How to Create a Simple Mom Morning Routine That You Can Accomplish Daily

I set the alarm clock for 5 AM, feeling determined. It’s time to make a change, I tell myself.

Hours later, I’m startled awake by crying and look over to see my baby, who typically sleeps through the night, awake in his crib.

After an hour of rocking and consoling, I crawl back into bed exhausted hoping for a few more hours of sleep. When I look over at the clock, it reads 4:18.

Nope. I swiftly reach over and switch the alarm off. I guess, I’ll try it again next week, I tell myself, feeling disappointed and defeated.

Any early morning routine as a mom is a constant battle (especially if you have a baby). It seems that just when I get the motivation to make a change, my kids decide to throw me all their curveballs.

I spent years frustrated and wondering why I couldn’t get things together when other busy moms could. When I decided to drop my old expectations and create a routine that worked for now, I mastered the mom morning routine.

So wipe the slate clean and start a new morning routine. Here’s how to build that perfect morning routine that will fit your mom life—as a working mom morning routine or a stay-at-home mom morning routine.

How to Create a Simple Mom Morning Routine That You Can Accomplish Daily

But First, Why?

Mornings are precious when you’re a mom and so is sleep. We often find ourselves in a constant balance of grabbing a little time for ourselves and getting the sleep we need.

So why bother with a morning routine?

A morning routine can help bring order to your day. It’s not a cure-all, but it’s amazing what some quiet time and a cup of coffee can do for your mood. It helps set up the rest of your day and gives you some precious time to accomplish a few things.

But a morning routine also doesn’t have to overhaul your entire schedule and it isn’t only for early risers. Here are my best tips on creating a routine that will work for you, where you’re at today—crying babies and all.

Wipe the Slate Clean

The first thing you need to do is drop all your expectations. Ignore what your friend does, what you used to do, and what those social media moms say they do.

Now that you’ve forgotten all of that.

What morning habits do you already have established? What do you do right when you wake up? What do you do next? Is it consistent every day?

For example, when I started building my morning routine, I had these established morning habits:

• Taking my temperature
• Eating breakfast
• Taking vitamins

The order and timing of these would change from day to day, but I did these three things in the morning every day.

List out all the habits that you already have. Then consider what you want to add to your morning routine. Be realistic here.

What are some things you want to build into your morning every day?

Here’s my example:

• Exercise
• Make my bed
• Unload the dishwasher
• Prayer/Bible reading
• Get ready

One Thing at a Time

Think about one of your already established habits. You do it every day without even thinking about it. That’s what you want for your new habits.

Don’t look at your list and start waking up an hour early each day. Instead, choose one task to focus on at a time. Establish that habit for at least 21 days and then move to the next one.

I suggest one task at a time so you can fully establish each new habit before tackling another one. Eventually, small changes will amount to big changes.

“The value of a habit is you don’t have to think about it. It frees up your brain to do other things.”

Professor Ann Graybiel

This also minimizes overwhelm. When we try to change too many things at once, we’re more likely to become overwhelmed. And ultimately, quit. When we tackle one thing at a time until it becomes a habit. Our brain only has to focus on one new task at a time.

The Bottom Line: Tackle one new task at a time until it becomes a habit.

Make Them Daily Habits

Since you are building habits, you want this to be a daily morning routine. Build your daily routine on daily habits instead of occasional habits. The best way to do this is to build habits that you’ll complete every day.

This is important because of the science of habit formation. As Gretchen Rubin says in her book, Better Than Before:*

“One of my most helpful Secrets of Adulthood is ‘What I do every day matters more than what I do once in a while.”‘

(Rubin 2015)

When we focus on a little bit each day, it adds up to a lot. And when we build that little into our routine, it becomes a habit that we always complete.

If you’re struggling to find time to work out, try 10-15 minutes each morning and build it into your routine. Something is better than nothing. If you get injured or need a break, spend 10-15 stretching or doing yoga that morning. That way your routine is still intact.

The Bottom Line: Create a routine that you complete automatically every day.

Something is Better Than Nothing

Before I had kids, I spent about an hour each morning studying my Bible.

When I had my first baby, I constantly beat myself up about missing that time. I couldn’t seem to build it into my routine. No matter how hard I tried.

When I had my second baby, it became even more difficult until I decided to drop my expectations.

The things we want to do in the morning are good. And it can be hard to lower our expectations. It’s good to spend an hour studying your Bible, exercising, or cleaning your house.

But when you only have a little bit of time, you have to change your expectations. If it comes down to spending 15 minutes on your task or never getting to it at all, 15 minutes is better than nothing.

When I shifted my mindset and decided that something was better than nothing, I started reading my Bible on my phone while I nursed my baby in the early morning.

No, it wasn’t as much as I’d done in the past, but it was something.

“If a life stage is making it difficult for you to set aside regular time for study—either with a group or in your own personal efforts, please hear me say this: That’s okay. Give the Lord what you can and trust that he will honor your faithfulness in the small things.”

(Jen Wilkin, 2014 Women of the Word)

The Bottom Line: Drop your expectations and work each task into the amount of time you have.

The Morning Person Delimma

But I’m a night owl, you argue. So am I. I’m not good at early mornings. And I know I will never consistently go to bed at 9 PM and wake up at 5 AM (unless I have to).

You don’t have to be a morning person to do this. I wake up 30 minutes earlier than I have to each morning to complete my routine. 30 minutes! That’s not even enough time to tempt me to hit the snooze button.

But your morning routine can work for you even if you sleep in.

Your wake-up time doesn’t matter. The order doesn’t matter either. Create your morning routine with habits and you’ll complete them each morning—no matter what that looks like.

I work 3 days a week and stay home with my kids the other 4 days.

I wake up between 6 and 8 AM each morning. While I would prefer to wake up before my kids each day, some days it doesn’t happen.

Some days my whole routine is done before my kids wake up and other days, my older son comes in while I’m reading my Bible. On those days, I read my chapter out loud and include him, exercise while he sits with a snack, and make my bed when I run upstairs to grab my toddler.

The order of your habits doesn’t matter. Habit stacking is a helpful tool for establishing new habits. But once your habit is established, you can move it around as needed.

The Bottom Line: Each day might look a little different, but all of your tasks will still get done.

Related Posts: Time Management for Moms & Easy Meal Planning

Common Habits for Your Morning Routine

If you feel overwhelmed by motherhood and have no idea what morning tasks may help ease the burden, here are a few to try.

Prayer/Bible Reading

In Justin Whitmel Early’s book Habits of the Household (2021), he suggests starting your day with prayer and Bible reading. I have found this to be the perfect foundation to start my day and my morning routine.

If you have young children (like I do), this may look somewhat simple. But try starting out your day with simple, memorized prayer and some Bible reading. Over time, you’ll notice that this helps set the tone for the rest of the day.

Exercise

Many of us moms struggle to find time for exercise.

Before I had kids, I was a runner. I spent over an hour 3-4 times a week running and doing a few strength exercises. Since having kids, I haven’t found time for that level of exercise.

Now I find it helpful to do some sort of short workout each morning. I also try to find opportunities to walk during the day and stretch as a part of my evening routine.

A 10-minute HIIT workout each morning is a great way to add some quick exercise to your routine.

Breakfast

I’ve found eating before my kids are up, helps keep me in a better mood. Make a simple breakfast or meal prep beforehand so you don’t spend all morning cooking. I like to make a quick smoothie (I use this blender to make it easy) or overnight oats (I use these jars to prep beforehand).

Chores

Setting up your day by completing a few quick chores, can help everything run more smoothly. I focus on making my bed and unloading the dishwasher. Stay-at-home moms often suggest putting a load of laundry in the wash each morning. If you work, you can put laundry in and schedule your washer to start an hour before you come home.

Doing these few simple tasks can help set up your entire day.

Get Ready for the Day

If you’ve ever had someone stop by unexpectedly, needed to run an errand midday, or forgotten your son’s soccer practice until 10 minutes before you needed to leave (🙋🏻‍♀️), you know being ready to go at all times is a valuable skill as a mom. There’s nothing worse than realizing your kids have a doctor’s appointment right now when you’re still in your pjs (🙋🏻‍♀️).

Getting ready for the day is a helpful task to add to your productive morning routine whether you work or stay home.

Try to keep this as short as possible. 15 minutes for hair, makeup, and clothes (if possible). And skip the shower in the morning. (This is another thing I’ve had to shorten drastically as a mom.)

Struggling to Get Anything Because You Can’t Put Your Baby Down? See These Posts for Help:

My Baby Will Only Sleep When Held: 5 Tips for Help

How to Transition from Co-Sleeping to Crib: The Gentle Way

The Timesucks

Here are a few things you don’t want to a good morning routine.

Social Media

We all know this one. You go to check a Facebook notification and end up scrolling through the feed for 20 minutes. Turn the notifications off. And don’t look at social media until you’re through your routine.

Email

The same goes for email. Either you’ll end up wasting a lot of time deleting junk mail or immediately taking care of an issue that could have waited until you were through your routine. Give yourself this allocated time and let those emails wait.

Your To-Do List

Again, this is your time, don’t waste it tackling a to-do list. If you have a pressing issue—say you need to send cookies to school with your son today—wake up extra early and work on that task after your routine.

Sample Morning Routines

Here are a few sample morning routines to help you visualize your daily schedule and how this might work for you.

So if you’ve struggled to have a morning since having kids, try establishing habits to create the best morning routine for you. Drop the expectation that you’ll wake up at 5 AM after dealing with a crying baby, and set up something you can conquer no matter what life (or your toddler) throws your way. Build your productive mom morning routine no matter your kid’s ages.

And if you need help getting started, I’ve put together a bundle of resources to help. They include a few liturgical morning prayer options, a 1 chapter a day Bible reading plan, a 10-Minute HIIT workout playlist (with 36 different workouts), and my favorite quick breakfast recipes. Just pop in your email below to get the whole bundle. You’ll also be added to my list for updates and other resources.

Suggested Reading

Earley, J. W. (2021). Habits of the household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms. Zondervan.

Rubin, G. (2015). Better than before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. Hachette UK.

Wilkin, J. (2014). Women of the word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds. Crossway.

Bibliography

Earley, J. W. (2021). Habits of the household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms. Zondervan.

How the brain controls our habits. (2012, October 29). MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2012/understanding-how-brains-control-our-habits-1029</a>

Rubin, G. (2015). Better than before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. Hachette UK.

Walsh, K. (2023, February 13). What is habit stacking — and why it helps with behavior change. EverydayHealth.com. https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/habit-stacking-and-why-it-might-help-your-behavior-changes-stick/</a>

Wilkin, J. (2014). Women of the word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds. Crossway.