How to Make the Most of Your Mornings

Hi everyone! Today's post is the first of my back to school series! As sad as I am to see summer come to a close, I am excited for my usual routine to start up again this fall. One thing I really struggle with during the school year is getting out of bed and setting the right tone for the day, so I've put together some tips to make the most of those dreary, dreaded mornings. By changing a few bad habits, you can easily make your mornings better with just a little time and effort. I hope you enjoy and look forward to more back to school posts coming soon!

My first tip is to start your school morning routine as soon as possible so it is not a major shock to your system on the first day back. It takes anywhere from two weeks to two months to create or break a habit, so the sooner you start waking up earlier the sooner it will be easy to do so. By the time this post goes up I will just have started easing into my usual routine so I have about a month to get used to it.

My second tip is to give yourself a motivation to get up. Find something you enjoy about your morning, and use that as a reason to get up. A few things I look forward to are a really great outfit (check back soon for some outfit ideas), having a cup of tea (here is the mug shown below) or coffee and flipping through a magazine, doing some short exercises (or long ones if you give yourself enough time), or using my Bliss foaming face mask that only takes five minutes. This way when you roll out of bed, it's not just to force yourself off to school but it's to do something enjoyable for yourself.

My third tip is to make your bed. For years I have been told that making your bed is a great way to start a productive day. For whatever reason, I didn't believe it and continued to see making my bed as a pointless chore. It's just going to get messed up again in a few hours, right? Wrong! By making your bed you are forcing yourself to stay out of it and setting a productive tone for your morning. I personally love the feeling of getting home from school or tennis practice to a perfectly clean, cozy room, so making my bed up with throw pillows and a little acrylic tray adds the perfect touch.

My fourth tip is to listen to your favorite music that boosts your mood to help you have a great day. Country music has suddenly become a favorite of mine... Not sure how that happened, but I've been listening to the Top Country playlist on Amazon Music. If you want to have a soothing and relaxing morning, classical or instrumental playlists are great. And if you want something to shake those morning blues, it never hurts to jam out to pop music, rap, whatever gets you moving. I listen to music while I'm getting dressed, doing my hair, makeup, etc. for a total of about 30 minutes (stay tuned for some tips on getting ready as quickly as possible).

My fifth tip is to never leave things to be done in the morning. Whether its homework, packing your bag, making lunch, showering or any other tasks, they become a lot harder when you have fifteen minutes before your bus comes and you are frantically running around the house. So, you can easily avoid this by simply doing them the night before- this can be tricky if you're a procrastinator like me, but it's well worth it in the long run.

My sixth and final tip is to understand that not every morning is going to be perfect. I love watching morning routine videos on YouTube, but let's be honest, how many of those are realistic? The fact is that you are going to sleep through your alarm on occasion, come home late and roll into bed before you can pack your bag for the next day, and if you're anything like me, one morning you're going to try on ten different outfits, decide you hate all of them and spend your entire morning fretting about what to wear. The best thing you can do on those mornings is not let them ruin the rest of your day and do your best with the time you have.

Thank you so much for reading today! If there are any particular back to school related posts you are interested in, let me know in the comments and I will be sure to address them! Come back soon for more tips and ideas on how to make this school year something to look forward to.