Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.—Richard Whately
Mornings can be the most stressful part of our day if we fail to manage our time and health needs appropriately. Many of us deal with the dizziness of an unpleasant, hectic rush every morning in preparation for work or school, but it doesn’t have to be this way. With a little sensible time management, these eleven steps can help you drastically cut down on your morning stress.
1. Create an Evening Preparation Routine
An evening routine in preparation for the morning, that is. Iron your clothes, prepare your lunch, locate your keys, plan a nutritious breakfast, etc. These simple tasks will take you less than thirty minutes to complete each evening and will save you a huge headache every morning.
2. Plan a Realistic Day
Write a short “Must Do Today” list every evening for the following day. Never fill your mind with unnecessary worries in the excess of this list. Write down anything that cannot be pushed off to the following day. Avoid the tendency to overpopulate this list, and thus your schedule, with unrealistic goals.
3. Eliminate Known Aggravations
If your alarm clock makes a horribly annoying sound, the electric razor burns your skin, and your car’s windshield wipers are faulty … you get the idea. Fix the problems and eliminate the stress factors permanently from your life. There’s absolutely no reason to deal with habitual aggravations that can easily be resolved with a little time and money.
4. Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Make sure you start winding down for bed at a reasonable hour to allow enough time for a healthy night’s sleep. Most people require between seven and eight hours each night. If needed, set a bedtime reminder alarm on your alarm clock. Always keep the temperature in your bedroom comfortably cool. Studies from the National Sleep Foundation suggest the ideal temperature for sleeping is somewhere between 54 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, go easy on afternoon caffeine intake. When you consume caffeine late in the day, the quality of your sleep usually suffers.
5. Wake up Thirty Minutes Earlier
An extra thirty minutes in the morning is the difference between peaceful harmony and rapid-fire pandemonium. As long as you get to bed on time, waking up thirty minutes earlier should seem natural after just a few days. Use this time to think, stretch, shower, eat breakfast, and account for any unanticipated bumps in your morning routine.
