How many times have you heard a productivity expert tell you to get up at 5:30am if you really want to get anything done?
(They seem to think it’s some sort of magic bullet!)
But what if you’re a mom of a newborn? Or don’t get started till later in the day? How do you reach peak productivity then?
Tune in for my top three hacks to get more done in the morning – no 5am wakeups required!
Know what you can do when
First, don’t get up super early just because everyone’s telling you to.
If you’ve gotten enough sleep by oh-dark-thirty, by all means do so – but this requires watching your bedtime, and preferably not having a nursing infant in the house. So, it’s not an across-the-board recommendation.
Also – side note – just because you DO have the time to get up before the kids doesn’t mean you get to bang around in the kitchen and do all your cooking chores before 7:30am if their bedrooms are right on the other side of that wall!
Look at your house’s layout and choose your ultra-early activities accordingly.
- Is it worth it to you if you can get a head start on the laundry?
- Did you really want to get going on the food prepping or dishwasher unloading?
- What if all you can do is sit on the couch with your laptop?
You make the call.
Productivity get-aheads, easing into your day, hitting your own workout and quiet time first – it’s all good.
We just have to know what’s most motivating to YOU.
What are your frogs for the day?
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, what DO you feel inspired to do in the mornings? (Past kid breakfasts and diaper changes and you getting dressed, of course.)
What’s on top of your to-do list? I recommend a food prep task of the day, a cleaning task of the day, and something random off your to-do list.
Now. When do you feel most energized to accomplish these things? Does taking the time to get dressed break your flow? (Fair question!)
Is it still going to get you out of bed if all you can do is sit on the couch with a book?
Do you do everything BUT the bathroom cleaning as a form of procrastination? Know your habits. (Or task avoidance methods!)
Morning productivity – or whole day?
Finally, let’s talk about something else everyone usually avoids: Whether or not you can, in fact, accomplish all those big rocks for your day in the morning.
By the time you deal with breakfast, school, your hair, the baby’s first nap, a load of laundry – do you even have the TIME to cross three things out before lunch?
Perhaps you need to reframe “morning productivity” to “2 things now, 1 thing after lunch” to work it all in. And that’s okay!
It’s all in what works better for you. What aligns most with your energy. What truly jumpstarts your day.
Not what the 5am people say; what fits the bill for YOU.
So what’s it going to be?
A 7:30am wakeup, two tasks before lunch, and squeezing in the cleaning before naptime?
Only you get to decide.
What would make the biggest difference to your day? Which wakeup time, frog-chore, and task/energy matchup would catapult you to #momlife productivity success?
Go do that one.
