How to Make a Busy Morning Routine a Little Easier
Collaborative post with Very. All thoughts and experiences are our own.
Mornings in our house have changed quite a lot this year.
After moving into our new home over the summer, September brought with it the reality of getting back into a routine for work and college. The biggest difference for us is that we now live further away from both, which means the quick journeys we were used to have been replaced by longer commutes. What used to be a 10-minute walk to work or college is now a 25-minute drive – if traffic is behaving itself!
Those extra travelling minutes might not sound like much, but when you multiply them across a week, they make a huge difference to how our mornings need to run. Our already busy morning routine suddenly needed a bit more organisation if we were all going to get where we needed to be on time.
With two working parents and two older children heading off to college, I quickly realised that we didn’t need a picture-perfect morning routine. We needed one that actually worked.
So, rather than setting the alarm ridiculously early or trying to squeeze a dozen new habits into the first few hours of the day, we’ve been looking at the little things we can change to make mornings feel less rushed and a little more enjoyable.
Finding a morning routine that actually works for us
There seems to be a lot of pressure online to create the ultimate morning routine. Get up at 5 am, exercise, journal, meditate, make a beautiful breakfast and somehow have the entire house spotless before starting work.
That is definitely not happening here; we are usually all frazzled, tired and not very chatty first thing in the morning.
For us, a better morning is about removing some of the stress. If we can get organised the night before, have breakfast without rushing and find five minutes to enjoy a decent coffee before the day properly gets underway, I count that as a successful morning.
Since moving house, there are a few little habits that have started making a big difference.
A calmer morning starts the night before
This is probably the least exciting morning hack on the list, but it’s also one of the most effective.
Anything that doesn’t have to be done in the morning gets done the night before.
Bags can be packed, clothes can be sorted, and anything needed for work or college can be left ready to grab on the way out.
It might only save a couple of minutes here and there, but it also gets rid of those last-minute “Where are my keys?” or “Have you seen my charger?” moments that always seem to happen precisely when everyone should already be leaving!
Trust me, it does not change as they get older. If anything, teens are worse!
Simple breakfasts save us time
Weekday mornings aren’t the time for us to start creating elaborate breakfasts; there are no breakfasts being made in our house that take more than two minutes to prepare!
We tend to stick to things that are quick and easy, especially now that we need to leave ourselves enough time for the longer journey.
If there is something that can be prepared the night before, even better. Overnight oats, fruit, or simply getting things such as bowls and spoons out ready means there are fewer decisions to make in the morning.
It is less about shaving every possible second from the routine and more about having fewer things to think about, as that just adds to the mental load in the mornings.
Making time for a proper coffee
This has probably been my favourite change to our morning routine.
We’ve been using the Daewoo 20-Bar Digital Semi-Auto Coffee Maker from Very for just over a week now, and it has quickly become part of our mornings.
I’m not looking to add complicated jobs to our routine – quite the opposite – so one of the biggest positives for me has been just how easy the machine is to use.
Whether we’re making a hot coffee or going for a cold coffee instead, it doesn’t feel like a faff. That’s important when you’re trying to get everyone organised and out of the house. There are no complicated buttons or options, just simple, clear and quick coffee to start the morning.
What I particularly love, though, is that it makes an everyday morning feel just that little bit more special.
There is something lovely about making yourself a coffee that feels more like the sort of drink you’d normally pick up from a coffee shop, then actually taking a few minutes to enjoy it before the working day begins.
It is a small bit of luxury in an otherwise very normal weekday morning – but without the expensive coffee-shop price tag every day.
If coffee is an essential part of your mornings too, Very has a wide range of coffee machines for creating your favourite drinks at home.
Having a little more choice at home
Another feature we’ve really enjoyed is having the choice between hot and cold coffee.
We’ve tried both over the last week and found the machine really straightforward to use, whichever option we choose.
I can imagine the cold coffee option being particularly popular during the warmer months, but sometimes it is nice just to have a change from your usual drink.
That’s one of the things I like about having a proper coffee machine at home. Rather than automatically making the same everyday coffee each morning, we can make something a little different when we fancy it.
It feels like a treat without having to leave home to get it.
Leaving a little breathing room
This is something I’m trying to get better at.
When mornings are busy, it is very easy to calculate exactly how long everything takes and then set the alarm for the latest possible moment. The problem is that mornings rarely go exactly to plan.
Someone can’t find something. Traffic is worse than expected. Something throws a spanner in the works. Or you simply move a little slower than you thought you would!
Building even a small buffer into the morning makes things feel much less frantic.
I’d much rather have five or ten spare minutes to sit down with a coffee than spend those final ten minutes rushing everyone through the door.
In a strange way, our new coffee machine has encouraged us to do that. Rather than making a quick drink and disappearing off to do something else, having a coffee that feels like a bit of a treat makes you want to stop and enjoy it.
Just being able to take a breather before the rush of the day to come has become a little luxury.
It doesn’t need to be an hour-long elaborate morning ritual. Sometimes five quiet minutes with a good coffee is enough.
Small changes have made the biggest difference
A new school or college year always feels like a natural point to reset. Everyone starts off with great plans for how the year is going to run smoothly compared to the previous one.
Add moving into a new house into the mix, and we’ve had quite a few routines to rethink this year – not to mention Ethan moving from school into college!
However, I’ve realised that trying to overhaul everything at once isn’t necessarily the answer.
Small changes are much easier to stick to.
Prepare one more thing the night before. Get up ten minutes earlier. Put the keys in the same place every evening. Make breakfast easier. Give yourself time to enjoy a coffee.
Very has some more morning routine ideas if you’re looking for inspiration for creating habits that work around your own lifestyle.
The important part for us has been finding a routine that works for our family rather than trying to copy somebody else’s.
Our new morning routine isn’t perfect – but it works
I don’t think our mornings will ever be completely calm – and I’m not sure mornings in a household of four are supposed to be!
Whether it is just you or a larger family, there is so much to do around work or school days that the time can feel really short.
What has helped since moving is accepting that our routine needed to change.
We can’t do anything about the fact that work and college are now further away, but we can make the time before we leave home work a little better for us.
Getting organised the night before, keeping breakfast simple, leaving ourselves a little breathing room and turning our morning coffee into something we actually stop and enjoy have all helped.
After using the Daewoo 20-Bar Digital Semi-Auto Coffee Maker for the last week, the biggest thing for me is how easily it has fitted into our routine. It’s simple to use whether we’re making hot or cold coffee, and it gives us that little coffee-shop-style luxury at home without paying coffee-shop prices every morning.
That’s really what improving our mornings has been about for us.
It’s about making a few small changes that make an ordinary weekday morning run a little more smoothly – and hopefully finding time to enjoy a good coffee before heading out of the door.
