Fill Out Morning Routine Chart For Yourself & Each Household Member
Today's mission is to create a morning routine for each person in your household, including yourself. To help you with this task I've created a free printable morning routine chart that you can fill out, plus provided ideas and suggestions of possible tasks to include in your morning routine.
This week, as part of the Create A Morning & Evening Routine Challenge we are focused on getting everyone in the household in a good routine for preparing for both school and work each day, as well as doing "first things first," meaning getting some of the most important stuff done in the morning before the day gets away from us.
A big part of that is getting everyone ready to get out the door each morning, preferably with a minimum amount of stress and without shouting or excess hurrying, and without forgetting items you needed to bring with you, from home, to use while out and about.
You need a morning routine whether you've got somewhere you need to be in the morning, or you need to get yourself going each morning even if you stay at home.
Create A Morning Routine For Yourself As Well As For Other Household Members {With Their Input!}
As I mentioned, today I want you to brainstorm exactly what you should have in your and each of your household memebers' morning routines. (I've provided example tasks below to get you started.)
But I want to provide one word of caution. Obviously you can create your own morning routine all by yourself, but for a spouse or partner, or with older kids, it works best to get them involved in the process of creating their own routine. A routine they have chosen and decided will work for them is one which they are much more likely to actually follow and stick with rather than having something dictated to them and them rebelling just because they don't want to be controlled. :)
Ideas For Tasks To Include In Your Morning Routine
Below I've provided a free printable chart you can print and fill out for each member of your household. Here are ideas for things you may want to include in your routine. Be careful though that it doesn't become so long that you can't actually accomplish everything you've listed in the morning, or it will become demoralizing instead of helpful.
So for each of these items, ask if they are really vital to be done in the morning, and also whether any of them could be done at a different time.
***Hint*** Often the perfect time to do some of these chores you may have done as part of your morning dash, in the past, would be much better done the night before! After you plan out your morning routine, especially if it seems like too much to accomplish in the morning, perhaps add some of these tasks instead to your evening routine the night before!
Here's some ideas, but only choose those that make sense for you. These are just suggestions!
- Get up
- Exercise
- Shower/bathe
- Dress (hint, this takes less time when you lay out your clothes the night or week before)
- Makeup/hair
- Make bed (which is one of the suggested daily cleaning tasks)
- Make/eat breakfast
- Prepare lunches for the day
- Meal preparation for dinner (such as defrost items, put something in the crockpot, etc.)
- Empty the dishwasher
- Start a load of laundry
- Quick tidy up to put things away around your bedroom, kitchen, or house since last time a tidy up routine was done (perhaps last night before bed)
- Take vitamins/medication
- Meditation/Bible study
- Check your calendar
- Check to do list for the day (or make your time blocked to do list)
- Gather items that need to be taken out the door, such as purse, bags, etc.
- Get kids ready for school or for the day, assisting as needed or checking their routine checklists to confirm they've done their tasks
Here's Your Free Printable Morning Routine Chart
Below is a free printable I've created that you can use for this mission, if you'd like.
To get this list either click on the image of the printable or on the link below which says "click here for your free printable" and it will open for you into a new window as a PDF.
A Few Explanations Of The Chart, Plus How To Use It
Unexpected things happen in the morning while you and others in your household are getting ready to get out the door. That's why I've included at the bottom of the chart ten minutes of buffer time to allow for these unexpected little things without it throwing your whole schedule off and making you run late.
I suggest filling out the form backwards, meaning start with the time you need to be out the door in the very last line of the form, and then list the times for each task in reverse chronological order to figure out what time you need to wake up and get going to get it all accomplished. That way you're not trying to squeeze 45 minutes worth of tasks into 20 minutes, and then wondering why you never can get out the door on time!
When you're first trying to get in the habit of doing your morning routine you may find it easiest to have this printed out, and placed in a page protector sheet. Then, you can use a dry erase marker to check off each item as you do it until it becomes second nature.
Once you've gotten used to the routine it can still be helpful to place the routine chart in a visible location to help remind you of what tasks need to get accomplished and to keep you on track as needed.
Click here for your free printable
(opens in new window as PDF)
You Can Make Your Own Version Of A Morning Routine Checklist Yourself As Well
I've created this printable as a convenience to you, but you can certainly make your own if that suits your needs or personality better.
Here's an example shown by a reader, Brittany, that she made for her kids.
She explained, "This is what we use in the morning, it is in a page protector that we can write on with dry erase marker to put their check marks. When my girls are done they have to show me they've completed everything on the list. I also have a list for the evening, and also a list of what needs to be done to clean their room. I hang all of them on the side post of their bed with a command hook. They love being able to check stuff off that they have done!"
This just shows how versatile and helpful this concept is, so make sure to adapt it to fit your lifestyle!
In addition, here's my list of the 5 habits to make your mornings run smoother.
Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!
Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.
The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!
Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.
Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.
In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.
If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!
Get This Generic Room Decluttering Checklist + 32 Other Decluttering Checklists For Your Home
Whatever room of your home you're trying to declutter you can use this generic room decluttering checklist to help you know exactly how to do it. The checklist helps you break down any room into smaller steps, to make the process less overwhelming, and helps you choose a good order for tackling these tasks.
I've done the hard work of breaking down these tasks into smaller more manageable steps for you, so you don't get overwhelmed or worry you're forgetting a task, and you can go at the pace you want, whether that's fast or slow.
In addition, you can tackle these decluttering tasks in whatever order you want when you use these checklists!
Additional Printables You May Find Helpful
Here are additional free forms and templates on the site you may enjoy:
 Evening Routine Chart |
 To Do List |
 Daily Agenda & Goal Tracker |
Want More Help? Recommended Morning Routine Course
Do you want more help, or to dive more deeply into the topic of developing a morning routine? If so, then I recommend this course below from my friend Crystal Paine, from Money Saving Mom.
(Please note, I'm an affiliate for her courses, meaning if you purchase a course through my links I get a commission, at no additional cost to you.)
Make Over Your Mornings is a 14-day online course to help you start your days well, so you feel less overwhelmed and also feel like you are getting more accomplished throughout the day because of the good start.
The course costs $17, and you can find out more about it at the link.
Let's Stay Connected!
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Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas
I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!