Morning Routine – 8 Habits for Moms to Embrace for Maximum Productivity

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Inside: Here’s a morning routine for moms that can help them be productive, get things done and still have time for self care!

How you start your morning can make or break your day. I am not even kidding!

As a mother of 15 years, this is my best time management and productivity tip that’s helped me through pregnancies, postpartum juggling a bay and toddler for 6 years and then some.

Do moms really need a morning routine?

Your morning routine is your first chance to start your day right. I know that you probably wake up tired or you’ve got to be on your feet from the minute you open your eyes (or even before!) but… trust me on this. You need a morning routine.

A routine is just a sequence of things you do daily. If you get up at round about the same time each day, eta breakfast, lunch and dinner and go to bed at night (at whatever time!) all the things you regularly do form part of your routine.

The trouble arises when those things are not in the right order or when you forget doing one or two of those things. For example, you forgot to brush your teeth or eat lunch, wouldn’t that make you cranky?

Or you forgot to do laundry or cook dinner… uh oh. Mt. Foreverst (aka your laundry pile) is going to be hard to climb and well… takeout is being served again!

Years ago, when I was having my babies in Expat-land, I found that I had no choice but to do everything myself. In between taking care of kids and a home, my self care was being neglected. I felt dirty, tired and … depressed. I mean, after all that I was doing every day, I had no time to even my comb my hair. That’s when I decided I would have to change things a bit.

Simple morning habits we never forget

Have you noticed how you never forget to brush your teeth? Or how like in the pandemic, we never forgot to put on our masks or wash our hands after coming home. Do you know why?

Because brushing teeth, putting on a mask before stepping out and washing hands as soon as we come home became our daily habits. We trained ourselves to do these things. What if, similarly… we created some morning habits to get things done?

Stuff like making breakfast and eating it is already a habit that you follow. What if you added one or two similar chores to create a morning routine that you wanted to follow?

How habits work

According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, there are four things required to form a habit. A cue, craving, response and reward.

1. A cue is a signal reminding you of the habit.
2. A craving is a feeling of wanting to do something because of how good it makes you feel.
3. A response is your action.
4. A reward is what you get after you have done the action.

For any habit to work, you need all four of these things. When I read this, I started looking at my own morning routine. Why do I brush my teeth? Because it makes my mouth feel fresh and clean.

Why do I make breakfast? Because it makes me hungry.

Why do I drink tea? Because it gets me energized and ready.

I started to wonder about what similar habits I could include in my morning to feel good. I thought about all the things I craved that I knew held a good reward for me or would make me feel like I had already won my day.

I wanted to add in simple no stress “chores” to my morning which I could easily accomplish. I was looking for stuff that was must do anyway.

Related: Like Books? Check out my favorite Productivity books for moms.

A Morning Routine Checklist that includes self care for moms

Here is what I came up with.

1. Wake up and make my bed.
2. Read an Ayah of the Quran after I pray Salah
3. Open the curtains and windows on my way out of the room.
4. Brush, freshen up and comb my hair at the same time.
5. Turn on the washer with a load of laundry as I leave the bathroom.
6. Sweep the kitchen before I make breakfast
7. Make my tea right after breakfast
8. Write my to-do list as I have my tea.

These are 7 things that I do every morning as part of my routine. Can you see why they became a habit?

When you club a chore that you are already doing with something you crave to do, it becomes easier to remember. I was pairing activities that made me feel good with stuff that was already part of my routine. This made me get things done.

Morning Routines start your day productive

By the time my tea was done, the laundry would have been done. When I looked at what all I had accomplished in the morning my list read:

1. My bed was made.
2. I had prayed and read an Ayah from the Quran
3. My room was fresh.
4. I was looking presentable.
5. A load of laundry was done.
6. My kitchen was clean.
7. Breakfast was made and eaten.
8. I had had my cup of tea.
9. My to-do list for the day was done.

When I started following this mommy morning routine for myself, because I felt good by following it, even those days when my life was busy or the kids were cranky, my mood was good. I even got up early some days just to be able to do these things before my kids woke up.

As you can see from my list above, it was a very productive way to start a day. You know what makes a mom happy? Being productive and in control of her time. So well, I had won the day.

Did you like this idea of setting a morning routine for yourself? I can teach you my simple strategy to get things done faster.

EVERYDAY PRODUCTIVITY FOR MUSLIM MOMS

Do you struggle with time-management and productivity? Are you a Muslim mother who knows the importance of routine scheduling and time-blocking but don’t know how to make your routines work for you?

Do you aspire to become a CEO Mom? Because if your answer is yes, I can help you.

Click here to learn about my life-changing Productivity course for Muslim Mothers.

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