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Are you a parent struggling to find time for yourself? Is it hard to find traction for your day? Are you running out of time during the day to finish everything you want to get done? If you answered yes to any of these, then you ABSOLUTELY 100 need to re-invent your morning routine!
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Today I am going to share with you my 4 am morning routine as a mom of 4 and owner of an online business.
Personal Disclaimer: I suggest carving out 1-2 hours of time for yourself for a morning routine. I personally want 2 hours, so in order to get those 2 hours in, my wake up time is 4am before I have to actually start my day. So figure out this time frame for you before you jump into your morning routine!
DISCLAIMER: In full transparency, please be advised that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through my links here will grant a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.
If you are a blogger, you know that blogging alone is its own full-time job. So to see it from my perspective, I have 3 full-time jobs. A mom, a seamstress and a blogger. Each of them taking up my entire day.
The reason this routine is the fall edition, is because my actual morning routine changes as the seasons change and as the kids’ schedule changes.
Running a business from home is no monkey business.
Especially when you have paying customers who invest in your product, support you, follow you, and stay loyal. To keep that dynamic with your customers strong and prospering, you have to stay serious about your business.
Working from home, it’s easy to get off track, get distracted, interrupted, or just decide you don’t feel like working today so you don’t have to.
WRONG.
You know as well as I do, just because we are our own boss, doesn’t mean we can slack if we want to succeed. It means we have to do SOMETHING for our business each and every day. Even taking ONE day off can put you so far behind.
Having a strong and healthy morning routine is so imperative to empowering your day, to be productive and feel good about how you managed your time.
Everyone has the same amount of hours in the day. But what you do with them is up to you.
If you have goals that you want to achieve one day, then each and every day matters. Taking one step towards your goal every day. Those days start off with a powerful morning routine.
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The 4 am Morning Routine
I like to think that I follow Brendan Burchard’s morning routine of AMP (affirmations, move, prioritize) to take my morning back and improve myself.
As a mom of 4, my oldest suffers not only with Autism, but also major depression, ADHD and SPD. Although I am married to the love of my life, he works out of town 6 days a week, sometimes longer. So ultimately, the children and household are primarily up to me to be taken care of. Which means being on my toes is an absolute MUST.
Now I am not going to fool you into thinking I get up every morning at 4 am. Some weekends I tend to sleep in a little later. YES, there have been mornings that I slept through my alarm. But my intentions are 100% to wake up at 4 am to start my day with a strong morning routine.
You are probably thinking GEEEZZZZE! Why so dang early? Why not 5 am or 6 am at the very least…?
Well… to put it to you straight, even 4 am sometimes is not early enough for me when I consider all of the things I want to do before it’s time to get the kids up for school.
But I tell myself to be reasonable and get the sleep I need so I don’t crash when the day isn’t even half over yet.
How do I get myself to wake up so early?
345am – Alarm goes off. I keep my phone in the bathroom so I can’t reach over and press snooze.
Trust me, I am a hard sleeper and I will press snooze without even realizing I did it. So when my alarm goes off I am forced to get out of bed, walk to the bathroom and turn off my alarm. I put my phone in the bathroom because I normally have to use the bathroom right when I wake up. I also brush my teeth as a wake-up shock to my system. So by that time it’s around 4 and I do not let myself go back to the bed or I will fall asleep even harder and not get up again.
After I have my timers set for each item below, I put my phone away! Absolutely do NOT look at any email, social media, news, messages, etc.
Starting exactly on time…
4 am – Go to the kitchen and start the coffee pot that I preset the night before.
Make my pumpkin spice latte with the recipe that I have for you below. I grab my stack of books and journals. Sometimes I will grab these and prepare them in my “spot” with my blanket on the couch where I am going to sit for this time. Make yourself a morning “spot”!
4:15 am I read certain books in the morning and certain books before I go to bed. My morning books are my self-development/personal growth books.
These help me kickstart my positivity for the day. I try to finish one book a month. This book I’m reading Brendan Bruchard’s High Performance Habits. I highly HIGHLY recommend this book. Everyone is reading it all over the world RIGHT NOW! Don’t be the one out of the loop 😉
I also grab my daily devotions and my affirmations. I spend 20 or so minutes reading. The “A” (affirmations).
4:30am Then I move on to my morning pages.
If you don’t know what morning pages are, you are missing out!
Morning pages is a very popular journaling technique that many successful people do! It’s all over Pinterest. Click here to see some of my saved pins about morning pages.
Morning Pages is a way to just completely empty your brain and organize your thoughts. There is no right or wrong way to do your morning pages. You tailor it just to what you think you need to do.
All you do is just start writing. Any and everything that comes to mind and out of your pen as you write. Just write write write! Do your morning pages every morning allows you to organized your thoughts, empty your brain to make room for more thoughts that day, decompress and unwind.
You can write down how you are feeling, things you need to do, things that are bothering you, how you feel about yourself and where you are in life. So on and so on. Just anything. The best way to do this activity is to set a timer for 15 minutes. Your hand will cramp, but write the entire 15 minutes.
Not only will this improve your writing skills and techniques, but you will feel so much better once that timer goes off. Like you put your entire brain down on paper and the journal keeps all of that for you so you don’t have to anymore. The best part is, you have it written to refer back to later.
After finishing my Pumpkin Spice Latte (if it’s fall, my drink of choice changes throughout the year) then I move along to the next item on the list…
445am – put books and journals away and get your blood flowing. During this time of the morning is when I start drinking my water. I try to drink 1-2 bottles of water by the time my morning routine is over. I grab my phone, iPad, computer whatever. And pull up youtube. I type in 15-minute yoga, or stretching, or beginner exercises (I’m not very athletically fit ;).
“M” (move). The point is that I’m spending 10-15 minutes moving my body. I grab my mat, get down on the floor and do the video. It’s tough at first, but when it’s over with I feel like a million bucks, ready to take on the day.
5 am – Time to work!
As a blogger by night and seamstress by day, i have to find time to work on the blogging/admin/wear all the hats – part when the kids are still asleep.
It requires laser focus and ZERO distractions. I keep a block schedule and batch my blogging work together. I’m only going to get an hour to work because the kids have to be up at 6 am.
Currently, my blog is in the beginning stages, still adding content. So right now I only focus on 2 things when it comes to my blog.Creating content and administrative work. In the mornings
I work on Blog Admin. Whether it’s promoting, answering emails, comments, checking the back end of my blog, taking a course, working in Pinterest, checking stats, etc. This hour flies by so fast.
Blog Admin is extremely addictive to me so I enjoy every minute of that, but it only feels like 5 minutes.
Once that 6 am alarm/timer sounds! I shut my computer. No matter what I am in the middle of. 1 hour and 1 hour only is all I have. I am always racing against the clock, batching my work, so I HAVE to stick by the schedule and just pick up where I left off the next time I am back at that project.
6 am – BAM! Just like that my it’s already time to get ready! Jump in the shower.
There is a timer for this too! Remember we are sticking to schedule! I have 10 minutes exactly to do my quick morning “wake up” shower, I do not do my hair (unless I have somewhere to be) in this shower. At my 10 minutes, I jump out of the shower and I have 5 minutes to get dressed. Because at 615, the kids need to get up.
615am – wake the kids up.
They have 45 minutes to an hour to get ready.
While they are waking up, I’m getting breakfast ready, lunches ready and rotating laundry. My kids are old enough now to get themselves ready with the outfits we pick out the night before.
Once everyone is downstairs, teeth and hair brushed, shoes on, backpacks packed, we head out the door by 7/715 am to school drop off. While they are getting ready, I finish getting myself ready as well. Hair, makeup, outfit, etc. I want to feel like I am going to work in my work clothes even if its leggings and a cute sweater, work out shorts, a dress, jeans and a cute top. Prepared for the day. Prepared for any visitors, having to go in public, the kids see me ready and not lounging around in my pajamas all day.
There is a science that backs up getting dressed for your day even if you work from home. This doesn’t mean I have never worked in my PJs all day, it HAS happened. But I absolutely do NOT make it a habit.
By the time I get back home from morning school drop off I have already been productive for 4 hours!
8 am – Time to get the house prepped for the evening.
I set a timer for 30minutes.
I get the dishes from the morning done, make my bed, rotate and dump laundry on my bed, straighten up the living room, Sweep and take out any trash. Get that HOUSE IN ORDER but as FAST as you can. That way it’s ready for the day!
Pull out what I have meal planned for dinner and prepare it.
Decide on an after school snack for the kids, because we all know the second they get in the car after school they are STARVING! I like to have something prepared that way they don’t just raid through the pantry eating whatever junk. I usually will do something like half sandwiches, apples and peanut butter, ramen noodles, ya know. Easy quick stuff.
Timer goes off. I ONLY have 30 minutes to get all of this done, so I laser focus and get it all done as fast as I can with ZERO distractions.
The only time I check my phone during this half-hour is if a call is coming in.
I’m feeling pumped up and excited to take on the next 8 hours that I have with no kids to get as much work done as I can so that I can spend the entire evening with my kids, going to extracurriculars, making dinner, doing homework with them, just being able to be in the moment 100% BATCH FOCUSED on the kids during the “block” on my schedule!
8:30 am – This block is what I call House Admin.
I check the budget and bills due that day, the family schedule of what is planned for that day (like a school event, practice, therapy etc).
Get out my planner and Trello board and make my to-do list for work that day.
Usually, this is mostly done from the day before because I just move everything over, but I need to look back over it and edit anything that needs to edited.
I grab all of my work supplies (iPad, planner, phone, pens, paperwork, everything I need for work) and I head to the studio. I try to be there before 9 am
9 am – Studio block. This block I consider my morning routine over.
I sew in the studio from 9 am to 3 pm every weekday. Sometimes I need my computer for social media connecting with customers, or PayPal, printing invoices, etc. But for the most part, I try to laser focus and stay away from distractions during Studio Block.
This 5 hour morning routine sounds exhausting, I know.
It’s very tedious and full of action. But if I do not do these steps, my day is a hot mess. I lose track of where I am at, I can’t focus, nothing gets done, and I’m crabby when it’s time to get the kids.
By the time it’s time to pick up the kids, I feel accomplished and I can finally slow down and spend the evening with the kids, catching up with my messages, etc.
BUT! I DO HAVE AN EVENING ROUTINE! Which I will save for another post another time.
Evening routines go hand in hand with the morning routine. You can’t have a good morning routine without a good evening routine.
But I will leave it here for now. Let it sink in with you.
My Morning Routine I consider a “system”, so I keep this detailed out in board in Trello.
And guess what, YOU get a copy of my Morning System Routine Trello board! My gift to you for reading my post.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR Morning Routine TRELLO BOARD!
If you are new to trello, or don’t use trello, that’s okay. I will have a Trello post coming soon.
Trello is a life saving, life organizing, system making list-making machine for every single aspect of your life. Systems are the way successful people succeed and prosper!
Trello is your BFF if you want to create your systems and be organized. From personal to business, to family. I use Trello for #allthethings
Opt-In Below to get your Morning Systems Trello Board copy.
This is just a template of my personal morning routine, it’s not MY actual board. But basically the same thing.
If you do not use trello, that’s okay!
I have free printable for you as well!
Opt-in below and you will receive a free printable, summarized copy of my morning routine for you to curate your own morning system.
Use it as a go by. Copy it if you need to for a while, while you tweak it to make it fit your personal needs.
Re-Invent your morning routine tomorrow! No matter what day it is! Tell yourself you want to wake up at 4 or 5 or even 6! Write down a plan of action or use the one I have given you so that you aren’t waking up for nothing but to sit there and possibly fall back to sleep. If you don’t have a plan of attack when you plan to wake up early, it is pointless.
But I promise you, you will feel so good about yourself. So motivated. So inspired. So focused and ready to tackle your day when you implement a morning routine.
I know it sounds crazy, but even my 5 hour morning routine, is simply not long enough for me to get everything done that I still wanted to finish.
Waking up early is FOR YOU! It’s the time of day you get to work on yourself. Improve yourself.
Treat yourself.
I don’t get any other time of the day to do anything for myself unless I carve it out at 4 am. The rest of the day is scheduled for my customers, my kids, and my family. All the way until bedtime.
4am EQUALS my time!
Do you have a morning schedule?
I’d love to read about everyone’s different morning routines. Tell me below what time you wake up in the mornings and what you like to get accomplished before your day actually starts. I love to get other ideas and learn how others do it too!
PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE
2 CUPS OF MILK
3 TABLESPOONS PUREED PUMPKIN
3 TABLESPOONS SUGAR
1 TABLESPOON PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
1/2 TEASPOON PUMPKIN PIE SPICE
SIMMER INGREDIENTS TOGETHER
POUR INTO FRESH BREWED COFFEE
MAKES 2-3 LARGE DRINKS
I love this! Your schedule is similar to mine on a good day. It’s crucial for me to get those things done early before baby wakes, and so important to prep your dinner and have a snack planned for the kids in order to be present in the evening. I love your ideas of time blocking with a timer. I set blocks but usually don’t adhere to them. Still adjusting to being a work at home parent and learning how to treat it just like my old job. I’m definitely going to grab your Trello board. Great article on how to reinvent your morning routine!!
thank you so much for stopping by to grab the trello board! I hope it helps. I don’t always get to stick to my block schedule either, but having it there helps me ground my day. so cool we have a similar schedule! It’s good to know there are so many other moms out there trying to do it all as a work from home mom.
So inspiring!!! I’m an early riser but wow, 4am! I get up at 5 to do morning pages. Can’t live without em. 4am though – you go girl!!!
Awesome! Another morning pages fan! So glad you enjoy doing that. It is literally the one thing I need to be able to think clearly.
Kudos to you! 4 am is rough, but I’m sure starting off with such a peaceful and organized routine makes it worth waking up earlier than you’d like to.
It is definitely not the Time I WANT to wake up, but it is definitely the time I need to!
I have a hard enough time getting up at 5:30 for my online ESL classes! I don’t think I could do 4AM lol
I need the morning time but haven’t mastered this yet, nice to see your full routine
I really like how you block off your time. I’m going to have to build up to being a morning person but in the meantime creating a blocked schedule to stay on track sounds like an awesome idea. Thank you for making this super detailed and easy to follow. I’m genuinely impressed and motivated by this!!!
Thank you so much for reading! I love that you are motivated by this. Block schedules are the LIFE!
Your morning routine sets the tone for your whole day! This is a great post. Thank youuuuu
I am in awe. What a great morning routine. I can’t wait to read about your evening routine.
Yes! Thank you. I am excited to share that post. But first I have a post coming about 18 things to do when beginning a new month or quarter! It’s going to have some great stuff
I am very impressed with this! My goal right now is to just be awake before my kids! I really need to start getting more done in the mornings, really sets your day in the right way! Thanks for the tips!
Thank you so much for reading! Yes being up before the kids is the number one goal for sure.
You are so disciplined well done. I can’t remember the last time my day intentionally started at 4AM. Love my sleep too much.
Wow, I really enjoyed reading your post! I also have 4 kids and “3 jobs” – mom, homeschooler and blogger/writer. So I totally get the need for a schedule. Can I ask what time you go to bed / how much sleep you get? I can’t imagine getting up at 4, but on the other hand I know from experience how nice it is to have a great, productive start to the day!
Hi! Wow!!! Your schedule sounds a LOT like mine! So I totally feel you! I am going to be posting an evening/night time routine that will have my bed time. But I usually go to sleep between 11 and midnight. It’s usually just enough time during the day to get all the things done.
I’ve never been a morning person, but I feel like I might need to start. It must feel amazing to get so much done before the sun even rises in the morning! I love that you provide an actual schedule of your morning routine!
Thank you ! Yes it’s so hard at first, but so motivating!
Wow, I admire your dedication to getting up as early as 4 am. Very interesting read about your morning routine.
You make it sound so easy. You sold me I have asked for your Trello board. I need to try this!!
So glad you got the trello board! My life is ran by trello!
I absolutely love this! Great job having a routine and sticking with it! I’m going to look for your evening routine as well.
I’m in a bad cycle of going to bed too late. I want to shift thjs to an early wake up but its hard! Great advice here.
that’s a really useful article, thank you !
This post is so relevant to me right now. I just last week started waking up earlier to get a morning workout in.
Yes! So glad you started to spend time on YOU!
This is a great routine! Not sure I could pull off getting up at 4am since I typically work late into the night, but I love all the ideas in this post. I may have to try a 6am routine or something 🙂
Yes! Any time you can get up to work on self development even if it’s just for 30 minutes
What a great schedule that you have set! I used to be able to get up that early, but I know tend to stay up later to get the work done… I need to flip it again.
That happened to me too. At one point i was an early riser, then when my kids got older it flipped on me again. I would stay up til 1 or 2 am working on myself and then can’t get up early in the morning. But the most successful people are the early birds who get the worm. Let me know how flipping it goes!
Well this was quite the cliffhanger! Super curious now to know how the rest of your day goes and what time you go to bed!
Yes! I am so excited to share my afternoon and evening routine!
I wake up at 6 am and have been thinking I need to wake up earlier cause I don’t feel like I have enough time. This definitely is giving me ideas on how to get more out of my mornings.
Yes! First step is to decide how much time you want for yourself in the mornings before its time to actually start your day. It can be 30 minutes or as long as you want. But make a list of all the things you’d like to do for self development that you NEED to make time for that can’t interrupt your day. But if you don’t do these things you will never get to YOURSELF. So since I have to wake my kids up at 6, and i want 2 hours to complete my list, i have set my wake up time to just before 4am so i can actually get my full 2 hours. The rest of the day is non stop hustle for everything and everyone else. So then by that time everything is done, i am too tired to work on myself. If i don’t get up then i lost my me time.
Oh my god this is a game changer – I definitely need to start making the most of my mornings to get more done!
Super informative post. I need to re-invent my morning routine. It’s kind of all over the place and i handly get what i want done. Thank you for the tips.
You are welcome! Thank you for stopping by. Good luck on your re-inventing the time you need for YOU!
Our morning routine is pretty busy but it doesn’t start nearly as early as yours. I always say I want to wake up early so I can get more done but I’m not sure if I could do the 4 am wake up.
I really enjoyed your post. You have your schedule downed packed. I had to create some type of schedule to have some type of sanity. It’s definitely a challenge finding a balance. Thanks, for sharing!
The balance of work, motherhood, and being #allthethings is sooooo hard to find. But it is there and it will continue to evolve over time. So always keep in mind that the balance will shift throughout the year, but there is the balance there.
I love this! I really like that you’ve carved out time for yourself AND time to get some work done.
Yes! I even sometimes think working is also time for myself too since I LOVE what I do!
Oooo thank you for the pumpkin spice latte recipe too!
Nice schedule! I’ll have to try to get up earlier for me time.
Love this! Also love how your schedule shifts with the seasons. Mine has shifted from Getting Things Done before the girls are up to (now that they wake much earlier) GTD after they are in bed. In just a few years, those teen hormones will kick in and I’ll have my early-morning time, incl my beloved Morning Pages, back again!
I love this – this gives me so much inspiration! I’ll have to look into morning pages. Can’t wait to read your evening routine!
-Jennifer
Definitely look into morning pages. It’s a game changer.
I feel like this is my dream schedule minus getting up that early. At some point in motherhood I think we’ll get there.
Yes! It is so hard to get up, but once you are up you are so glad you did and you will be proud of yourself. Get that confident feeling of productivity.
As a mom of 6 who works from home I think time blocking is important. This is a great list of ideas!
I agree! I am a mom of 4 and work from home and some days I have NO idea where I am even at with anything. I am so inspired knowing you can tackle your days with 6! Thank you for stopping by.