It’s always fun to talk about morning routines, and it’s been far too long. In the past, we’ve discussed morning routines for successful people, whether you take “me” time in the morning or just go to work, and of course the morning routine once you get to work.
Just a reminder before we start the discussion: There is no right way to have a morning routine, and it’s OK if you’re still struggling to find it in these unprecedented times. There are all these articles floating around the web that make you feel awful if you’re not reading four newspapers / doing 90 minutes of exercise / meditating for an hour / scaling tall buildings with a single bound, all before 8:00 a.m., silly!
We asked the Corporette writers what their morning routines are — what are yours?
Elizabeth’s Morning Routine
(See all of our Elizabeth’s posts here!)
6:30–7:00: I am not a morning person, but I’ve discovered recently that mornings are a little more bearable when I carve out some time for something I enjoy. Lately, that’s meant waking up half an hour earlier to watch TV, read a book, or listen to a podcast. I’d love to be a morning exerciser, but that’s just not going to happen.
7:00–7:15: Check email and listen to the news. I like NPR’s Up First podcast for a good summary.
7:15–8:00: Shower, blow-dry hair, put on makeup. If I’m going to the office, I’ll just do undereye concealer, fill in my eyebrows, and put on mascara, because I hate getting makeup all over my mask.
8:00–8:10: If it’s an in-office day, pack up my breakfast and lunch (all prepared the night before).
8:10–8:30: Commute to work.
8:30–9:00: Settle into the office, and eat breakfast at my desk while scanning emails and triaging that day’s to-do list. Whether I’m in the office or working from home, I usually touch base with my secretary to tell her what I have going on that day and what I’ll need her help with, so she can figure out how to prioritize any other projects.
9:00: Off to the races!
Ann’s Morning Routine (Friday, February 12)
(See all of Ann’s CorporetteMoms posts here!)
6:30: Wake up. This morning was a little different from my usual Friday morning routine. Most Fridays, I am up by 5:30 (so 6:30 is sleeping in) so I have time to eat a “pre-breakfast” (cereal with milk and a cup of tea) and read the news before heading to the ice arena. I’ve been figure skating since I was a kid — now that I am working from home, I have more time to skate so I go most mornings during the week. However, the weather was looking dicey (I don’t like driving in snow and ice) so I skipped this morning.
6:45–7:15: Make breakfast for everyone. On the days I don’t skate, I am in charge of breakfast (my husband makes breakfast all the other days). Since it was Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day was coming up, I decided to make a “fancy” breakfast — chocolate waffles. I also make oatmeal, eggs, and tea. My husband wakes up and does his workout (usually a HIIT workout video or riding our spin bike).
7:15–7:45: Go wake up my oldest. She gets herself dressed and then we eat breakfast together and chat. My husband finishes his workout and gets in the shower.
7:45: The baby is still sleeping so I pack his bag for daycare, do some dishes, and put in a load of laundry for later.
8:00: Go get baby ready. He’s now awake so I get him up, changed, and dressed (he has his Valentine’s Day party so I put him in an outfit with hearts). My husband finishes packing our daughter’s backpack, makes sure she does a good job brushing her teeth, and entertains her by DJ’ing Kidz Bop.
8:15: I give the baby his breakfast: a bottle of milk (yes, he is old enough to drink from a sippy cup, but it’s faster and easier to give him milk in a bottle), oatmeal with fruit, an egg, and a bite of chocolate waffle. Unlike our daughter who was a baby trashcan, he’s more particular about what he eats and in what order. My husband walks our oldest to “school” (she attends a program that supervises her while she attends online school).
8:45: The baby always takes a long time to eat, so we’re finally ready to leave. I wash him up and wrestle him into his shoes and car seat. After screaming about getting into the car seat, he settles down and babbles all the way to daycare.
9:00: Daycare drop-off. As usual, he gives a half-hearted wave bye-bye.
9:15: Back home (I aspire to start work by 9:00, but it usually ends up being 9:15). I start the laundry, grab my tea, and put on makeup (a rare occurrence — I have a big Zoom meeting later). Then I sit down and start work — phew, I’ve been up for almost three hours already!
Kate’s Morning Routine (In-Person School Day)
In this delightful (read: “horrible”) time of hybrid learning, my son, who’s in elementary school, is only in the school building on Mondays and Thursdays (along with half of his class) and otherwise attends virtually. Here’s my usual morning routine for a non-virtual school day:
7:00: My alarm goes off. I use phone alarms and an alarm clock like this one that Kat recommended, but waking up and getting out of bed has been pretty rough during These Unprecedented Times. Ideally, I would wake up at 6:00ish to work out and shower, but I usually do these things later in the day (uh, on the days I actually exercise). I do miscellaneous things once I get up, like throw my son’s masks in the dryer if I forgot the night before.
7:30: My son’s alarm goes off, and I make sure he’s getting up. I put on my “mom dropping off kid at school” outfit of sweatshirt + sweatpants.
8:00: I make sure my son is at the table for breakfast by now, and I give him something like toast with veggie sausages.
8:00–8:30: My husband is either getting ready or has left by now, so I do “morning mom stuff” while listening to energy-boosting music: make my son’s lunch, get his water bottle, and prepare a snack; sign his planner; pack his backpack; take his temperature and fill out the school health form online; and so on. (I really need to involve him in more of this but haven’t gotten there yet, mostly because it’s much faster to do these things myself.) Then I clean up the resulting clutter and kill time while waiting for him to get dressed, brush teeth, etc.
8:50: We leave the house for my school. (The buses are running this year, but the district asked parents to drive if they can to make the buses less crowded.)
9:00ish: I usually eat breakfast when I get home: plain Cheerios, cocoa-chia granola, peanut butter granola, and milk. Yum. (Have you seen our post on eating the same food all the time? I never get bored of this meal.) I do something on my phone while I eat — scroll Twitter, etc.
By 9:30, I can finally start working. Or, if I’m going to leave the house that day for something other than school pickup (not too often over the past year, of course), I shower and put on something like jeans and a sweater. I keep my (very simple) Before Times routine of SPF 15 moisturizer, mascara, and brow powder.
On virtual school days, though, all bets are off. It’s not pretty. I really need to build more structure into those days for both of us.
Kat’s Morning Routine
My morning routine is not great these days and hasn’t been for a few years thanks to my youngest, who often wakes me up in the pre-dawn hours. In general, if it’s after 5:00 my husband deals with him; if it’s before 5:00 I try to. My son is getting a lot better about it as he gets older, thankfully.
{related, on CorporetteMoms: Larks vs. Owls: How Do You Deal When You and Your Husband (or Kids) Have a Different Internal Clock?}
In general, I get up around 7:00 and wake up by scrolling social media (not great!). I brush my teeth and generally put on workout clothes first thing.
I grab some water, black coffee, and vitamins before working out. I take D-3 and B12, and I just started these mood probiotics, basically on a lark. (I DO seem to be in a better mood lately but WHO KNOWS.) I’ve also been adding MCT oil to my coffee for a few weeks, but I can’t bring myself to do the cocoa butter chips/whipped coffee for an actual Bulletproof coffee.
I have to really visualize what workout I want to do the night before in order to get it done. Very, very occasionally I’ll switch lifting or cardio to yoga, but if I’ve determined I’m working out I generally manage to get it done, at least as much as I can do before I have to turn to the kids.
Sometimes I can get a full shower in; sometimes I just wash my face and do a quick rinse. I prefer showering at night if I don’t care how my hair will look.
We’re doing virtual school this year; from 9:00 to 12:00 my husband and I tap in and out with our first grader as patience/work requires; then one of the grandparents thankfully takes over.
I have alarms on my phone to remind me to check comments on Corporette on a regular basis. I sometimes manage to do some light editing or research/shopping while “supervising” my youngest, but beyond that I almost never get to work until 11:00 or 11:30.
I’m not intentionally doing intermittent fasting, but I do try to drink a 32oz carafe of water before eating anything; this generally puts my first meal around 11:30. Lately I’ve been eating yogurt with fruit, but in the past I’ve had smaller mini-meals (string cheese) or just gone straight to a big brunch omelet meal.
Readers, do tell: What are your morning routines like? What tips and tricks do you have for making things go more smoothly?
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