5 Days to a Better Morning Challenge (Day 1)

This week, we’re going to be talking about mornings. Maybe you’re in the middle of summer and the last thing you want to think about is a routine. If so, you go right ahead and skip this series, okay?

But if you’re anything like me, you’re already thinking ahead to the upcoming school year or you’re wanting to get into a better routine this summer in preparation for the upcoming school year. Our kids are going to a 4-Day Classical School this coming year, so it will be our first year of having to get lunches packed, backpacks ready, everyone dressed and out the door early in the morning four days per week.

Our kids aren’t so little any more, so they are able to be a lot more helpful and independent, but I still need to be the one to create the overall routine and make sure things run smoothly. To help our kids gear up for this (and to help our summer run more smoothly because our girls are spending a lot of time at skating and swimming practices), we decided to have a pretty strict Morning Routine as a family.

Here’s what our current Morning Routine looks like:

5:45 am — Jesse and I up and ready to workout.
6:00 am — Workout in the garage with our friend, Brian. (Read more about my workout plan here.)
6:30 am — Run in and wake the kids up (if they aren’t already up) and get them started on their morning chores and then head back to finish the workout.
7:15 am — Finish our workout. Kids are expected to be at the kitchen table completely dressed/hair fixed, with their morning chores all done. I read a chapter from our current read aloud while Jesse makes breakfast.
7:30 am — We eat breakfast while Jesse leads our family Bible Time. (Read more about our family Bible Time here.)
7:45 am — Jesse eats and oversees the kids’ Summer School workbooks/helps Silas with reading while I clean up the kitchen and take a quick shower and get ready for the day.
8:15 am — Girls make their lunches/dinners if they’ll be at swimming/skating. Bags packed for heading out the door. I make sure everything is in order for the day, do my She Reads Truth study, and be ready to start my online work at 8:45 am.

And that’s that! Here’s the thing I love about this Morning Routine: if we don’t get much else done after 9 am, we still accomplished some of the most important things — like working out and family time around the table!

{My goal is to work back to getting up at 5 am so I can read my Bible and have some quiet before the workout, but I’m not there yet. Baby steps, right? :)}

Our hope is to just tweak this a little so we can have almost the same time blocks and then just head out the door at 7:45 a.m. for school (gratefully, they don’t have to be at school until 8 a.m. and it’s close to our house!)

There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Plan!

If you read our routine and felt overwhelmed, please remember this: My husband and I are both home full-time and both share in the household/kid responsibilities. I know that this makes things so much easier for me and allows me to have a lot more flexibility in my schedule than many of you have.

In addition, as I mentioned above, our kids are at a stage where they are much more independent than they used to be. Plus, our business is at the place where I have a great team in place and I don’t have to get on and check social media or emails until later in the morning.

And finally, we’ve been fine-tuning routines for a long time. This is not something new to us. Practice doesn’t make it perfect (trust me on that!), but it does make it easier. 

Here are some examples of previous routines — to give you an idea of how things have changed for us over the years:

• My 2012 School Year Routine
• Our 2013 Summer Routine
• My 2014 Morning Routine (look in the comments for lots of readers’ morning routines, too!)
• Our 2015 Summer Routine

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Creating a Routine

If you don’t already have a great morning routine and you’d like to develop one, I want to challenge you to ask yourself three questions:

A. What is a realistic start time? What time can you realistically commit to getting out of bed in the morning? Please remember this is not the time you would ideally love to get up in the morning. Or the time you think sounds impressive. Or the time your Type A, super organized friend gets up in the morning. 🙂

I want you to think through what is actually feasible for you right now in this season of your life. Make sure it will allow you to get enough sleep. Trying to operate well while exhausted is like trying to run your car on fumes. You just aren’t going to get very far without being stalled on the side of the road.

Note: Maybe you don’t even want to choose a realistic start time and instead choose to start your routine when you wake up — whenever that is. I think this is an especially good option if you have a baby and/or a toddler who is waking up in the night and you’re in a season of life where you don’t have to be out the door at a certain time each morning.

B. When do you need to be out the door? What time does everyone need to be dressed, ready for the day, bags, packed, lunches packed, and in the car? This will help you determine what a realistic start time is and what you can realistically accomplish during the hour or hours you have from the time you get up to the time you need to be out the door.

If you don’t have to be out the door by a certain time, then ask yourself what time would you like to have accomplished your morning routine? Would you love to be ready to walk out the door if a friend called you for a play date or to easily be able to run an errand mid-morning because you are dressed, look presentable, and your ducks are in a pretty good row? That time could be 9 a.m. (like us) or noon or whatever time you decide! This challenge is not about following a formula, but about figuring out what works best for you and your family in your current season of life.

C. What are your Big Rocks? What would you really, really love to have done first thing in the morning? What few things would set your day up for success? What are those tasks or to-do’s or projects that you always hope to get to but that often get pushed to the back burner because you spend so much of your day putting out fires?

For my husband and me, working out and family time around the table are two big priorities. By making them something that happens very early in the day, we not only start our day off on a great foot, but we also ensure that they actually happen! It feels SO good to have accomplished these very important things right off the bat in our day!

Day 1 Project

1. Decide that you’re going to participate in this challenge. Committing to something is the first step to success! Leave a comment letting us know that you’re committed to joining me on this 5-day journey to a better morning this week.

2. Determine your answers to the three questions above. Write these out or type them out or leave a comment on this post answering them. We’ll use these as a guide for setting up a Realistic Routine tomorrow.

3. Tell someone offline that you’re participating in this challenge. In addition to leaving a comment on this post, I encourage you to text, call, or personally tell a friend, family member, neighbor, or co-worker about this challenge and that you are committing to it this week. The more accountability you set up from the get-go, the more apt you are to actually follow through on what you’re committing to!

Looking for some more practical help?

• Check out this page on Pinterest with lots of Morning Routine posts, ideas, and printables.
• Follow my Make Over Your Mornings Pinterest board.
• Download Day 1 of Make Over Your Mornings (it’s FREE!) — my 14-day course to help you jumpstart a successful day.
• Pick up a copy of The 5 A.M. Miracle for inspiration to get up earlier.
• Download the What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast ebook.
• See if your library has any of my 10 Top Favorite Books on Productivity & Time Management.