If your mornings feel rushed and chaotic, you are starting your day already stressed. But there are ways to fix this issue! You don’t have to spend every morning rushing to find an outfit, grabbing whatever food you can find, or getting more and more anxious the longer you sit in traffic.

A stress-free morning begins with having a solid nightly routine. Yes—the key to a good morning is a good night. When we go to bed prepared for the next day, we don’t have nearly as much to worry about in the morning. 

Follow these 7 tips and you will be well on your way to sleeping soundly and waking up ready to tackle the day. 

1. Keep the Gas Tank Full

Imagine this scenario. You’ve had a chaotic morning and are already running late to work. You hop in your car and see the “empty” light is on, which means you now have to take time to get gas. This leads to you being even later to work and more stressed. We’ve all been there.

You can avoid this issue by making it a habit to always fill your gas tank up when it reaches a quarter tank (or even halfway to empty). If you fill up after work, you won’t feel rushed in the morning. You can get in your car and go. Plus, you’ll never have to worry about running out of gas. 

2. Straighten Up Nightly

The sight of a messy room or cluttered countertops immediately makes me feel stressed. I always feel better when things are in their right places. But I’ve also learned I do not have time to get my house in order in the busy mornings. Now, I make it a habit to straighten up at night.

After dinner, I do the dishes and put things away in the kitchen. Then, I take a laundry basket and then I quickly pick up everything that belongs elsewhere. The laundry basket makes it easy to pick up quickly and put things back in their right place. Finally, I will do a quick vacuuming. 

If you live with someone else or have children, delegate these tasks! You can also simplify the nightly clean-up routine by automating some of it, such as investing in a robot vacuum that vacuums on a nightly schedule. 

3. Meal Prep

Have you ever felt so rushed in the morning that you grab whatever you can find for lunch? That’s how you end up eating a Pop-Tart for lunch at work. Rushed packing typically results in unsatisfying and unhealthy lunches. 

Instead of trying to add another item to your hectic mornings (meal packing), start doing meal preparations in the evenings. When you don’t feel rushed, you can take your time planning a lunch that will make you happy the next day. Once you prep your lunch, all you’ll need to do in the morning is grab it and go. 

4. Pick Out Tomorrow’s Outfit

Do you spend a good bit of time in the morning picking out an outfit and then getting it ready (ironing, etc.)? Or do you find you have so little leftover time that you dress less than your best? This is a problem many people have. There’s a solution—start picking out tomorrow’s outfit the night before! 

Before you hop into bed, peruse your closet and dresser. Pick out what you want to wear the next day, keeping the temperature in mind. Sit the outfit out where it is easy to find. You’ll cut a significant amount of the morning stress simply by doing so. 

5. Make Time to Unwind

Each evening, make time to unwind. This doesn’t mean binge watch Netflix with a glass of wine. Those are fine and good, but if you are watching TV too close to bedtime, it can affect your sleep. Adults need 7 or more hours of sleep each night [source]. But the blue light from TVs, tablets, and cell phones tricks our brain into thinking it is daytime [source]. We aren’t unwinding; we are winding up.

Instead, set aside every night before bed when you turn off devices and start preparing your body and brain for sleep. Turn on a lavender aromatherapy diffuser. Dim the lights. When you get enough sleep, you feel much more ready to face the day (versus tired, cranky, and stressed).

6. Use Sleep Meditation

Sometimes feeling stressed about what lies ahead makes us unable to sleep. If this is something you struggle with, start doing sleep meditations to help you fall asleep. You may find it helpful to use guided sleep meditations if you are just starting.

There are several sleep meditation apps that include soothing sounds and guided meditations specifically designed to guide you into sleep. For example, the slogan for the popular sleep app, Calm, is Sleep Better, Stress Less. 

You can also try meditating on your own. 

  1. Lie down in bed.
  2. Breathe in and out. Feel yourself breathing.
  3. Notice when your mind wanders. Are you replaying the past? Concerned about the future? Come back to this moment. What does it feel like to breathe? 
  4. Fall asleep in presence.

7. Follow a Consistent Sleep Schedule

Do you have a bedtime? Sure, that sounds silly to ask adults, but truthfully, we need a regular bedtime. 

Following a consistent sleep schedule leads to better quality rest, healthier body composition, and a lower risk of heart disease [source]. Instead of following groggy from staying up late, you will feel rested and eager to start a new day.

It may be a challenge at first, but you can do it. 

  • Set alarms on your phone for when it is time to start your nighttime routine. 
  • After a few nights, it will feel natural. 
  • As your body responds positively, you won’t have to fight it. Sweet dreams! 

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