These are the things that I do to start each day more productively and the ways I forced myself to become a morning person. Share this with your friend who owns a coffee mug that says “Don’t Talk to Me Before This Is Empty.”

Full disclosure, I am not a morning person. I wish I was. I can certainly wake up early if I have to, but it isn’t in my nature to just jump out of bed and high five the sun and sing to the birds like Cinderella or some shit.

But I want to be a morning person. When Cora was younger and she was ready to be up for the day around 5:30, I used to get SO much done. There are few things so satisfying as getting through your to-do list by 10 AM.

Once Cora started sleeping in (bless her heart and thank the Lord), I found that I was sleeping in too and started each day a little lazier. So I started doing a few things to force myself into being a morning person. To force myself into being more productive early in the morning. I do each of these things every morning. Even on the weekends – after some extra snuggles with Coco. I promise it has been so good for my psyche and my to-do list.

ONE. I make my bed.

Sounds silly and simple, but this is the first thing that I do when I wake up. My eyes are still closed and all I want to do is get back in, but I stand up and make the bed. Once that’s done, I no longer want to get back in and mess it up. And it’s one thing accomplished for the day and this just starts the momentum.

TWO. I drink a full glass of water.

Before I go to bed at night, I fill up a glass or bottle of water and put it on my nightstand. In the morning, I can just reach over and grab it. I drink the entire thing as I’m making the bed, before I brush my teeth even. This was something my doctor had told me to do right after Cora was born. Drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning starts your metabolism going for the day, helps hydrate you, helps flush out the toxins that were moving slow through your body over the night and it fills up your belly so that you don’t want to eat 4 bagels for breakfast.

THREE. Set my intention for the day.

This is always one of my favorite aspects of yoga – setting my intention for the day. I find that I spend so much of my day thinking about things that I have to do and stressing about how I won’t be able to finish it all that I don’t spend enough (or any) time being grateful for what I have or allowing myself to just be for a minute. A long to-do list and the stress that accompanies it is a murderer of creativity – at least for me.

So as I brush my teeth in the morning, I set my intention for the day. Sometimes it’s to make the effort to make everyone that I come in contact with that day smile. Sometimes it’s to be in the moment with Cora – to not be on my phone when I’m with her and to really notice how she’s learning and growing.

FOUR. Write my To-Do list – the night before.

Some people use a calendar system or an agenda, I make lists. And I like to physically write them. On napkins, on pieces of paper, on the back of receipts. I tried using my phone to create less waste, but it didn’t do it for me. So we hung a gorgeous clear glass dry erase board (this is the one we got) in the office at our house and my husband and I both write our to-do lists here.

And I make a new list every night for the following day, if we were ever to run out of dry erase material (there have been a few times where we’ve been unable to erase our schedules and we needed more space!) there are plenty of online shops that can provide dry erase and whiteboard products like writey and others that can come in handy for unorganized houses like ours! I honestly think this helps me go to sleep easier too because I feel more organized right before bed. Then, when I wake up in the morning, I already know what I need to do.

From here my morning routine differs based on the day, but once I’ve done each of these things I feel awake and organized and energized to get moving.

XOXO – Em