If we’re anything alike, you’re not great at mornings. You swear you’re going to get up at 6 and it ends up being 6:50. You swear you’ll pack your lunch in the morning, and you end up buying it instead. Half of what you meant to take with you gets left behind because you forgot. You get the picture.
So many goals can be lost in the mornings. Trying to lose weight? Then you throw that goal away because you didn’t pack a healthy lunch and now you have to get Taco Bell. Trying to save money? Same thing.
This is where morning prep comes in. The simple answer is to do everything you can during the hours you’re more alive – for me that’s mid-evening. Here’s a list of things you can do the night before to make the morning less painful.
Just a heads up – this post contains some affiliate links.
Pack your lunch
It’s obvious, and it’s easy to forget. Or punk out of. Don’t be like that. Make yourself reminders if you need to, but just do it.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some simple answers to packing your lunch:
- Meal prep for the whole week, and treat yourself to these cute and eco-friendly meal prep containers
- Cook extra dinner and pack it up before you sit down to eat
- If you go out, ask your server to bring you a to-go box and pack up half the meal before you eat
- Make my favorite Black Beans and Corn Salad, or any of these healthy 15-minute lunches
- Buy things that require little to no prep, like microwavable mac n cheese or noodle bowls
Make it easy for yourself. Make it fun. Just do whatever you need to make it happen.
Prep the coffee
Or tea. Or hot water with lemon. Whatever you like as a morning drink, make it easy for yourself to get it ready.
Put the coffee grounds and water in the pot.
Set out your tea bag and set the water on the stove.
Whatever you like, make it a one-step process in the morning. Ideally, you have a programmable coffee pot that allows you to set it up on a timer or programmed start. In that case, it can be ready the moment you wake up. If not, making it so you only have to hit one button is a huge success.
I know it seems small, but first thing in the morning when every tiny task is huge – you’ll be thanking yourself. Even if you’re tired, take the two minutes to set it up now so in the morning it doesn’t feel like 15.
Make breakfast
There are so many good options for instant/pre-made/quick breakfasts. Do yourself the favor and set one out as part of your morning prep routine.
Make muffins – egg or otherwise. Put a yogurt parfait or cottage cheese in a jar to go. Eat a sandwich for breakfast; I don’t care! Just do it, and make it easy for yourself.
Breakfast is so important for you, I cannot stress this enough. I know personally that I can go without breakfast and feel fine throughout the day, but come dinner time I am insatiable. I could eat a 200-calorie breakfast, or I could eat 600 calories somehow trying to fill that void later. Just eat your breakfast.
Not only that, but it has been shown to markedly increase your performance, get your metabolism started earlier for the day, and help to keep your blood sugar balanced throughout.
Do whatever you have to, once again, to make breakfast happen for yourself. I usually eat it on my drive – that’s fine, as long as you eat it. You can basically guarantee that by prepping it the night before.
Set out your clothes
If you’re in a job like mine, you wear the same basic clothes every day. (You know – steel-toed boots, messy/patched jeans, and any given t-shirt.) If you’re NOT like me, it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Complicated or not, sometimes the clothes I need are buried in a pile of laundry or not even clean yet. I cannot tell you how different my morning goes if I make getting dressed easy for myself versus if I do not.
Like many things on this list, this may seem obvious. But like the other things on this list, I can’t stress enough – taking the 15 minutes to do it now is worth the equivalent of 45 minutes in the morning! It either takes longer or feels longer in the morning. Especially if it’s complicated.
A few quick tips to help:
- If you don’t know what you’ll feel like wearing tomorrow, lay out two or three options. The options will still be good the day after.
- If the weather is questionable, plan for each possibility.
- Have a defined spot for your set-out clothes. This makes it easy to prep, and getting ready in the morning can be almost autonomous.
- Even if your clothing is simple, set it aside. No thought is too small for the A.M. you to trip over.
Stage morning essentials
Anything else you do in the morning? Do it now.
Do your makeup? Set out the foundation, mascara, liner, etc. in the bathroom. Shower? Soaps and towels at the ready. Read/clean/bake/smoke a bunch of weed? I don’t much care what the specific is for you, set up the materials necessary in the spot you will be doing it and I swear you will thank yourself in the morning. That’s what morning prep is all about!
If you’re somehow a morning person (**shudder**) I guess this would all be true in the reverse? Get bedtime stuff ready at 5 am? Gross.
But seriously – treat your morning brain like a toddler. It requires love and understanding, but also an insane amount of prep and coddling. Let adult-you take care of morning prep the night before. Make the morning less scary.
How would you do it differently, or what would you add?
