Getting Ready For The Day: It Will Absolutely Change Your Life

The benefits of getting ready for the day will do so many good things for your life.

But the thing to remember is that however your day looks now likely won’t be the same in 6 months.

It could be. But a daily routine can change. Be open to that fact and let your body tell you what you need. Sometimes you need to tweak things even if it’s just for a week. 

You may need to take extra time for yourself or just let go of work for a bit. Do the minimum necessary to keep your home, rabbitry, small farm, and income at the same level. 

But let the rest go. 

How does getting ready for the day help you?

Taking a vacation where you do whatever you please is ok for a few days.

Buuut, doing it too often will slow you down both mentally and physically, lowering your self-esteem. This is huge for women especially.

My grandmother used to put her shoes on every morning even if she never left the house. It gave her just the get-up and go she needed to take on the day.

If you take the time to make yourself feel good to YOU there will be a massive change in your mood and even what you get done throughout the day. It may be a simple beauty routine or taking the time to do your hair in a way that makes you feel like a woman. 

Now I know what you might be thinking… “I don’t have time to deal with all of that”.

Trust me, your life, farm, and business won’t fall apart because you take a little time out for self-care every morning. You will have plenty of time even if you take 10 minutes for yourself.

Getting Ready For The Day Helps You Feel Beautiful And Empowered.

Do what makes you feel beautiful and ready to take on the world. Sure this might sound a bit dramatic but life is hard. You have to be fully energized and ready to go when hard things bring you down.

Shower, put make-up on, do your hair, paint your nails, or anything else that makes you feel accomplished.

For me personally, I like to have a shower with my hair washed and dried every single day. Nothing fancy but enough to make me feel like a human.

And no you are not allowed to put your dirty 4-day old leggings back on.

You might be thinking what is the point of giving time to your appearance before you start your day? Sure, you might not be seen by anyone that day. But you know how you looked for the day and that will affect what you think of yourself.

It will affect how you feel about yourself. I promise you that.

Taking Care Of Yourself Allows You To Take Care Of Others.

Especially as a mom, it’s easy to put yourself last in the name of sacrifice and love.

But you can’t draw water from an empty well, so make sure you’re taking some time to take care of yourself too.

Sure, maybe you won’t see anyone except your kids all day long. Who cares? Do it for yourself because you are worth the effort, it’ll make you feel great, and it’ll let you be a better mom during the day.

Also as a mom of little kids, I think it’s so great to model self-care and self-respect my mom definitely did that for me!

Source: merricksart.com

Figure Out Your Natural Flow When It Comes To Getting Ready For The Day

It is so important that you learn to work with how you naturally do things. If you are dragging your feet or feel like you have to push yourself to do something.

You won’t stick to it. AND getting that task done will take you five times longer than it should.

For example, when I first wake up I need some productivity juice. Ie coffee. And my body needs some time to get moving.

• For me starting the day looks like starting water on the stove in my cast iron teapot for coffee. ( I use a french press. )
• Then I feed the dogs and go outside to let the poultry out of the coop.
• Then I come in and if the water is hot I will pour the water into the french press.
• Grab my phone and bible for morning devotions. Usually, by then, about 30-40 minutes have passed and ill go get a shower after devotions are done and I’ve had at least one cup of coffee.
• Then I grab my Day Designer Planner and write a list of the tasks that I would like to do that day. Marking the items that have a specific time on the time blocking space in the planner.

Clearly, I start the day slower because I can. But you may not be able to and that’s ok.

As you hear ideas, tips, and tricks, here on the blog or elsewhere. Just try them. Don’t feel obligated to stick with them if it doesn’t feel natural to you.

Getting ready for the day isn’t like working out. It shouldn’t be hard.

Getting Ready For The Day Could Start The Night Before

Now, this entirely depends on you, your personality, and how much time you have in the morning.

If you have to get up early and leave for work in an hour then yes I would absolutely prep the night before.

Here are some things you could do the night before to help you get ready for the next day.

• Have your bags ready – If you need a laptop, books, clothes, or anything bagged up have it by the door and ready to go. Or even in the car.
• Lay your clothes out – This one might sound a little old. But it is so helpful. We spend a lot of time thinking about this and if you can be mulling it over the night before or while you are in the shower. DO IT. Set the clothes on the chair, nightstand, or if you hang your clothes like I do. Bring them to the front of the closet.
• Make your lunch – This will save you SO much money instead of eating out and time.
• Shower – Now personally I can’t do this. I hate nighttime showers. But that might help you if your time is limited.

You don’t have to do things the night before but it could help. Just think of things that don’t matter when they are done or how long they are setting.

Get Up At A Set Time Every Morning

This one is hard and I struggle with it myself. My husband and I are natural night owls. So wanting to stay up late is a bad habit that we fight every day.

Your body will learn what time to wake up eventually but setting an alarm is a must. Even if you have to set a few (cough, cough, which is what my husband does so I have learned to live with it) to help you wake up.

As a stay-at-home wife and business owner who sets her own rules. I could go right back to bed after my husband goes to work.

But… I don’t because that is not helpful to my routine or my body.

You don’t have to get up that early. There is no correlation between getting up early and being successful in your day. It’s because the distractions are low that people feel like they get more done.

I encourage you to choose a time that fits best with your routine and natural flow. That way you are not randomly waking up at all hours of the day.

Do These Things When You First Get Up To Get Ready For The Day

There are a few things that you should do depending on your lifestyle and life goals.

You may even need to reorder these things to fit your schedule.

Drink A Glass of Water

If you are a coffee drinker then most of us go for the coffee. But before you drink your first cup of productivity juice I want you to drink one cup of water before you take in anything else. It is amazing how refreshing this is and even wakes you up better than the coffee. Yes, I said it.

I am not saying you need to give up your coffee. I love it just as much as the next person. My point is to start flushing your system with something your body needs. Not something that takes a lot of processing first thing in the morning.

Devotion/Journaling/Mental Rest

If you are a person of faith then you would do your morning devotions. If not then you can do some journaling or think about what you are grateful for.

When I fall off the bandwagon my days are not as happy. But let me tell you that if you take the time to start the day off with God and be grateful for things. You will be able to hand anything that comes your way with grace and yes, even joy.

One thing I have found that helps me stay focused while doing my morning devotions is having a notepad right beside me for anything that pops into my mind. I can write the things down while not having to try and remember them while doing my devotions. Ultimately being a distracton.

Get Dressed For The Day

This is a point I feel so strongly about and I give a little tough love on this point.

Get out of your pajamas, leggings, or loungewear.

Put on clothes that you would not be embarrassed to be seen in by someone who does not live inside your house.

Don’t stay in clothes that don’t give you the motivation to get work done. There is so much power in feeling good about yourself and the way you look even if no one else is around.

Like I said before. Feel good for YOU!

I have even stopped wearing slippers all day in the winter even though I was dressed because I was still feeling not as productive as when I had on my slip-on shoes.

Being dressed and presentable will give you so much motivation and “get up and go”.

Eat Breakfest

This might sound so basic and maybe it is. But giving your body the energy it needs to get through the day will give you the brainpower to keep going without slowing down.

Personally, I have to eat pretty regularly or I will start to feel sick. But not just anything. It has to be pristine, a SMALL about of carbs, and fats. If I forget or don’t eat the fats I need I will for sure take a nosedive.

Consider things like these for breakfast.

• Grits
• Potatoes
• Gluten free waffles
• Sausage
• Ground Beef
• Eggs
• Yogert

Plan Your Day With Intention

Start with a brain dump of anything that you have swearing around in your mind. Your brain was meant for coming up with ideas. Not holding them. So clear out the mental filing cabinet to help you stay more wear and even thing faster.

Use Something To Plan Your Task List

Whether it is a simple list written out on a piece of scrap paper or you have a strategic plan in your beautiful paper planner.

If you have nothing to guide you through the day it will be much easier to avoid the things you should be doing. AND simply get distracted.

Having a short planning session in your morning routine will help you know which task to do next as you go throughout your day. Even if you get off track you will be able to look at the list and pull yourself back on track.

This is a planner I love to use (and it’s affordable) because it focuses on your top three goals or tasks for the day. As well as gives you the hourly markers for your day so you can time block your tasks. Check it out here.

How To Plan Your Day

Planning your day will look different for everyone. Some people will be able to schedule everything in for the hour blocks at the beginning of the day and others won’t. And that’s ok.

Even in different seasons of your life, you might have to change how you do things. Just be ok with it and stay open to when you start to feel stuck or like your planning system isn’t working.

How To Organize Your Tasks

To decide which tasks you should focus on each day, write out everything you can come up with that you need to get done. You can even use your brain duping list you wrote earlier.

Take your task list and put them in order of importance. This is one reason why I like to use a tool like trello or ClickUp. These tools have an easy-to-use system that allows you to drag and drop items on a list. That way you don’t have to re-write each task.

Below is a view inside of a card inside of Clickup the arrow is pointing to a subtask and each thing is drag and dropable.

Now, this can be tricky because some tasks might seem important but are not the things that will actually get you closer to your goals.

An example would be for a blogger to choose to update an old post over engaging on Instagram. Both are important. But one will be more likely to bring long-term results and income.

But if your income is built from sponsorships and posting then maybe posting on IG is more important for you. That is where you have to really know your goals and take the time to think about the ROI on your time.

This post will help you plan a to-do list and have a more productive day.

How I schedule my day.

I have a list of tasks I want to get done. Then I choose the top 3 tasks that I want to have done for the day. SO those three things get my focus first before anything else.

If I only get those things done then it is a good day.

I mark in the hourly space anything that has a set time. Then I fill in the gaps with things like:

• Feeding the animals.
• Laundry.
• My lunchtime.

Thinks that happen every day no matter what. Because those things even though not very long. Do take time out of the day.

THEN I fill in the remaining time with work hours for the blog and other business tasks. Because for me. My home is more important than my business.

Products Referenced In The Post That Help Me Get Ready For The Day

• Cast Iron Tea Pot (This one is perfect for about two ups of coffee.)
• French Press
• Life Application Study Bible
• Day Designer Planner

Getting ready for the day will make a huge difference. I challenge you to get ready every day for a week and see the difference it will make.

Do you have a morning routine? Tell me about it in the comments.