It is one of my favorite times of year! But I’ll be honest I love fresh starts any time of the year. First day of the month, first day of the week. Don’t even get me started about New Years. For me, it is an opportunity to reflect on the last week/month/season and an opportunity to invite change and tweak old habits or routines to make sure you are getting the most out of your day.
Fall is back to school. I loved school so much growing up and I love it through my children now. New notebooks and pens, new classrooms and new routines.
But finding that new routine or rhythm for your family can be entirely overwhelming after a slow summer. So here is how I approach routines.
What are the Needs
You know by now that I love lists. So, first thing I do is I make lists. What HAS to happen each morning? Lunches need packed, I need to make breakfast, everyone needs to get dressed, brush their teeth and their hair.
Also look at your list: Can anything be done the night before to make your morning run more smoothly? For us, lunches get mostly packed the day before so the day of is just last-minute things.
What are the Wants
Next list out things you wish could happen in the morning. For example, maybe you want to do your workout in the morning, maybe you want a chance to journal in the morning. Maybe you like to eat breakfast before everyone else in the morning. I’m still debating right now on if I want my mornings to have a workout or if I want to focus more on chores. I have 3 more weeks before I go back to work, so I’ll try each out and see what works better.
What is working?
Chances are you have had busy mornings before. This isn’t your first fall. It may be your first time your kid is in school or daycare or it may be a new job but it isn’t your first busy morning. So, what’s worked before?
In Arizona I used breakfast as a time when the kids were all in one place relatively contained. That worked well. It meant I could run around and do other things like get dressed. It takes them 30 minutes to eat so that’s 30 minutes I can run around like a maniac to make sure we all walk out the door on time.
Sometimes things were not working. Also, in Arizona I realized morning workouts were not happening. I was too tired and my afternoon slump was too hard. I realized my workout was best placed at 3:30 in the afternoon. Now this is a new job with different responsibilities so 3:30 will not work. But that’s the point of reflection and figuring out a time that will work for my family.
Enlist Help
If you have a spouse, they can help. If they are up with you, they can share the load of what has to happen before you leave the house. If they leave at a different time from you and the kids, maybe they can get some chores done, or prep dinner to make the afternoon run more smoothly.
At one point, Travis used to leave work VERY early in the morning. Long before the kids and I. Eventually I was so overwhelmed with everything that happened in the morning I asked for help. He started throwing the laundry in the washer each morning. When I got up, I switched it to the dryer and it was ready to fold in the evening without another thought.
He also started emptying the dishwasher and putting away dishes. Waking up to a kitchen that is clean and ready for you is unmatched on busy mornings.
Plan Ahead
I feel like busy falls are all about thinking ahead and taking as much of the load off as you can. We don’t “meal prep” but we have sat down on the weekend and wrote out what we are eating all week. This is super helpful as meat gets pulled out to thaw, ingredients can be placed on the counter, etc.
Prepping lunches, prepping backpacks, double checking homework, etc. This can all be done in the evening making mornings run smoother. I know a lot of moms lay out clothes the night before. This has never seemed to help us much but certainly a great idea.
Many people have a fantastic morning routine and then they get home from work and it all goes to hell. What is your evening routine? What happens on a day you don’t have to take the kids anywhere? Is there anything you can pull from either morning or evening and swap them to make the whole day flow better?
Get Creative
New routines are opportunities to try new things. If you want to read more, see how you can fit 20 minutes of reading into your morning or evening routine. If you want to start working out, try throwing that into your mornings. Maybe you want to start journaling, or doing yoga. Can you do a 15 minute yoga before bed each night?
A time of chaos is actually the perfect time to throw in a new habit. I feel like breaking up an established routine to try a new habit is the number one reason people don’t keep that new habit. You have your mornings planned to the minuet it is hard to back it up and now add in a workout. But when it’s this chaotic transition time and no one has the routine down pat, why not shake it up even more with whatever you have been meaning to do each day?
Be Flexible
You are not locked in to a routine. Start off with what you think will work and take time each week to reflect on what actually happened. What is going smooth and what is not? What do you need more time for? Will waking up 10 minutes earlier help? Will going to bed earlier help? How do your days need to shift to fit it all in and make it go smoothly?
Routines are not meant to be for life. They are meant to guide us but not limit us. Try changing one thing at a time and getting creative. The day I moved a workout I felt should be in the morning- to the afternoon, felt so liberating!