Morning routine

What It Means

A morning routine is the fixed sequence of things you do after waking up, such as getting dressed, eating breakfast and packing bags, done in the same order each day. In a family, it covers everyone who has to be ready by a set time. Planning it backward from the moment you need to leave shows how early the day has to start.

How It Sounds at Home

• "I need to be up by 6:30 to make the 7:45 bus."
• "Lunches are packed, bags are by the door."
• "Five minutes, shoes on!"

The Breakdown

How to plan it

1. Start from the time you, or the last person in the house, must be out the door.
2. List every step in the order it happens, and time each one on a few ordinary mornings.
3. Add up the minutes, then add a buffer for the things that go wrong, like a spill or a missing shoe.
4. Subtract the total from your leave time. The answer is your wake-up time.
5. Move whatever you can to the night before: clothes out, bags packed, lunches made. HealthyChildren.org recommends getting as much in order as possible the night before.
6. Keep the order the same every day so the steps run on habit.

Worked example

To leave at 7:45 a.m., this household wakes at 6:30 a.m. Packing bags and lunches the night before moves the wake-up to 6:40 a.m.

Try it today. Tonight, set out tomorrow's clothes and put every packed bag by the door, then time tomorrow's morning from alarm to door.

Good to Know

For households with kids, the CDC's Essentials for Parenting says routines work through consistency, predictability and follow-through: respond the same way every time, let your child know what will happen, and do what you say you'll do. HealthyChildren.org adds that a cheerful, positive wake-up helps mornings go more smoothly. An earlier wake-up also needs an earlier bedtime. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, in guidance the AAP endorses, recommends 9 to 12 hours of sleep per 24 hours for children 6 to 12 and 8 to 10 hours for teens 13 to 18.

Related Terms and Categories

• Kids morning routine

  The same short list of steps a child follows each school or child care morning, such as dressing, breakfast, brushing teeth and grabbing a backpack.

• Evening routine

  The set of things you do each evening, in roughly the same order, between the end of the day's work and going to bed, for yourself or a whole household.

• Sunday reset

  An informal name for a weekly routine, usually on Sunday, of tidying, laundry, food prep and planning so the household starts the week caught up.

• Family routines

  The regular, predictable ways a household handles the repeating parts of the day, such as mornings, meals, homework, chores and bedtime.

Family organization and routines