It's 6:30, you've already hit the snooze button twice...you're going to be late..for work, for your kids, wait...is it your turn for carpool today!!!!! This is what I refer to as the "fire drills" of life. It's that jump out of bed in a panic because you over slept and you have to rush around as though the house is burning down. Can you relate?
This used to be my life. I woke up late everyday and it was a legit fire drill scenario..running around trying to get my son up for school, get his lunch made and packed, check home work, sign a million papers for his class (why all the paper!!!), make a decent breakfast, ugh...try to get to school on time, pray that I make it there before the bell rings, which would otherwise require me to walk him into the office and... well....walking your kid into school in pjs definitely puts you on the"social service"watch list...haha just kidding, but maybe I was?
This all stopped when I developed a Morning Routine. It changed my life, not to be dramatic, but it did. I was so tired of this Groundhog Day (funny movie where the same day repeated ..oh and Phil the groundhog drives!) scenario that one day I said, "ENOUGH!" So here is what I did.
1. I stopped hitting snooze. This was very important. We sleep in cycles. These cycles last anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes. If you hit snooze and fall asleep, your body begins another sleep cycle. When the alarm goes off, it pulls you out of that unfinished cycle and unless you have the time to complete it, there is going to be collateral damage...hence that awful groggy feeling that seems to linger all morning. By getting up when your alarm goes off, you avoid the rush, the sleep hangover and you now have created some space for step 2.
2. I started following Mel Robbin's advice from Mindset Reset. You can find her great series on YouTube. She talks about setting your alarm to get up early so you can spend some time mapping out your day. Mel suggests keeping your phone away from your night stand and preferably far from your bed so your are forced to get out of bed when the alarm goes off. This also keeps you from looking at your phone in the middle of the night and or first thing in the morning. I love how Mel says that we owe it to ourselves to not let the world in (via social media, emails and the news) first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night. She has a great journal called The 5 Second Journal. I love this journal and it's the first thing I do in the morning. I spend 5 to 10 minutes mapping out my day, taking inventory on how I feel and why and listing out my top projects for the day...it has been a game changer. Mel has a free PDF print out from her journal via this link below.
3. I prep. I developed the mind set of "what can I get done today to make tomorrow flow better." This consists of making lunches the night before, getting the coffee machine ready to go, signing all those school papers after dinner and talking to my husband and son about what needs to happen the following day. I also started to take 30 minutes on Sunday to plan out my week. By plugging in EVERYTHING that is happening the following week, I get a concrete understanding of where my time is going to be spent and how to manage all the things that need to get done and where to plug in the things that I want to fit in
( like some self care!!).
By developing a morning routine, I think you will notice that the fire drills stop, your morning flows better, you're on time and you don't show up at your kid's school in your pjs! You may even feel more relaxed and perhaps inspired as you travel throughout your day. So, I encourage you to try a morning routine and see how it works out. I'd love to hear how it goes, or, if you have a routine, I'd love to hear about how that looks for you. Oh... and go watch Groundhog Day if you haven't seen it..it's a classic!
Be Blessed and "fire drill" free,
Tiff