12 Highly Effective Evening Habits worth developing!
Well we all know the benefits of being organised and getting up early! That does require inculcating some highly effective habits!
But being a mum is the busiest job in the world, and on top of it getting up in the morning is a task in itself. However, if we plan and do things well in advance, then it’s just another task we get done so easily like the others.
There’s usually a lot of rush in the morning where you are trying to prepare breakfast, pack lunches, get your kid ready for daycare or school, getting yourself ready, seeing that your husband don’t miss anything while leaving for office and on top of everything stay calm and being patient? Phew!
What? Calm and Patient? It’s not something I have ever felt! And in this situation, you see your house all cluttered, toys everywhere. Clothes on the chairs instead of being in their respective bins or in the cupboard. Lunch not ready to be packed, clock ticking! Kitchen sink and counter – all full of utensils is a big disadvantage too. Calm and Patient is the last thing I can think of!
When I wake up to all messy house, am already stressed looking at the mess, angry, confused with where to start? The clock keeps ticking & am losing lot of time just to figure out what to do and my day has surely started with a wrong note.
If you feel the same, you are not alone!
So here are 12 things I have been doing the night before that keeps me sane in the morning and manage things better which you can also do.
MAKE A LIST
First one is to make a list of everything you have to do once you wake up. A to-do list! Yes! It can be fun and it definitely reduces stress and keeps you organised. I make to do list for a lot of things, which makes it less likely that I forget something and crossing out the finished tasks gives me a satisfaction too.
PREPARE LUNCH
Second one is preparing your lunch the night before and packing it. This one looks like a lot of work again but this one ensures you are free of one big task in the morning and you are sure to pack lunches every day. This also mean you can get extra few minutes of sleep time in the morning.
Don’t expect yourself to be perfect but getting started is all it takes. If you cant follow or do all…start with one. Eventually you will get more things done down the lane! The next three tips are merely the habit of cleaning as you go and tidying up.
CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN SINK
Third one is cleaning your kitchen sink after finishing dinner. Gather and clean all your utensils before going to bed or put them away in the dishwasher so that your sink is empty. Yes! I know that’s easier said than done. I have the same feeling every night but once am at it, and have done that, it feels all good. If not post dinner, try cleaning as and when you cook so, by the time you and everyone in the family is done finishing dinner, you will only have the dinner plates to wash or a few more things.
CLEAN KITCHEN COUNTER TOPS
Fourth one is clean the kitchen top, by that I mean put all the things that you used to cook, back to their respective places. You can do this while you are cooking if possible. Wipe the kitchen top, wash the sink, clean the stove top and you will have a clean kitchen to work with in the morning. Trust me that’s very nice to see when you wake up and start your day off!
TIDY UP
Fifth one is putting away all the toys and the clothes lying around the house at their respective places. Best thing is to teach your kid to help you tidy up and put toys away before dinner. Tell them what to do, trust me they love doing it!
My son gets excited and starts tidying up as soon as I say please help me put the toys away and clean up! So, once they get into this habit, you will definitely have less work to do. Otherwise, take some time to do this once you have put your kid to bed, look around and pick up the toys or clothes or anything you see that is out of place and put them to where they belong. You will love the neat place for sure. It’s good to see a clutter free place first thing in the morning. It works well for me!
Unless you are a Superwoman/Superhero yourself and have all superheroes and superwoman’s in the house and have one awesome outfit to wear, you would often you end up late to work because you did everything on time but ended up finding it difficult deciding the outfit and getting ready in the morning. The trick is to get the entire outfit ready for the next day before you go to bed. The next three things explain how? and why?
GET CLOTHES READY
Sixth one is something that you can either do on a Saturday or Sunday for the whole week or you can do it the night before – that’s getting the cloths ready!
Well deciding what to wear takes a lot of time, believe it or not and the more number of dresses you have the longer it takes. So, deciding in advance what to wear and keeping all the clothes ready can save quite a lot of time in the morning. There are lot of articles on how you can do that on the internet.
However, we decide the attire and hang mine, my husband, and my son’s clothes in three separate hangers at one place the night before, and this works for us!
GET FOOTWEAR READY
Lets talk about footwear in the Seventh one which we often forget! We end up wearing anything that we find. There are times where no matter what we do, we can’t get ready in time and our footwear is something we ignore. So, chose what you want to wear with the clothing you just selected. If any of shoes need polishing, please do that in the night and don’t leave it for the next morning.
GET BAGS READY
Eighth one is to have everything ready to go in a small basket (this can also mean that you keep all the items in this basket once you are back from office in the evening, saving you lots of time), or your handbag or your laptop bag the night before and you would just pick up your bag and go.
Now if that’s an addition to the task list for the night before how about making a checklist that you can hang and go over while leaving the house and you know that you have everything you need! I made myself one and the tutorial can be found Youtube Video or in the blog here.
CHARGE PHONE
Ninth one is charging phone. Well we have to accept that we use our phones a lot more than we use anything else now-a-days. So, put you cell phone for charge and be rest assured that your battery will not go flat in case you forget charging your phone in the morning.
WASH & FOLD LAUNDRY
Tenth one is washing and folding laundry! There are different ways of doing this. However, the best way I find helpful is washing the clothes once you are back from work and hanging them in the cloths hanger, I do not use the drier! So, the next evening they are all ready to be folded! Do the folding part when you are watching TV and you will be done before you even know it. If you use drier put the clothes away in the drier and once they’re all done…fold them right away. If you leave them to pile up, that’s going to be super annoying once the pile builds up.
TAKE TIME OUT FOR YOURSELF
Eleventh one is to take some time out for yourself. Keep a journal, and write what you liked about the day or didn’t like or how your day was overall. Put all your thoughts to the paper and free your mind!
TAKE REST
Twelfth one! Take plenty of rest! Most important of all is to get good sleep!!!
This should be the first one but am considering this as the last one here as that’s seems like impossible, I know!!! I face it almost every other day but try to get rest as much as possible and that will keep you going.
Our mornings often set the tone of the rest of our day. There is nothing more peaceful than enjoying a stress-free morning and carrying the same feeling off to work.
Take 30 minutes out of your time each night and get ready for the next day. Most of these task takes less time and can be combined too, like, for example cleaning your kitchen top as and when you cook. Meanwhile put the phone to charge.
I know we get exhausted once back from the office and feel like we don’t have that energy to do all this but taking some time out and doing all this can save you a lot of time in the morning.
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