Last week Wonderbly books, this week all about how to streamline and simplify your mornings. This is something I feel very passionate. I am excited to share how I make mornings go smoothly in our household by keeping a nighttime routine.
how to optimize mornings
Upon watching a late-aughts women who work cinematic masterpiece there was one line that stuck with me.
The trick to juggling is not catching. It is throwing.
Kate Reddy, I Don’t Know How She Does It
Since watching this movie circa 2012, I have applied this principle to everything in my life in order to make my tomorrows easier. At the office, my MO was to organize my physical desktop. Always to can clean up my Inbox and categorize any proposals by trade before checking out for the evening. If I did not plan on powering down my workstation, I would even open the files that I knew I needed in order to finish the first few items on the next day’s checklist.
I have not reported to the office, save for a few weekend days when I knew I would be alone and at much less pandemic risk, in seventeen months. My home office is now two monitors and a laptop at the huge windowside countertop in our apartment. Everything has moved digital, not that I own a printer, so I have no printed materials to organize. Nevertheless, streamlining my next day includes writing out a checklist of objectives and still categorizing emails in the inbox. And most days, there are points where I hit inbox zero.
Working in the eastern hemisphere means that I log into my work station at 6 pm local time / 8 am EST and work until midnight my time. After I log out is when the real magic around our home happens, or the throwing. I have a mental list of late night to-dos that I execute while the late night shows play in the backgroud:
- checking washer and dryer for deserted half finished laundry
- empty out the water from the dryer condenser (We have a ventless one.)
- fill up my water bottle
- fill up both Brita pitchers with water from the distiller
- merchandise the toys in the Pamper Pirate’s playpen
- make sure there are no sippy cups or other dining accutrement in the Pamper Pirate’s playpen
- prepare the Pamper Pirate’s formula bottles for the night and the following day
- put away any kitchen electronics (food processor base, Beaba babycook, Crockpot base)
- put away any dry dishes
- pack {non perishable} snacks for my husband to bring to work for the following say
- fill kettle with water from the still
Since I work into late night, my husband wakes up with the Pamper Pirate early morning. Anything I can think to make mornings easier and allow my husband to keep his attention on the very active toddler, gets added to the list.
