From years of studying people’s schedules, I know that mornings can be magical for people with careers, families, and big personal ambitions. This is often time you can have for yourself before everything else needs to happen — so it’s a great time to exercise, read ambitiously, work on that novel, etc.
Of course, not everyone is a morning person! Longtime listeners of the Best of Both Worlds podcast know that Sarah has an elaborate morning routine that starts around 4:45 a.m. I…do not. But whether you’re like Sarah or me (or something in between), it’s helpful to think through your mornings, and take steps to start the day right.
In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, we discuss our AM routines, plus the variations for weekends and other scenarios. We discuss some common morning challenges, such as early waking babies or super-early Zoom meetings, and how these can be taken in stride.
In the Q&A we answer a listener question on transitions — what’s the best way to handle the long transition times that inevitably occur with multiple young kids? Getting three kids into car seats definitely takes time!
Please give the episode a listen, and as always, we welcome ratings and reviews. Listener note: The “E” rating we suddenly got is a total mistake — this is being changed through Apple podcasts. Best of Both Worlds has and always has been “clean” — no explicit language or content you could not listen to with a child in the car. This should be rectified shortly 🙂
As a European, I can’t not find it funny that Americans use pancake mixes and drive kids on their own property 😉
Thanks for pointing out that bedtimes and morning routines go together! I think that’s very often overlooked. You can choose to have time at night or in the morning. Not both. If you’re a night owl, you’ll probably not benefit from rising early and your evening hours are valuable.
@Maggie – pancake mixes are great! I know it’s not hard to mix a handful of ingredients together but I’m not going to do that in the few minutes available for breakfast making on a weekday. My husband and daughter plan to make some fancy pancakes this weekend…I’m sure most people don’t drive kids on their own property- that’s just a function of the layout of our yard and where the bus comes!
Yep – people get leisure time at night or in the AM. The upside of the AM is that people tend to have more energy and more things are possible. But if someone can exercise and write a novel at night, more power to them!
First, I am so very sorry about all the pain you are experiencing— it sounds awful and I hope you get relief soon! Second, I’m sorry Apple said your podcast is “explicit”… it’s mildly hilarious to me because you’re always so very clean and on the up and up! I hope they sort it out soon!
@LDMN – I know, we are so far from explicit – I hope no one *didn’t* listen to this week’s podcast because of that!
Sarah, I am so jealous of your morning routine. I just love the sound of it. I’m in the boat of toddlerhood and soon to be back in the newborn phase. My 2 year old just figured out how to open her door/all door knobs in our home and we get frequent visits from her. I feel like I can’t get up as early as I would like since getting my 8 hours of sleep is hard enough and about to get harder. I know this is a phase and I’m glad you called it out for what it is in the episode, my time will come but it isn’t right now. That said, I really like what Laura mentioned about taking a little time once you go to work to have some ‘me’ time. This is much more realistic for me given I work from home.
@Annie – yep, some times of life morning routines are just tougher than others. Your time will come. And in the meantime, a little post-work start me time can work too.