Winter Morning Routine – Mom of 3 Tips for a Productive Day
Staying motivated in the cold, winter months can be tricky. But the morning is such an important part of the day. It’s totally worth prioritizing! The way you start your day will impact everything else you do, and while we can always recover from a bad start (or do our best to try!) and know that tomorrow’s a new day, it’s easier to just get a good start to the morning to begin with! Having a solid winter morning routine is possibly the best springboard for having productive days, even during the cold months.
As a mom of three kids under four, mornings are especially important. If you have kids (of any age), the day isn’t just “yours” anymore. There are people who need you, and it’s often harder to catch up if you get behind on the tasks of the day. Having a solid start to the morning is so important to me for feeling energized and ready to take on whatever is coming that day!
Enjoying the Winter Days
Dark mornings, shorter days, less natural light, and even a cold bedroom can make the winter season feel difficult for many people. But the glory of God is revealed in all of the seasons, and there are so many gifts in the season of winter!
I love this season, and while I look forward to summer, I also don’t want it to come too soon! Three of my favorite things about winter are:
- The evenings. Working on a project inside or reading a book by the fire without feeling like I should be outside in the garden. I love the summer evenings too, but there’s something wonderful about being forced to slow down and work on winter projects during the colder months!
- Less outdoor tasks. Again, love the gardening and chickens and mowing and all of the outdoor fun in the summer. But winter is a time to be forced to experiment inside with things like reading more books and cooking more soups!
- The routine. I love the routine of winter. While summer vacations and get togethers are a blast, it’s peaceful to have a time of the year where most of our commitments are similar each week and month.
There’s so much to enjoy about the winter, and starting the cold winter mornings off right with a good morning routine is (I think) one of the best ways to squeeze all of the goodness out of the season!
Tips for a Productive Start to the Day in the Winter
Here are 10 morning routine tips that have transformed my days.
- Have a plan for the morning
- Make your to-do list ahead of time
- Wake before the kids
- Charge your phone outside of your bedroom
- Prepare your morning drink of choice
- Start the day cozy
- Prioritize your priorities
- Go to bed on time
- Make your bed and get dressed
- Have a healthy breakfast
1. Have a plan for the morning
Even though I’m a morning person, I don’t enjoy getting out of bed nearly as much when there’s nothing I’m all that excited about doing. Even morning people enjoy sleep! It is HARD to motivate yourself to get out of a warm bed when you don’t have a direction for the day already in mind.
I’m motivated to get out of bed by coffee, time with the Lord reading the Bible and in prayer, and usually a few short tasks I hope to accomplish before the kids get up.
And even though I enjoy all of these things, I actually have to plan for them. The coffee is already half way made the night before, a Bible reading plan and prayer list helps me stick to a goal and not just settle for 5-minutes of reading if I get up late, and my weekly planner reminds me of what tasks I hope to accomplish that morning and day.
If I don’t get these things done in the morning, it sets everything back for the day, not to mention that it feels de-motivating! When my alarm goes off, these things motivate me to get out of bed!
Think about what motivates you and what you’re excited about, and plan to do that when you wake up – even for just 15 minutes.
2. Make your to-do list ahead of time
If you want to stay motivated in the mornings, you need goals that are big enough, but also reasonable. Don’t wait until you’re over-tired the night before to make a plan for the morning! It’s helpful to make a to-do list at the beginning of the week so that you have a good outline of what you need to do each day. And it’s motivating to see what you’ll accomplish by the end of the week if you push yourself to do it!
3. Wake before the kids
As a mom, this has been absolutely vital for me when it comes to having a productive day. Although there are seasons when it’s not always practical (like during the first trimester of pregnancy or when there’s a newborn in the house), waking before the kids on most days makes a huge impact.
Waking up with the kids means that you start the day off feeling behind. You’re trying to wake yourself up while they’re also waking up and needing care. You can’t get dressed or collect your thoughts or take a sip of coffee before someone else needs you. It’s hard!
Whether you get up 10 minutes before your kids or two hours before them, starting your day earlier gives you the opportunity to collect your thoughts and get a jump start on a few tasks – or even just on brushing your teeth. For me, it’s also a great time to focus on my Bible reading and prayer without interruption.
4. Charge your phone outside of your bedroom
I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that charging my phone in another room has been life changing. Not only does it help so much in getting to sleep in the evening, but it also makes a huge difference in the morning. When you can’t look at your phone first thing in the morning, there’s no chance of losing the first 20 minutes of your day to scrolling.
Invest the $15 in an alarm clock instead of waking up with your phone. It will be worth it!
5. Prepare your morning drink of choice
Whether you’re a coffee person or tea person, having a warm drink ready can be such a helpful encouragement for getting out of bed. Make it as easy as possible for yourself!
I like to fill the coffee maker with water in the evening so that all I have to do when I wake up is grind some fresh beans and hit “start”. By the time I’m done brushing my teeth, my morning coffee is brewed.
However you make your morning drink of choice, think about how you can streamline the process to make it super easy to get ready in the morning.
6. Start the day cozy
The hardest part of cold mornings is actually getting out of bed. Whether you prefer a slow and cozy winter morning routine with a book and that first cup of coffee, or you’d rather jump right in to your workout clothes, if it all possible, make it easy for yourself to slide out from under the warm covers.
If you have a smart thermostat, set it to kick the heat on shortly before you plan to wake up. Set out a sweater and socks so they’re easy to pull on first thing. If you plan to sit down, have a blanket already ready. It’s much easier to get out of bed when you know you’ll be warm again in just a few seconds.
7. Prioritize your priorities
Guide your morning – don’t let it just happen to you.
Unless scrolling on your phone is a priority to you, don’t let it have any of your precious morning time. Whether that means setting up screen time limits or literally locking it up somewhere for the night, your day will be off to a much better start if you can focus on your priorities rather than getting distracted by your phone.
8. Go to bed on time (and get up at the same time every day)
A productive morning routine starts before the morning even happens. Maybe the best way to start the day on the right foot is by going to bed on time at night. Support your circadian rhythm by having a regular bed time and wake time. With consistency, your internal clock will make waking up in the morning easier and easier, even on winter days.
Lack of sleep definitely makes it hard to get up in the morning – winter or not!
(By the way, besides going to bed at the same time every night, I believe that keeping my phone in the other room has made a significant difference in my sleep quality! Try it!)
9. Make your bed and get dressed
A great way to get motivated to start the day is by making the bed. No matter what happens the rest of the day, you have one thing done! And after your bed is made, it’s much harder to climb back in or hit the snooze button one more time.
Before you head into the rest of the house, having your bed made at least makes the bedroom feel tidy. For me, it’s a non-negotiable when it comes to starting the day. (Plus, it makes it much easier to fold that morning load of laundry!)
10. Have a healthy breakfast
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and preparing yourself for the day can be even more important during the winter months when energy levels tend to be lower and you especially need an extra boost. Start the day off with a nourishing breakfast is so helpful for starting the day off on the right foot. And it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Whether you make a big, protein-rich breakfast of bacon and eggs and hash browns, or you pull some nourishing, homemade muffins out of the fridge, make sure to budget at least a little bit of time to sit down and eat.
My Winter Morning Routine as a Mom of 3
Getting up in the summer and stepping out on the porch to see the sunrise is definitely a joyful time of the year. But I sure love my morning habits in the dark season of winter, too!
This time of year, mornings and evenings are a sweet time of having a quiet house and enjoying all the cozy parts of the winter months – warm drinks and blankets and a bone-warming fire in the wood stove. I love the extra time that the winter months force me to have, without worrying about the outside chores and other tasks that are more time-consuming in the summer.
A typical winter morning
Most days, my winter morning routine looks something like this:
- 5:20 – Wake up, turn on the coffee pot, add some wood to the fire, and sit down at my desk. These early hours might just be my favorite part of the entire day.
- Spend some time going through a yearly Bible reading plan, praying through my prayer journal, and sometimes reading Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening.
- Work on my computer for about 30 minutes before the kids wake up at 7.
- 7:00 – Everybody up! We all get up together, get dressed, and make a simple breakfast, like oatmeal with peanut butter or yogurt and granola. Or sometimes it’s sourdough pancakes or sausage and hash browns.
- 7:30 – Time to eat!
- 8:00 – Dad leaves for work, and the kids and I finish tidying up the kitchen, get a bit of food prep done for the rest of the day, and start and/or fold a load of laundry.
- 8:30/9:00 – On with the day!
If you’re curious what the rest of our day looks like with three under four, you can find out more about our daily routines in this blog post: Family Routines – 5 Benefits of Daily Rhythms for Our Children.
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