My Morning Routine

So I see these types of videos and posts floating around from famous bloggers and YouTube creators. I love watching and reading about people’s routines. However, once thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of them seem to be operating on unrealistically long time constraints. For the past 8 years, I have essentially perfected my morning routine to get it down to between 30-40 minutes.

Some people would argue that’s also a long time and I don’t disagree. If you have children and manage to get out the door faster, you are an absolute hero. But as I only have to worry about me, I try to incorporate a combination of things I need to do to get ready with a little bit of things that make me happy. So, here we go:

I start by waking up about an hour and a half before school starts. It takes just about 25 minutes to get to school on bike for me. I also like to have about 10 minutes of chill time before the school day actually starts. So I need to leave the house about 40 minutes before the start of school.

After I lay in bed for about 5 minutes checking my social media or playing a round of my latest app obsession (right now it’s Ruzzle, a word game with two minute rounds) I finally drag my ass out of my bed. I eat the same thing every morning: pre-made egg muffins with pepper, onion and bacon as well as a yogurt. The egg muffins need to be microwaved for about 2 minutes which gives me just enough time to run to the bathroom.

I eat my egg cups in my room on my desk. While I eat, I throw on a YouTube video of one of my favorite channels. On Mondays, I watch the latest Last Week Tonight. Other days, I either watch Seth Meyers or somebody I love in the beauty or planner community. It takes me around 7 minutes to finish eating.

After I eat, I start going through the skin care motions. I start by using some micellar water to get rid of any nighttime build-up of dirt or oil. Then I pop in my contacts from this adorable little cat contact case I got. I next use my current serum, right now my AM serum is The Ordinary’s Hyaluronic Acid and B5 concentrate. I use my current moisturizer and then my trusty men’s aftershave for primer. While my skin care is sinking in, I always dress my bed. I cannot leave my room with an unmade bed – I blame my father.

No matter how far I want to take my makeup, realistically it needs to take under 10 minutes from beginning to end. Lately, I’ve been favoring a much lighter group of products. However, I always do base with SPF, cream highlight, blush, brows and mascara. I would say 75% of workdays, I put on some kind of eyeshadow but usually it’s a one swipe wonder. I prefer to use only one eyeshadow whenever possible – something neutral with a sheen normally is my go-to. Lately, I’ve really been trying to use more lipstick. I really like ones that fade nicely, since I know there is no way I’m reapplying.

Before I do lipstick, I brush my teeth. I also decide whether my hair is going to go up or down for the day. I’m not that picky with my hair, especially now that I have to put it under a bike helmet on the way to work. If I am going to wear it down, I usually spray in some dry shampoo (literally my only hair product) and pin some parts around the front.

After sorting my hair, I grab something to wear. My work is pretty casual but in general, I prefer to wear some sort of dress since it’s significantly easier to have a full outfit (dress on, done). However, if it’s going to be really cold or windy, I may opt for some pants. Right before I leave for the day, I double check that I’m not wearing more than one clashing necklace and then wheel my bike out of the room.

So there you have it – my snappy routine to get ready and out of the house in a relatively quick amount of time but without too much rush. What are some of your must-take steps in your morning routine? Let me know in the comments!