here is what I came up with:
Cardio and 15-minute strength workout – 45 minutes
Get dressed – 30 minutes
Breakfast – 15 minutes
Blog work – 2 hours
This came up to about 3 hours and 30 minutes. This would require me to wake up at 5 a.m.
Then, I looked at the items – what things could I change to make them shorter? How could I be more productive? I couldn’t adjust my workout time or my blog time, so I focused on breakfast and getting ready.
I started meal prepping, so that cut my breakfast time to almost nothing. But then it came to getting dressed.
I cut my getting dressed time to 20 minutes (sometimes 18) by doing these things before I went to bed:
Pick out your work outfits and your gym outfit
This step was key in speeding up my routine. I spend so much time going through clothes and hunting down my gym outfit.
I started picking out clothes – AND TRYING THEM ON – before I went to bed. Some nights, I even added some curl to my hair, so I could just brush it out in the morning.
I made sure everything was out, including accessories and shoes.
One more thing – I went to bed wearing my morning workout gear.
I am trying to get into the best shape of my life in 2020, so this requires working out twice a day. I have my gym bag packed for my afternoon workout, and I sleep in my morning workout.
All of these changes condensed my time on getting dressed, and I could be more productive on blog work.
Leave a glass of water on the nightstand
I am trying so hard to drink more water. I know this is key to being a healthier version of myself, but adjusting has been hard.
To be honest, I usually only drink a glass of water a day unless I go to a restaurant. I drink lots of coffee and that’s about it.
I have started leaving a full glass of water by my nightstand, so when I wake up – I chug it.
Not only does this help me reach my water goals, but it also helps wake me up to get moving faster. This immediately made me more productive because I got in 16 ounces of water instantly.
Clean your bathroom
This last tip is really just a trick for your brain. When my world is cluttered, I stumble on things. When things are organized, I breeze through everything.
Every night before I go to bed, I clean my bathroom. I put all of my products away, and I keep wipes on my windowsill to wipe everything down.
This ensures I wake up to success!
