As a working mom nighttime for me is critical in setting up my days. I have learned that a nightly routine can make or break my days so I do my best not to make sure I make most of them! This was not always true for me. More often than not I have to admit that my nightly routine is unproductive. I do all the things, and yet nothing seems to get done. Anyone else?
The power of my nightly routine I have learned is that it sets my mornings up for success. Often I am asked if moms should start with a morning or nightly routine first and I always recommend a nightly routine first. It is the bump, set to your spike. Your nightly routine is a bump, set, and your morning routine is the spike.
Without a strong nightly routine, your mornings will be difficult. Or you will just get lucky and have some good mornings sometimes and some not good mornings other times. I want to teach you how to set your mornings up for success!
What will make your mornings easier?
What has the most impact on your days? If doing the dishes at night so you can wake up to a clean kitchen to make breakfast and lunches would be most impactful do that. Pick outfits out the night before so that you know what everyone is wearing before morning. Give showers and baths before bed so everyone wakes up clean. There is not right or wrong answer. Just figure out what is most impactful for you and add it to the list of things you would like to have done every night before the morning comes.
What makes you happy in the morning?
Drinking coffee alone? Journaling? Eating a good meal instead of starting your day off on an empty stomach? This is your time to figure out what you can plan for in the morning to pour into yourself before you start pouring into everyone else. These are things you do in the morning, but having a nightly routine before you wake up and the day gets ahead of you!
Habit stack it!
You have the list of things that need done, and you have the list of things to do in the morning. If you’re like me you want to jump all in and do it all at once. This is a great quality to have but most often leaves us feeling burnt out and then disappointed we didn’t stick with it. Start implementing one or two things from your list at first. Master those then add more to them.
Start by doing what is most impactful to you first – maybe it’s dishes. Make that a habit. Then do the dishes, and choose outfits for the next day. Once that is an established habit, add one more task that makes your mornings easier and before you know it your nightly routine is running itself!
Get the kids involved! Create a list with them they can do at night to help their mornings run smoother as well. This helps you AND them!
Give yourself some grace as you start implementing these new routines and habits into your home and life. To get more help in creating routines in your mom life join the Motherhood Simplified challenge! It’s free and shows you how to take ownership of your time, energy and all the other moving parts of your motherhood! Get it here!
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Love this post! I’m a fellow working mom and I’m perfecting my night routine
that’s great!! then you know what it’s like to need a night routine!! it’s the only way to get things done!