Want to make the most of your morning routine as a mama? Don’t let the day get away from you. Grab this free printable schedule template and start fresh with days you will look forward to as a mother.
Daily Routine For Mom Free Printable includes:
- A simple daily goal checklist to keep you on track as a mama
- A spot to brain dump all the random things swimming around in your head
- A section to help you narrow down your top priorities for the day
- A reflection spot to look back on what went well and help you celebrate your accomplishments as a homemaker
How a stay at home mom can make a morning routine?
Morning routines are so important for stay at home moms. They help give you structure, guide your day, and provide a quiet mama break before an intensive time of serving the needs of many. I personally notice a big difference in my mood and my capacity to pour into my children on the days that I implement my mom morning routine versus that days that I sleep in and miss that time alone.
Any amount of time that you can wake up before your children counts. When you have nursing babies and restless toddlers, you might only get twenty minutes for a morning routine but as your children grow, you can extend it to an hour or more.
Choose the elements that are most refreshing to you and include those on your morning routine list. On days that I sleep in, I choose to prioritize a bible time and a few minutes on my porch to soak in the sun, breathe in some fresh air, and clear my mind. When I get up an hour or more before my children, I am able to squeeze in a lot more.
Morning Routine List
Here are some ideas of things you might want to include on your morning routine list as a mom…
- Make your bed
- Drink a full glass of water
- Do your personal hygiene tasks
- Get outdoors, breathe in the fresh air, and enjoy the sunrise
- Make your to-do list for the day
- Read your bible
- Write in a prayer journal or pray
- Copy scripture verses into a notebook
- Do a quick exercise
- Get dressed in an outfit that makes you feel confident as a mama
- Listen to something you enjoy (podcast, audio bible, sermon)
- Wash a load of laundry
- Fold last night’s laundry
- Unload the dishwasher
- Lay out supplies for the day
- Do a relaxing activity that you enjoy (knit, crochet, bake bread, read for pleasure, organize, declutter, do a word search, write a letter to a friend or long distance relative)
Need a screen free toddler schedule for your little one? Read this:
What if I’m not a morning person and I don’t get up much earlier than my kids?
Even if you are someone who needs a little extra sleep in the morning, you can still benefit from the elements of a SAHM morning routine. You can train your older children to read quietly and pre-readers to flip through beautiful picture books while you get your bearings and complete a few morning essentials such as prayer, bed making, and writing out your to-do list for the day.
Consider preparing a simple basket of quiet morning activities for your child to do with items like word searches, puzzles, coloring books, and Legos. You could also set out water bottles and simple snacks for your kids to enjoy quietly before you prepare breakfast to give yourself a few extra minutes to do things that will refresh you such as a light exercise routine or bible reading. Additionally, you could set a twenty minute timer and allow your child to listen to a great audiobook while you do a bit of a mommy borning routine.
Here’s a master list of our favorites:
Do you scroll first thing in the morning?
Would you rather conquer some of the most important tasks of your day before the kids wake up or feel like you just wasted an embarrassing amount of minutes aimlessly scrolling on the internet? As a millennial mom, I know what it’s like to avoid the things I need to do because I allowed myself to get stuck in a virtual vortex for way too long.
The way we use the hours before our children wake up matters. Even sleeping in can be a valuable use of our time in certain seasons of life, such as when we have nursing babies, sick kiddos, or our cycle cause for an extra time of rest. But regardless of if you choose to sleep late or rise early, the amount of screen time you use in the mornings will have affect your mood and next night’s sleep.
A simple morning ritual can impact how the rest of our day as moms will unfold. I know that for me, when I put technology in our basement in the evening and wake up without any devices in sight, I am excited to make the best use of my time before the children rise.
A screen free morning can actually boost your energy and help you enjoy motherhood whereas lots of time scrolling online is a recipe for a day that drags. When your kids wake up and you’ve done nothing but scroll on your smartphone, you are tempted to resent them for interrupting your fun. You also feel like kicking yourself for not doing anything life-giving or productive to set yourself up for success.
In this post, I will tell you exactly what I do to get a jumpstart to my day, feel accomplished, and love the work I used to consider mundane as a mom through a morning routine list.
How do I stop scrolling as soon as I wake up?
If you want to get the most out of your morning routine and stop scrolling as soon as you wake up, try these simple hacks:
- Get technology out of your bedroom. Keep your phone in a kitchen junk drawer, high pantry shelf, or in your basement closet. Make it easy not to scroll when you wake up by making it difficult to get to your phone. If you need an alarm to wake up, purchase an old fashioned clock that plugs in the wall.
- Before bed, delete apps that you tend to scroll on such as social media. Re-download them in the afternoons to keep your mornings screen free.
- Program your router keep internet access completely off until noon.
- Block whatever virtual temptations keep you scrolling.
- Upgrade your quality of life by downgrading to a flip phone like I did. After a few weeks without a time-sucking distraction device at your fingertips, you will wonder why you didn’t make this change sooner!
Screen Free Mom Morning Routine
Here’s what you can do to set yourself up for success first thing in the morning as a stay at home mom.
Go To Bed Early
Prioritize rest the night before so that you can get the most bang for your buck out of your mom morning routine.
My daily routine really starts the night before when I feel like doing a thousand things besides going to sleep. While I clean the kitchen and tie up loose ends around the house, my husband usually puts the big kids to bed. Instead of getting on the internet, I aim to get into my pajamas and read a fiction book beside a low light.
Although I read a lot of nonfiction, before bed I try to stick to a light, wholesome, and entertaining fiction to help myself wind down and not think too deeply.
Don’t Hit Snooze
Consider what you will gain by having an hour or so to yourself before the rush of the day before you hit the snooze button.
When my alarm goes off, I turn on my bedside lamp whether or not I am read to get out of bed. The light gives me a few minutes to adjust to the daytime before actually springing out of bed whereas if I left the room pitch black, I would roll back over and oversleep.
Progress Over Perfection
I am not strict about waking up at the crack of dawn every single day. In the summer, I wake up a lot earlier than I do in the winter. I think it is totally normal for our energy as mothers to fluctuate with the seasons. This is not something to fight against.
If we or our children need extra rest certain times of the year, that is OK. Don’t feel any mom guilt about not waking up at 5am, making bread from scratch, and reading ten chapters of your bible every morning, 365 days a year. Challenge yourself to grow, but also set realistic goals to help you be the best mom that you can be, not the best imaginary mom you see on social media.
Life as a mom ebbs and flows. You never know what to expect. Despite your best laid plans, someone might wake up in the middle of the night with a stomach virus, the baby might pop a tooth, or your own body might simply need a little extra sleep.
My goal is not that every day would look the same for the rest of my life, but that I would be continually making progress. If I can go to sleep early and wake up early often enough to do my mommy morning routine 4 out of 7 days a week, I consider that a good week.
Hydrate
Water is the answer to so many human ailments. When you are feeling sluggish, consider how much you’ve been hydrating lately.
I try to drink a large glass of water within the first hour of waking up. This simple practice has changed my life.
Although water is the main thing I drink, I generally don’t drink enough of it. For the longest time, I would slowly nurse the same glass of water all throughout my day. I always felt lethargic. But since committing to drinking a whole glass of water first thing in the morning, my energy has increased exponentially.
Make Your Bed
Some people don’t care about having a made bed, but I certainly do. I find that making my bed sets a good tone for the rest of my morning. It helps me to feel accomplished before I do much of anything. No matter what other chores there are left to tackle, I at least know that my bedroom looks presentable.
If I don’t make my bed first thing when I wake up, it generally doesn’t happen. Throughout the rest of my day, I have lots of little people and little puppy paws in my bed. Children go there to read. Animals go there to rest. The only time that I can fix the sheets, fluff the pillows, and straighten out the comforter without interference is right when I wake up.
Go Outside
When is the last time you prioritized your own natural Vitamin D intake and took the time to admire a sunrise without clicking a photo of it?
Instead of checking a weather app, I find out the temperature the old fashioned way. I walk outside, breathe the fresh air, listen to the birds, and take in the sunrise on summer mornings.
During the seasons when it is bright early, I usually take at least 10 minutes to sit on my porch and just be. No stimulation except that which is natural from creation all around me. I like to enjoy God’s green earth and just pray. This is one of the simplest and yet most important elements of my daily routine as a mom.
The practice of getting outdoors without technology has lifted my mood, increased my energy, calmed my thoughts, and generally improved my days as busy mom of littles. I’ve known the importance of getting my kids outdoors to play for a while, but now I have come to understand how far just a few minutes outside can go for my own physical health and mental peace too. God made a beautiful world and I want to enjoy it.
Do a Chore
What are some simple tasks you can get done in a flash on your own that feel like an uphill battle when the kids are awake?
At this point in my morning routine, I like to do a chore that is challenging to do when all my babies wake up. For me, that is either throwing in a load of laundry or cleaning the bathrooms. If I have extra energy and extra time, I will also unload the dishwasher even though that is one of my kid’s chores.
These three cleaning activities have all become complicated with our mobile toddler. Our laundry room is in part of our unfinished basement. I don’t like to take him down there or leave him upstairs when he is awake. I also prefer to be alone when I clean the bathrooms without lots of little hands reaching for me (and the toilet bowl cleaner). And finally, if the dishwasher is wide open, the toddler tries to climb in.
All of these chores that feel frustrating when the kids are awake are super quick and easy to do during my morning routine. I am highly motivated to get them done quickly so that I can move on to other things I enjoy while the kids are resting.
Read Instead of Scroll
Instead of scrolling on an electronic device, try reading books that are going to fill you so that you have good things to pour back out to your family. Before my kids wake up, I aim to read 1 to 2 chapters of my bible and a chapter of a nonfiction book that encourages me in personal growth, motherhood, or homeschooling.
Daily routine for mom doesn’t have to be filled with all work and no play. Incorporate activities that you enjoy as human being. It’s okay to sit and read for pleasure as well as personal growth. In our family, we highly value reading and we want our children to be lifelong readers. This begins with practicing what we preach.
There have been so many time when the internet has sucked me in and held my mind captive for hours with its quick transitions and deliberate dopamine hits. But ever since I deleted social media and committed to living a low-tech lifestyle, I have tried to be intentional about retraining my brain to enjoy slow, thoughtful activities like reading and journaling.
Make a List
Who doesn’t love a good list? I get a lot of satisfaction as a mom by crossing things off of my to-do list.
As intentional mothers, our labor is meaningful. We get to love, guide, serve, protect, teach, train, enjoy, and care for human beings. That’s important work. How we spend our days matters.
Our efforts on our family’s behalf can make a difference for eternity. Who we look to (Jesus) and who we are as mothers (because of Him) can impact the way our own children grow up and live their lives and subsequently how they raise the next generation.
Much of the work we do as moms is going to be unseen and unrecognized from an earthly perspective.
There’s just so much to do each day. Our work is seen more in the fruit rather than observed in the moment. However, lists can be very motivating to a stay at home mom. Visually seeing my work laid out helps me assign a tangible value to where my time went. I feel accomplished when I put a big line through the goals I set for myself each day. When I look back and see things like “Read a book to each child” or “Take the baby on a walk” crossed off, I know that my time was well spent.
I like to make lists during the quiet hours of the morning. This can be my to-do list for the day, my kid’s homeschool assignments, a grocery list, a reminder list of people I want to reach out to, home projects we want to accomplish, appointments I need to make, blog related lists of things I want to write about or printables I want to create.
Lists Every SAHM Needs To Make
Here are three simple lists that will change your outlook and brighten your mood as a stay at home mom:
What Went Well List
Take a couple of minutes in the peace and quiet of your mom morning routine and jot down what went well yesterday. It is really easy to concentrate on the negative things such as how you feel you blew it as a mom, instances of disobedience with your children, the exercise routine you didn’t do, or housework that you never got to.
Let those thoughts go, Mama! Instead, focus on the successes of yesterday.
Did you take your baby on a walk in his stroller? Did you read your preschooler a picture book? Did you put down your phone, look your child in the eye, and listen enthusiastically when he told you about the worm he found in the yard? Did you admire your daughter’s Lego creations instead of insisting she clean it up?
Did you pray instead of complain about an issue in your marriage? Did you greet your husband with a smile instead of toss him the toddler and run out the door when he got home? Did you cook a homemade dinner when you felt like ordering a pizza? Back up even further. Did you remember to thaw the chicken even though it had been a rough night with the baby?
Did you have a healthy snack when you felt like gorging on chocolate in the middle of the morning? Did you remember to refill your water bottle and stay on top of hydration?
All of these baby steps matter.
Did you turn off the TV and make conversation with your family at dinner? Did you brush and braid your daughter’s hair after her bath? Did you listen to your husband tell you about his work dilemmas instead of tuning him out?
Did you load the dishwasher before bed? Did you play a game of Uno with your kids? (Forget the part where sibling squabbles ensued and the toddler had a meltdown – you played the game.)
Did your kindergartner sound out new words that she couldn’t read a month ago? Did your husband compliment your outfit? Did he help a kid with their math homework or play with the toddler for a few minutes?
Did your older child feed the dogs without being asked for the first time in a while? Did a friend think of you and send a thoughtful text message? Did you get that letter in the mail that you’ve been meaning to send for weeks?
Along with the tantrums, the struggles, the losses, the failures, and the things we forgot to do, our days are overflowing with little successes. These small things add up and make up our lives. The daily choices we make in our homes, health, and relationships are what actually matter and produce change over time.
Usually, once I start writing a list of what went well, I realize how much I have to be thankful for. Us moms are super hard on ourselves and most of the time, we’re doing a lot better than we realize. Sometimes all it takes is putting pen to paper and acknowledging the good.
Answered Prayers List
Recently our family prayed for some simple but very specific things and just a few days later, one of those prayers was clearly answered. One of our children acknowledged it and it made me realize how everyday ordinary answered prayers are an amazing opportunity to give glory to God.
I posted a handwritten list to our hallway cork board labeled “Answered Prayers.” Now, we can jot down when we notice His answers to our requests and keep track in our memory of the good things He is always doing on our behalf.
Big and small answers are totally welcome!
Brain Dump List
What’s bothering you as a mom? The spaces you need to clean, the appointments you need to make, the holiday plans you need to decide on, the behaviors you need to address? The unfinished projects, the cluttered calendar, the distance you feel from your spouse? The commitments you need to break, the laundry you need to fold, the homeschool curriculum you need to order, the birthday card you want to send? The bill that is due soon, the pantry staples you are running low on, the health concern that is nagging you in the back of your mind?
Not every issue belongs on today’s to-do list. That’s where a brain dump list comes in handy. Empty your mind of all the things so that you can focus on the right things for this day. You can relax knowing that your brain dump is safe in your notebook to revisit later.
This frees up the mental energy you were spending on those thoughts. Take small steps in the direction you need to go. Don’t hold a tight grip on a mountain of problems that you can’t solve today.
Lay Out Supplies
What do you need to have a successful day? Make sure you gather these things as a part of your daily routine for mom. Start with a full jug of water, your vitamins or supplements, and an outfit that works for your specific season of life.
If your kids are in public or private school, lay out their clothes, backpacks, and water bottles. Pack their lunches. Lay out a couple of books to read them over breakfast.
I am a homeschool mom and my favorite part of the day is “morning time.” You can learn more about this concept from the homeschool moms who have gone before me like Pam Barnhill, but basically you create a basket of things to read to your children whenever works best for you. For me, that is during breakfast.
I like to lay out our bible, devotional book, science curriculum, read aloud novel, and a board book for the baby in front of my spot at the dining room table. That way, I am ready to read when breakfast is ready and I haven’t lost my children’s attention while I wander off to search for supplies. I’ve done that in the past and it has been a disaster.
Exercise
Before you scroll past this point, know that I am not a “fit” person by any stretch of the imagination. For most of my life, I have avoided exercise and eaten whatever I cared to eat. Now that I am a mom of many, this way of life has caught up to me.
After the birth of my fourth child, I discovered something incredible. Just a few minutes of manageable body movement could impact my energy level for the rest of my day. You might be saying “duh” if you are someone who has been responsible with your health and fitness. But unfortunately, this is news to me.
Ever since I started incorporating a little bit of, dare I say exercise into my daily routine, I have noticed an embarrassingly huge difference in my mood, motivation, and my capacity to care for my family. Had I known that all I needed to do was begin my day with a little movement in order to avoid feeling like I’d been hit by a mac truck two hours into mothers, I would have begun exercising much, much sooner.
When I first began, all I would do is set a 13 minute timer on the microwave and commit to moving my body during that length of time. For the first three minutes, I’d simply stretch. After that, I’d do rounds of jumping jacks, planks, and sit ups.
The first day I tried this, it took all I had to make it until the 13 minute timer went off. I was sweating, wheezing, and panting for dear life, but I pressed on because exercise was the one thing I had never tried to improve my health. Each time I exercise, my endurance increases.
I am so glad made myself keep moving because what I discovered was that although I felt like I was literally dying during my sad little workout, the rest of the day I felt entirely alive. I wasn’t exhausted after breakfast. I wasn’t ready to call it a day by my kid’s nap time. I had energy to clean the house, “extrovert” with my little people (despite my highly introverted nature), accomplish my to-do list, and even smile when my husband got home from work.
These are revolutionary ideas, I know…
I started this short exercise routine thinking I could stand to lose a few pounds after birthing 4 babies in 8 years. That has yet to happen. (Apparently weight loss has more to do not eating dark chocolate squares every afternoon than it does with working out.)
In my quest to shed the baby weight, I tapped into something so much more valuable than a slender body—a source of energy that could carry me through the day. A well spring of vigor I’d only half-believed existed as I admired my sporty mom friends from afar while eating dark chocolate.
Moving your body really does release endorphins, improve mood, and increase your energy. You can surely fine a better exercise routine than what I have described here somewhere else on the internet. But take it from me, if I can get my body moving, ANY MOM CAN.
Listen To Something
I personally don’t count listening to something play to you on audio as screen time. I think listening to audiobooks and podcasts can be very enjoyable for moms so long as they don’t get caught up in scrolling and they don’t try to listen while their children are buzzing about.
When the kids are awake, it is hard to listen to an audiobook or podcast without neglecting your responsibilities as a mom or doing a half-hearted job. We can easily find ourselves irritated that our child asks us a question or has a need in the middle of our listening. I’ve been there.
Instead of wearing earbuds and tuning out the chaos of rambunctious children all day long, save your listening for before the kids wake up or during their nap time.
During the exercise portion of my mom morning routine, I like to listen to the ESV audio bible or a sermon from A Daily Walk Radio from Pastor John Randall 2-3 times a week. I can’t stand by everything that any pastor says. God is perfect, man is not.
I don’t listen enough to vouch for him entirely, but I have listened to his sermons on the radio and through his website on and off for years. Everything I have heard has been true to scripture, encouraging to Christians, and most importantly, his messages point listeners to the gospel. I always walk away from his short sermons feeling refreshed, challenged, reminded of the truth, and encouraged in my walk with the Lord.
Open The Blinds
My morning routine ends with me opening most of the blinds in the house. I like to let the sunlight filter into our home, turn off my kid’s noise machines, and turn on their bedroom lights as well. Sometimes my preschooler has already woken up, but the big kids usually wake up to me singing them a song that my grandmother used to sing me in the mornings.
It is so nice to get a jumpstart to my day as a stay at home mom and wake my children up after doing activities I enjoy, rather than staying in bed, scrolling on the internet, and having the kids get up before I’ve done anything productive.
Like I said earlier in this post, not every day is perfect. I aim to hit the elements of this morning routine around four days a week. Sometimes things change. People get sick, we have an early playdate scheduled, my husband has other plans for the morning, or I devote time to making a bigger breakfast than normal and therefore, I don’t do some parts of this routine.
But all in all, after nearly 9 years of being a mother, I am finally realizing just how much my morning routine effects my entire day as a mom. I have always desired to have a consistent time alone in the morning to enjoy the quiet and read my bible, but now I see that my mom morning routine can actually make or break the quality of energy I have to give my children the rest of the day.
Which part of this daily routine are you excited to implement for yourself?
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