Morning Routine Checklist For Adults: How To Start Your Day Right

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Need a Morning Routine Checklist for Adults? Here’s Ours!

If you are looking for a morning routine template for adults, you can use ours! As part of a daily routine checklist, having your morning routine ideas ready to go can help guide you and help you start off the day right!

One of the secrets to completing your morning checklist is having a great evening routine checklist! But we will cover the importance of the night routine down below. We should also mention that we work from home so our morning doesn’t always look exactly like down below but when we have errands to run or appointment this is generally what we do!

It might help you to have a printable daily routine chart or a pdf version of this list. If this is the case, you can always print this post at home! So, whether you are an adult getting ready for work or you are a group of students looking for new routines, here is our morning routine checklist!

The Night Before

As we mentioned above, one of the keys to a good morning routine starts with a really good night routine. There are a few things that we always do that makes our morning (and the day in general) go smoother.

Pick Out Your Outfit

Jeans and green sweater laying on wood floor
Knowing what you’re going to wear can save you valuable time!

If you are leaving the house the next morning, deciding on your outfit the night before can be a huge time saver in the morning. This way, there is no guesswork involved (which can waste loads of time in the morning)- you just put the clothes on and get going.

Prepare Your Food

Preparing your breakfast (if you have to) or your lunch (again, if you are taking lunch) the night before can be a real time saver. We’d recommend cooking something yummy for dinner and then eating the leftovers the next day for lunch.

That way you don’t have to cook twice. Or you could be like us and make a big salad for lunch everyday but remember to NOT put the dressing on or it’ll get soggy.

Read Also – How To Eat Healthy When You Have No Time

Set an Alarm

Black alarm clock on night table with bed in background
Set that alarm for a time you can stick to!

We always like to set an alarm a few minutes earlier than we think we need to get up. This way, we know that we can hit snooze once (or twice) and still get up and out of bed in good time. We use our smartphones for the alarm, but you can use an actual alarm clock if you have one!

One trick to getting up for an alarm is to put it across the room where you HAVE to get out of bed to turn it off. It’s a cruel trick to play on yourself in the morning but definitely effective in getting you out of bed!

Get Unplugged

One of the biggest keys to a good night’s sleep is getting away from our screens way before bed, This includes computers and smartphones.

Research shows that screen time before bed can screw up your sleep cycle so give your body the best chance at a good rest by getting away from those screens well before bedtime. We usually set a time to finish a movie or finish working and then after that it’s “phones on the chargers” and goodnight, technology!

Plug in your Phone

Phone on wood background plugged into white charging cable
This way you can avoid waking up to a dead phone…

This is related to the last point but super important to ensure a smooth morning. Getting into the habit of charging your phone at night will basically guarantee you have a phone that is ready to go in the morning.

There is nothing worse than rushing out the door and realizing your phone only has like 30% battery for the morning commute. Hard to read the news, listen to music, or make calls when you are stressed about it dying!

Get to Bed at Decent Hour!

This one is also critical. If you don’t get to bed early enough and give your body time to rest and recharge, you can have the best morning plans in the world – but you aren’t going to be able to get up. We’ve been going to bed early (for us) at around 10:30 and that allows us to be able to get up at 7:00 am without problems.

Obviously, this changes depending on how much sleep your body needs and the exact time you need to be up for but, in general, get to bed early so you can ensure you get the sleep you need. Without it you are basically useless in the morning – and we’ve all been there!

Read Next – Amazing Meditation Apps That Help You Sleep

In the Morning

Woman holding mug and looking out a window morning routine checklist for adults
Nothing better than a morning routine you can stick to!

In the morning, this is where the fun begins. You might keep this checklist open or write it down and mark them off as you go. Whatever your style, just make sure you follow which steps are important for you!

Get Up

Pretty self-explanatory – but this is an important step that can be harder than you think. Maybe you are warm in bed? Maybe you are dreading the day? We’ve all been there.

If you suffer from an anxious mind, we’ve got a few coping strategies for anxiety that might help? In any case, you have to get up and out of bed. You can do it!

Do an Oil Pull

Lisa likes to do an oil pull. If you don’t know what that means – “oil pulling” is the process of putting oil in your mouth (any oil, usually coconut or sesame), swishing it around your mouth/gums for like 15 minutes, then spitting it out. Supposedly there are lots of health benefits to oil pulling.

Many are just theories but some people swear by the effect on their overall health. We’re writing a whole article soon so you can hear all about Lisa’s journey to oil pulling! In any case, she says it wakes her up gently and lets her ease into the morning.

Turn On The Kettle For Tea/Coffee

White mug on wood desk morning routine
Nothing like a warm drink to start the morning…

If you are like us, a morning tea and/or coffee is a MUST. Lisa is a tea person while Bruce is a coffee guy. In either case, we need the kettle boiled to make tea and to make our french-press style coffee.

It’s a method we learned while travelling in the Balkan countries of Europe. Basically, just add hot water to ground beans but don’t filter it.

Mix the whole thing in a special pot we have, let it settle, pour it into your mug (minus most of the grounds), and enjoy – without drinking any accidental grounds at the end that slipped into your mug

If you need a great morning mug to have a few laughs, you can find some funny morning mugs here!

Make Your Bed

Made bed with pillows and blanket
Completing a simple task such as making your bed can make you feel like you accomplished something!

One thing that we always do is make our bed. Something about completing another task in the morning feels really good. This also means that we have a freshly made bed to get into in the evening! One of the most popular self-help books on the market talks about the importance of making your bed – so we follow this rule, too!

Eat Breakfast

Blue bowl with cut up fruit and granola on table with blueberries and other fruit next to it morning breakfast
We can’t leave the house without eating breakfast…

We like to ensure we get food into us so we usually do this in our pajamas. This also goes back to setting an alarm early enough that we have the time to have a nice breakfast AND have time to get organized, shower, dressed, and get out the door in good time.

If you prepared breakfast (like cold oatmeal or otherwise) then you can take it from the fridge and get eating. You might need to warm something up but at least the majority of the work is done if you do it the night before if you can. This totally depends on what you are eating – and we’ll writing about our go-to breakfasts soon!

Pack Bags

If we have to do this, we do it before we get dressed and after we eat. This way, if there is anything we forgot, we can remember it while we get dressed or brush our teeth.

Basically do it early so you buy yourself time if you need to grab anything else that you think of at the last minute! Packing your bag also includes grabbing that lunch item that might be in the fridge ready to go!

Bathe

This step is totally optional and depends on your body/morning health regiment. Generally, Lisa doesn’t shower in the morning – she does it at night. With her long hair, this saves her time.

If she showered in the morning she would have to blow dry it since it wouldn’t dry in time before we leave the house. This is also the step where we apply deodorant – just sayin’.

Get Dressed

Again, self explanatory – but it’s always good to put on clothes before you leave the house. Throw on that outfit you chose the night before and you will not have to worry about wasting time at this step. We usually leave shoes for putting on at the door but you can put yours now if you choose.

Read Next – What We Learned From Not Buying Clothes For A Year

Brush Teeth and Make-up

Woman in white robe brushing teeth and looking in mirror
Don’t leave the house without brushing your teeth…

Brushing your teeth goes back to maintaining good oral health. We do this after we eat to make sure that we remove the breakfast food before we leave the house. We also do this after we put clothes on because then it’s basically “brush the teeth and out the door”.

If you wear make-up, this is also the time in front of the mirror to get that done. Again, this is done after clothes because you don’t want to put on a white shirt and smudge it against your face by accident, do you? Food for thought!

Read Next – 5 Organic Make-up Brands You Should Know About

And there you have it – after we brush our teeth it’s shoes on, grab the bag, and off we go! It sounds like a lot but honestly once you get into a routine that works for you and your lifestyle, crossing off these morning checklist items is simple and easy each day.

Eventually, you won’t even need to have the list printed out! What do you think about our morning routine? Something you can follow? Get in touch and let us know what you think and how your morning goes!

As always, Stay Curious,

-L&E

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