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- When your morning routine involves chaotic scrambling, you’re setting yourself up for a bad day.
- Productivity experts recommend seven easy things you can do the night before to make your morning routine easier.
- Simple measures like choosing your outfit and packing your bag the night before can save you crucial time after you wake up.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Maybe you hit snooze one too many times, or sang one more song during your morning shower.
Before you know it, you’re running late and have to scramble to complete your morning routine.
It’s tempting to beat yourself up over the morning’s missteps, but starting your day off with chaos and negativity will only set the course for a bad day to come.
That’s why two productivity experts, consultant Julie Morgenstern and author Laura Vanderkam, recommend taking some simple measures before you go to bed to make your morning routine more seamless.
In order to save time in the morning, you should save some of your toughest decisions — like what you’re going to wear and what items you need for work that day — for the night before, when you’re still sharp and not pressed for time. You’ll be able to tailor your routine around how much time you need to get ready each morning.
"Everybody’s different," Morgenstern told Business Insider. "You have to design your morning from the inside out. Who are you? How much time does it really take to get from waking up to out the door?"
With that in mind, here are seven simple things you can do at night to make your morning routine easier.
Check your schedule
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Morgenstern said that if you can only do one thing for your morning routine the night before, make it this one.
Checking your schedule the night before can help you not only mentally budget your time better in the morning, but also plan what you need to bring with you to be best prepared for your day. It’s less stressful than needing to pack your lunch, gym shoes and notes for a big meeting at the last minute.
Choose your outfit
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For this task, Morgenstern suggests looking through your closet the night before and choosing an outfit so you can cut down on the decision making process the next morning.
With a slight twist, Vanderkam suggests that this whole process could be streamlined by hanging up several of your favorite outfits for a week and then simply choosing one from that selection each morning. Depending on personal preference, both of these options could help you get dressed and out the door with less hassle than before.
Prepare lunch (or breakfast)
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Depending on your schedule, you might not have time to go out and grab lunch at work. Both Morgenstern and Vanderkam recommend taking time to prepare and pack lunch for the next day.
Depending on your preference, this could be something you do nightly with leftovers or something you did in bulk at the beginning of the week.
If you also want to ensure you have a healthy breakfast to jump-start your day but don’t like cold breakfasts like cereal, you might consider making breakfast quiche or burritos ahead and heating them up each morning.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Sarah Wells)