5 Ways to Save 30 Minutes Every Morning

Add some valuable free time to your daily routine.

I am not a morning person.

Seriously.

Like, maybe you think you’re not a morning person, but you haven’t met me. I’m about as bad as they come. I’m a chronic snoozer and have had many mornings where I wonder whether an extra 15 minutes of sleep is worth potentially losing my job.

Because I know it isn’t, I do everything I can to cut time off my morning routine to give myself as much extra sleep in the morning as I possibly can. The great news is that with a few easy changes you can cut 30 minutes (or more!) from your morning routine. It’s up to you to decide what to do with that time. Me?

I’ll be sleeping.

1. Prepare your breakfast and/or lunch the day before. How many times have you gone to the refrigerator, opened up the door, and just stared at its contents wondering what you want to have for breakfast. You want eggs but you don’t feel like cooking them. You want some toast but you’re out of bread. We’ve all been there.

Instead, do the thinking the evening before. In fact, one of the best ways you can save time in the morning is by doing some meal prep in the day (or days) prior. Make a half-dozen hard-boiled eggs and stick them in a bowl in the refrigerator so you can grab some protein on the go.

Or cut up all of the ingredients for a delicious smoothie and put them in your blender jar in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning just grab, blend, and enjoy! But food prep doesn’t have to end with breakfast. Try making extra food every time you cook and sealing away a few extra portions in Tupperware containers for easy, healthy, and inexpensive grab-and-go lunches throughout the week. Do you own a crock pot? You should! Time Saved: 7 minutes

2. Plan your clothes ahead of time. I am terrible at getting dressed in the morning.

OK, I don’t mean actually putting my clothes on. I mean deciding what I want to wear and making sure it’s ironed and at least semi-presentable.

Each night, decide what you’re going to wear the next day and lay it out somewhere, already ironed of course! And to save yourself some extra time, especially if you hate ironing, you could try using a steamer.

You can also make this whole process easier with these two additional tips:

Check the weather report the evening before.

Keep an organized closet with specific types of garments in designated locations in case you need to make a quick pivot when the weather changes. Time Saved: 8 minutes

3. Speed up your coffee making process. This one could save you a boatload of time if your morning routine involves stopping at the local coffee shop for your morning pick-me-up. Depending on your coffee preferences, I have a few suggestions for you.

Do you prefer to brew full pots of coffee for you or your family? Invest in a speedy drip coffee maker. The BUNN Velocity Brew series brews a full pot in as few as four minutes, saving you precious time in the morning.

Do you prefer a single, regular ol’ cup of joe? Keurig coffee makers are ubiquitous and get the job done.

Do you prefer specialty beverages such as espresso, cappuccinos, or lattes? Take a long look at Nespresso machines. They’re single-serve capsules espresso machines that brew you a shot of rich, delicious espresso in under 60 seconds, and many models come with a one-touch frother to top off your morning latter. Time saved: 5 minutes, depending on what your current routine looks like

4. Find a dedicated place for your keys, purse, or other accessories. Remember above when I said I’m terrible at deciding what to wear each morning? I’m also terrible at locating my keys, handbag, work ID, and other various things I need to locate before leaving each morning.

My solution?

I put a small table by my front door with a small wooden bowl, and everything above goes either in the bowl or next to the table so I know exactly where it is when I leave in the morning. If there’s anything else I need that day, such as my headphones or a piece of mail I need to drop off at the post office, guess where I put it? Yup, right on that table.

Seeing as I tend to run around for 10 minutes at least once a week, this one could save you an average of a couple minutes per day. Time saved: 2 minutes.

5. Put the phone down! One of the biggest lifestyle changes I’ve made for the positive is to seriously cut down on my cell phone usage during two crucial times of my day:

When I’m laying in bed with my Plumeria Bay sheets, and when I’m getting ready in the morning.

Seriously, you just don’t realize how much time you lose in the morning checking Facebook, seeing what’s on Snapchat, looking at Instagram photos, reading emails, and re-checking Facebook. Somebody could have posted something!

Just save it all for when you get to work in the morning, or wherever it is you’re heading. All of that stuff can wait, and when you realize that the time you’re wasting in the morning constantly browsing your social media accounts could better be used sleeping, well, you’ll wish you put your phone down sooner. Time saved: 8 minutes, and this could be super conservative if you’re a cell phone addict

There you have it! That’s five different ways to save time, which add up to an extra 30 minutes of glorious beauty sleep every morning.

Written by Natalie Bracco for Working Mother and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.