Teacher Morning Routine: 10 Tips for Creating Your Perfect Plan [episode 93]

Emily
Hey there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing our best tips for making the perfect teacher morning routines for yourself.

Heidi
We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is what do you do for breakfast on a school day? Emily, what’s your school breakfast?

Emily
Well, I’ve really done a lot of things over the years go through phases. You know, smoothies, were a favorite, but I often was just grabbing like a protein bar or toast or something on the way out of the door. Don’t particularly recommend that method. If you’re going to eat you might as well eat something a little more filling, but that’s what I did. How about you, Heidi?

Heidi
Oh, it was definitely whatever I could eat in the car. You know, over the years, mostly protein bars, but I did have a pretty good read of making and freezing smoothies. And then I just pulled it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge overnight. It’s just ready to go in the morning.

Emily
I think I think we were doing that at the same time.

Heidi
And then you know life.

Emily
We have some awesome responses from our community. Ellen said I meal prep either high protein waffles, or some sort of egg bake on the weekend. Then refrigerate in single serve containers. I can either toast or microwave it at home or at school if I run out of time. I also sometimes just bring yogurt and fruit together in containers to add granola to just before eating.

Emily
Holly said overnight oats are my go to. Steel cut oats almond milk, ground flax and honey as always my base. My add ins include berries, bananas, peanut butter, strawberries, apples and cinnamon, dried cherries, cocoa powder, pumpkin spice in the fall etc. I never measured just dump it all in wide mouth mason jars on Sunday. So I have enough for each day of the week. Ah, so well prepared and I honestly I bought jars to start making overnight oats and then never made them once. So maybe Holly’s inspiring me.

Emily
Kristen said I have a protein shake or smoothie every day. I mix in an Emergen-C packet several times a week which gives my immune system a boost, which every teacher could probably use. Kathy said protein smoothie with fruit and veggies drink it on the 30 minute drive. Feel that. Jennifer said coffee strong lunches at 1130. So that’s my first real meal of the day.

Emily
Rebecca said my husband and I share a smoothie made of 1/5 of a honeydew melon, a handful spinach and 2% milk every day. Well go, Becca. And we got a whole bunch of responses that were variations of coffee, protein bars and protein shakes. We’re a bunch of teachers on the go, that’s for sure. But I love these ideas for teachers for some more filling breakfasts including some make ahead ideas.

Heidi
And we would love to hear about your breakfast, please join us in the conversation over in our teacher approved Facebook group, or an Instagram at @2ndstorywindow, and as with the number two.

Emily
Have you ever considered that as a teacher, you have three morning routines to manage? You have your morning routine that gets you up and out the door. You have the routine of what you do at school before your students arrive. And then you have a routine for your students to follow to start the day.

Heidi
Maybe that’s why teachers are so tired by lunchtime.

Emily
It’s definitely a lot to manage. But those routines are all super important. So that’s why you have so many. Today we’re going to discuss the first routine, the routine that gets you up and out the door in the morning and what you can do to maximize that routine for your day.

Heidi
So as we’ve been working on this podcast, a bunch of emotional baggage has come up for me we’re gonna have a little therapy session for Heidi. I have spent years maybe decades thinking that if I just had the right morning routine, somehow everything in my life would come together.

Heidi
And of course my perfect routine would involve getting up at 5am without once hitting the snooze button and I would sip my warm lemon water while journaling then I’d meditate and work out and shower and get ready and still have plenty of time to whip up a nutritious and filling breakfast and be headed to school before my contract time started.

Emily
And let me guess how many times that happened?

Heidi
Well if you guessed zero you will be right.

Emily
Well I know you so I know you never got up at 5am

Heidi
I would miss a plane if I had to get up at 5am, let’s be honest. So I did not pull this off even one time not even close. I don’t even think I bought the lemon. But then I would you know, it’s such a vicious cycle because I’d beat myself up about my lack of willpower.

Heidi
And since I couldn’t pull off my quote unquote, perfect morning routine, why even bother to have a morning routine if it’s not the perfect one? And so I would just stumble through my mornings until I got to school somewhat close to my contract time. I don’t even like to close at the clock.

Emily
Yeah, all or nothing thinking is a real pitfall for the two of us.

Heidi
And it wasn’t something we were talking about back then. I don’t know if people even knew about it back then.

Emily
Yeah, I don’t think we were aware that we were even doing it.

Heidi
My guilt eased a lot when I learned that being an early bird or night owl is largely determined by genetics. That was like a revelation. It’s not a personal failing. There are lots of people who can pop out of bed at five and start the day with a long, slow runway. But when my alarm goes off at five, or let’s be honest, even seven or later, I am clawing my way through the fog to reach consciousness. And it’s not a pretty process.

Emily
And that’s why talking about teacher morning routines can feel a little tricky. If you look around the internet, you will find no shortage of people telling you that if you want to be productive and healthy, your mornings look like theirs.

Emily
And yes, running a few miles before work, having time to read and meditate, and packing gourmet lunches for your kids are all great options in the morning. But it feels like the unwritten message behind these posts is that if you can’t make this happen for yourself, it’s because you’re weak or unmotivated or lazy.

Heidi
I imagine we have all read posts like that and thought it’s me, I’m the problem. But that just isn’t true. There is no good or bad when it comes to routines. Nobody is better because they have two hours of peace and quiet before they gently wake their children with forehead kisses and gather everyone together for a hearty homemade breakfast.

Heidi
But on the other hand, you are not less authentic or less relatable if your morning isn’t a frantic sprint from the moment your feet hit the floor. Some people are actually living their best lives when they start their day with Sunrise yoga.

Emily
Yeah, I am not one. I have Mindy Kaling’s opinion on that the there is no sunrise so beautiful that is worth waking me up to see. Well, clearly I agree with that. Although I did see it this morning against my will was beautiful. But I wouldn’t have intentionally woken up for it.

Heidi
So when it comes to your teacher morning routine, we won’t be talking about specific must dos or even should dos. Because everyone’s situation is unique.

Emily
Yes, some of you have school starting at 730 in the morning. This is like crazy. And others have 9am, which is what we have around here. Those two mornings are going to look very different. And we are not even going to begin to tell you what they should look like only you know what they should look like.

Heidi
And then you have all the mornings where you know, do you have kids? No kids? Dropping kids off places getting kids? Yeah, it’s just too crazy to try and tell you what the perfect solution is. So instead, we’ve got some tips to help you make the most of your mornings, whatever those look like. Even if you’re not a morning person.

Emily
Like us we understand. Mornings insist on happening it turns out whether we want them to or not. And we probably handle most mornings in a similar way. About 40% of daily behavior is habit. So you likely have a morning routine, even if you didn’t intentionally plan a morning routine.

Heidi
And let’s be honest, what’s better a default routine or an intentional routine?

Emily
Yeah we definitely want routines that serve us right, not the other way around.

Heidi
So for our discussion today, we are defining a routine as a sequence of events that happen at a particular time for a particular purpose.

Emily
Now let’s get into our 10 tips for creating your perfect teacher morning routine. And the first tip is to get clear on your routines purpose.

Heidi
Most of us would probably say that the purpose of our morning routine is to get ourselves and anyone we’re responsible for out the door on time. But that’s not the full picture.

Emily
Really, we’re doing these morning routines to serve purpose in our life. So what is the purpose of your morning routine?

Heidi
To help you get clear on your purpose, consider these guiding questions. What is the desired outcome of your morning routine? How will your day be different because of this routine? How do you want to feel as you finish the morning and you’re starting your day? What is your role in making this routine happen? And what are the roles of the other people involved?

Emily
The answers to these questions will be different for everyone. So right off the bat you can see why it’s impossible to have a one size fits all approach to morning routines.

Heidi
Yeah, everyone’s morning purpose is going to be unique. But you need to identify that before you can move on to our second tip, which is to know your limits specifically know the limits of your time, energy and resources.

Emily
With enough time or energy or resources, you could have anything you want. But unlimited time, energy or resources aren’t a reality.

Heidi
At least not for teachers. Right?

Emily
Right. So how do you plan your morning around those limits? If you’d like to sleep in until the last possible moment, raising my hand here, time is going to be limited for you. Where can you apply energy and resources to make up for that lack of time?

Heidi
So maybe you put in some energy the night before, and you lay out your clothes and pack your lunch, and set your work bag next to the door. So you need less time in the morning? Or maybe you apply your resources and have your partner be in charge of packing lunches, because they leave for work later than you do. Or if you’re limited on energy in the morning, where could you apply your time and resources to make up for that?

Emily
Maybe you spend a Saturday making a month’s worth of breakfast that can be frozen and reheated later? There were some great make ahead breakfast ideas at the top of this episode. Or maybe you get up a half hour before your kids so you have a few minutes to feel human before you have to start functioning as a parent.

Heidi
It’s really easy to get caught up on what we lack in the morning. But the key to overcoming that is applying the time, energy and resources that we do have.

Emily
Our third tip is the one you’re probably hoping we won’t mention and that is be better about bedtime. So much of what happens or doesn’t happen in the morning is determined by our sleep.

Heidi
It’s so true, but I hate it so much.

Emily
And honestly, we probably aren’t the people to turn to for tips about bedtime. We need this reminder as much as anybody.

Heidi
But that means we can all work on it together. Yeah. And if you are the person that is good at getting to bed on time, maybe you can be in charge of texting the rest of us and telling us to go to sleep already.

Emily
We’re probably not going to find anyone who’s volunteering for that job.

Heidi
Well, you never know. Okay, so our first three tips are one, know the purpose of your routine. Two know the limits of your time, energy and resources in the morning. And three be better about bedtime. Emily, what’s our fourth morning routine tip?

Emily
Number four is one of our favorites: give your future self a gift. It’s so hard in the morning to be the person I want to be I know I cannot be the only one. One way to overcome that is to do morning tasks ahead of time. So your bleary eyed morning self has one less thing to worry about.

Heidi
You cannot count on willpower to be enough at moments when you are depleted. So make it as easy as possible to do the things you want to do. If you love a morning run, but struggled to make it happen, maybe give yourself the gift of putting your running shoes and air pods next to your bed.

Heidi
Or maybe you want a gentle start to your day. But it’s easier to just scroll your phone than it is to get out of your warm bed. In that case, you could get a book light. So you can read a journal when you wake up without disturbing your partner. You get a few minutes to read and you can still enjoy your bed.

Emily
You can see where knowing your limits of time, energy and resources can come in handy here. If your energy is limited in the morning, using your resources to buy a book light still means you have the kind of morning you want without having to be a different kind of person.

Heidi
Yeah, it is so much easier to change what we do than it is to change who we are. Which brings us to tip number five, start with an easy win.

Emily
If you’re someone who needs to feel productive, raising our hands here, identify something easy you can do every morning. And when I say easy, I mean super easy. Think about things like making the bed, drinking a glass of water, stretching for two minutes or Heidi’s favorite squeegeeing the shower. I still haven’t started.

Heidi
Calling me out like that. Well, you know, I’m a squeegee machine.

Emily
Yeah, well, I want to do it. So I’m not calling it out to be mean, I think it’s great.

Heidi
That can be your win. But not only just checking something off your to do list give you a little boost, but it can help motivate you to get other things done as well.

Emily
Yeah, and if everything else falls apart, at least you got that win in for the day. It’s one thing I love about making my bed really quick in the morning is that I got to check on my list right away no matter what else happens today.

Heidi
And while we are talking about a small start to your day, this is your friendly reminder to start small. Our sixth tip is to choose one small change to build on.

Emily
At the start of the school year. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking you have magically become the ideal version of yourself. And now you’re going to finally be able to do it all. I was having a lot of that energy this morning on my kids first day back at school. I was like this is it. I’m a new person now.

Heidi
And how’s that going?

Emily
Well, I think it might be a recipe for quick failure.

Heidi
I think you’re probably right.

Emily
You’re so much more likely to stick with the routine if you make teeny tiny changes, especially if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed. Choose just one thing to start with, the smaller, the better, truly. Instead of getting up 30 minutes earlier, move your alarm back five minutes a week until you’re getting up at the time you want.

Heidi
Maybe even five minutes a month, if you gotta take it slow. Or if you want to meditate every morning, maybe start with 30 seconds of deep breathing. And you can build on that.

Emily
I have for years really loved the idea of tiny habits, which comes from BJ Fogg. It’s a technique that’s worked really well for me.

Emily
You start with a test that is so tiny, that of course you would do it everyday. His example is that if you want to start flossing your teeth, you start with saying, I’m just going to floss between two teeth. That’s it one go. And that’s all I’m going to do. And then I’m going to celebrate. And that’s it.

Emily
And because you will think to yourself, Well, I’m too tired to floss all my teeth, but I could, I could just follow one. And then you just build on it slowly. It’s almost impossible to sustain those big sweeping changes. But we can build big change by repeating tiny steps that become habit.

Heidi
So that’s our sixth tip to choose one small change to build on. So Emily, what’s our seventh tip?

Emily
Number seven is stack your habits. What are you already doing that you could add to? If you’re already in the kitchen cleaning up dinner, could you pack your lunch at the same time or maybe prep your morning coffee?

Heidi
The point here isn’t to add to your to do list, it’s to reorder it. Specifically, we want to reorder it in a way that maximizes your time, energy and resources.

Heidi
So for example, I had heard that one way to simplify your morning was to choose your outfit the night before. And I tried that for a while, but it didn’t last long for me. Because I have reached peak decision fatigue at bedtime. I do not have the energy left for another task, so I just couldn’t keep up with it.

Heidi
But when I got home from school every day, I always change out of my work clothes right away. What if I had stacked that habit with the second habit of choosing the next day’s outfit at the same time? So instead of choosing the outfit at night, I could do it at a time when my energy was less depleted.

Emily
I love having strategies like this to troubleshoot a habit rather than just throwing the habit out the window when I can’t seem to get it to stick. Which brings us to our eighth tip, identify your dominoes.

Emily
To do that consider what has to happen first in the morning in order for everything else to fall into place. Maybe your first domino is that you get up before the kids. Maybe your first domino was having enough time to feel awake before you have to start moving.

Heidi
Whatever that first domino is, once you’ve identified it, figure out what you can do to make that one thing easier. Maybe that means setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier, or maybe 15 minutes later. Maybe it means switching to night showers or getting a less demanding hairstyle. Anything that keeps our morning routine dominoes from falling in line needs to be reconsidered.

Emily
But even if we do all of that, it doesn’t mean that every morning is going to be a peaceful start to a productive day, unfortunately. Sometimes things are out of our control. If you have tiny kids, your mornings might be unpredictable. No matter what. If you have sleep issues, your mornings might be unpredictable. And there are 1000 other reasons your morning may get thrown off.

Heidi
Which brings us to tip nine, be gentle with yourself. Sometimes we have a hard day or a whole string of hard days or a hard year where our morning routine just cannot be the well oiled machine we crave. During the seasons, all we can do is play the cards we’ve been dealt and trust that we will be dealt a better hand in the future.

Emily
And while you’re being gentle with yourself, don’t forget our last tip to treat yourself. Give yourself something to look forward to in the morning.

Heidi
You did the hard work of getting out of bed so you deserve something fun. Treat yourself. Make a playlist of songs that you love to sing along to and blast it as you get ready. Get the good coffee, connect with your loved ones a little bit in the morning, plan a yummy breakfast, put a show on your phone while you get ready.

Emily
I love to listen to a podcast in the shower to motivate me to get in there and get going. You could light a candle, just don’t forget to blow it out before you leave. Yeah. Call your mom or a friend and have a daily chat while you do your hair. Get a deck of affirmation cards and choose one at random each day. Let your kids have 20 minutes of screen time while you figure out how to be human again. Write favorite memories on strips of paper, put them in a jar and choose one to read each morning.

Heidi
Really the list of treats is endless. So find something that feels like a treat to you and add it to your morning routine.

Emily
Mornings happen to all of us, the least we can do is find something to enjoy about it.

Heidi
And as we said before, even if you don’t plan your morning routine, you’ll still end up with a morning routine. So why not make it a routine that helps you thrive?

Emily
Use these 10 tips to help you shape the meaningful morning you deserve.

Emily
One get clear on the purpose of your morning routine. Two, know the limits of your time, energy and resources. Three, be better about bedtime. Four, give your future self a gift. Five, start with an easy win. Six, choose one small change to build on. Seven, stack your habits. Eight, identify your dominoes and make that first domino easier. Nine, be gentle with yourself, and ten, give yourself something to look forward to in the morning.

Heidi
Now that we’ve gotten through all that, I think I need to hit back to remember that there is no perfect morning routine, only routines that support us or don’t.

Emily
And don’t forget to catch our next episode where we will be diving deeper into the world of teacher morning routines.

Heidi
We would love to hear about your teacher morning routines. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily
Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is try out one of these tips for your morning routine.

Heidi
If you feel like you could be better supported by your morning routine. And can we all try one or 10 of these tips and let us know how it goes. We would love to hear about your progress.

Emily
Yes and which tip worked best for you.

Heidi
You can share your success or your struggles or your own tips in our teacher group Facebook group.

Heidi
To wrap up the show we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily
I’m giving extra credit to the new picture book Mr. S by Monica Arnaldo. This story is about a group of students who arrive on the first day of school to discover no teacher in their classroom. But there is the new Mr. S written on the board and a sandwich sitting on the desk at the front of the room.

Emily
So chaos ensues as the students argue about whether or not the sandwich could be their new teacher. It’s hilarious and wonderful. And my kids and I got such a big laugh out of it. Plus, the illustrations are really darling and funny. And there’s kind of a background story going on and the illustrations. It’s at the top of my list of favorite back to school books now.

Heidi
I love that I’m so glad you guys got to have that one.

Emily
What are you giving credit to Heidi?

Heidi
So my extra credit goes to something less exciting, but it is the Oxo salad spinner. I decided I was doing upgrade since my old creaky squeaky self spinner barely spun anymore. And honestly, I am as impressed as it is possible to be over a salad spinner. I wouldn’t start a fan club for this thing.

Heidi
It sturdy, it’s been so well. The mesh basket inside is kind of raised up a little bit so it’s not sitting in the water that you’ve just been out of your lettuce. Amazing. The bowl is really pretty so you could use it to actually serve your salad in. If you are getting back into lunch prep or even if you’re not, I would highly recommend this for all of your salad spinning needs.

Heidi
That’s it for today’s episode. Try one of our 10 tips for maximizing your teacher morning routine.