My Five Secrets to Creating a Morning Routine that Works

I live for routines. I always have. And it’s not an I have kids and a full time job now, thing. It’s just a me thing.

Even in high school I would make schedules for myself. Risking total humiliation I’ll provide an example. 

• 7:05 Wake, Bathroom & Shower
• 7:20 Get dressed
• 7:25 Brush and do hair
• 7:35 Brush teeth
• 7:40 Do makeup
• 7:50 Eat breakfast -See meal plan
• 8:00 Head to school

I wish I was even remotely exaggerating. I’m not. If I were to exaggerate I’d have to include Shampoo, condition, soap, rinse off conditioner. Etc. 

So as a mother, I’m a little… over the top with my routines. And in practice I don’t follow it down to the minute but don’t think for a second I don’t have it planned out that way. Because I do.

Because I really am that mom. 

Luckily as a mom it doesn’t seem quite so crazy as it did as a 15 year old.

But as a mom I know how hard it is creating a schedule and having everyone actually stick to it so here are my secrets to creating the perfect morning routine.

1. Be Realistic

Back before I had two kids to get ready for school in the morning, I woke up 30 minutes before I had to leave. Clearly, that’s not going to work out for me anymore even though I would love the extra hour to sleep. If you know your child takes 30 minutes eating breakfast, you have to schedule that in otherwise you are both going to be frustrated. You can work on it, obviously, but that will be for a future routine. 

2. Start backwards

I always start at the end rather than the beginning because then I don’t end up squeezing activities in during a shorter amount of time than I should. My oldest gets on the bus at 6:55 (yes! I know, poor thing!) so I start from there. 

3. Schedule everything (yes, everything) then prune down

I know it seems crazy to add in things that are second nature. Brush hair, go to the bathroom, wash hands but I truly believe it helps. “Get ready” is such a broad idea that it means everything from getting dressed to washing your hair. If you don’t write down every little thing, you might not be giving yourself enough time to complete each task. What I usually do is write in everything I need to do and then group it together. 

For example, I make a basic outline of everything I have to do like after I shower I need to put on lotion, get dressed, fix my hair, and do my makeup. I group this together in my finished routine as After Shower Routine but because I wrote everything out, I know exactly how much time I’ll need in my spreadsheet.

4. Spreadsheets are your friend

I don’t know why every time I read an article about using Excel the author says something along the lines of I know excel is scary but get over it, it’s a lifesaver . First of all, unless you are using crazy formulas excel is pretty much just a table. Not scary at all but they can be a lifesaver. 

When I make a schedule, I do it for the entire family. My husband never bats an eye at it but I add him in there too because it makes me feel better. And while he might not write down a schedule, he follows one more closely than me.

So with multiple people to schedule, spreadsheets are a lifesaver. I have each person in their own column and the time slots in the rows. I separate my morning, afternoon, and evening schedules so that I don’t have to have a change for the days. However, if your routines look different on different days of the week, I would suggest doing it by the days of the week. For example two separate ones if your Mondays and Wednesdays look different from Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. (That’s what I do for my afternoon schedule)

I always do my schedules by hand and then move them to the spreadsheet. That way I can write out all I need to do but it doesn’t muck up my schedule.

5. Time Intervals

Because I use a spreadsheet, I am able to make the time intervals as small as I want them to be. I usually go by ten minutes because it’s not too short and not too long for me. I usually measure activities by ten minutes so this is what works for me. Thirty minutes is way too long in my opinion.

And because each person gets a row, if an activity does last longer than ten minutes, I just merge the cells together. 

My Routine

And that’s how I make my routine. You can take a look at mine below. Because I’m a nerd I also color code the cells. But obviously that’s optional.

I’m in the process of making my days a little easier (because, third baby is here in T-26 days!) by creating a velcro schedule for the girls to go through the routine without any guidance from me. They mostly do this, but you know, they’re kids.

Once that’s finished, I’ll upload it in case someone might get some use out of it.

How do you make a morning routine for your family?