The mornings are literally the worst time of day for me. I am such a zombie right after I wake up that I really need things to be as simple as possible for me in my process of getting ready for work. If I have to spend too much time doing mundane morning activities I’m likely to get really grumpy toward anyone near me. With that in mind, I’d like to share a few of the quick and dirty shortcuts I use in my daily morning routine.
Only Use Two Colors of Socks: I have been doing this one for years. It saves me tons of time both in the morning and when I’m doing laundry. By only buying two colors of socks I never need to pair them or properly sort them. As soon as they are dry I dump the whole lot of them into my sock drawer. Then, in the mornings when I’m rushing out the door I can simply grab any two black socks (for work) or any two white socks (for everything else).
Never Iron Again: I have mentioned this before, but it has saved me so much time in the past, I have to mention it again. I never iron my clothes… ever. I also don’t steam them or take them to the cleaners. All I do in the morning to get the wrinkles out is to spritz my shirts lightly with a water bottle. When the shirt is very slightly damp, I smooth and tug on the shirt to remove the wrinkles. That’s it! I swear this works on most of my shirts and saves me several minutes at least. If you simply have a spray bottle handy you can avoid all the annoying steps of ironing: setting up the board, filling the iron with water, plugging it in, waiting for it to heat up and finally ironing. Yes, I’m lazy, but that is the point.
Shave With a Beard Trimmer: I may be alone on this one, but I hate shaving. I hate it a lot. I actually only really shave twice a year: my wife’s birthday and our anniversary. I don’t even like using an electric razor – it is often uncomfortable and never gets all my whiskers. So, since I unfortunately don’t look great sporting a beard, I have to improvise. A few days a week I reach for my beard trimmer, adjust the guard level down to “zero” and run it against the grain on my face. It never gives me the totally smooth face of a prepubescent boy, but again, that’s the point. It trims my growth back down to a barely noticeable stubble that I actually prefer the look of. Plus, I’m out of the bathroom in mere seconds.
Keep Shirts Buttoned: I have only discovered this trick recently. It won’t save you all that much time, but any seconds that I can cut from my morning routine are seconds that I can happily spend doing something else. Since most of the shirts I wear to work are button-up shirts, I was used to buttoning and unbuttoning every individual button. What a fool I was all this time! If you leave all but the top two buttons secured, you should easily be able to slip the shirt on and off over your head just as you would any other shirt. I imagine I will use this more and more as my blogging career will eventually render my overworked fingers useless.
Redeem your commute: This one is particularly important if you have a long commute. Until very recently I was spending over seven hours a week in my car going to and from work. Eventually, I learned to redeem as much of that time as I possibly could. I subscribed to a number of podcasts relating to technology, productivity or spirituality. I uploaded them to my MP3 player and turned my 7 hours of weekly commute into a personal development study session. Sometimes, I even loaded audiobooks on my device. Listening to books is just as good as reading them in my opinion and everyone could use a little more culture in their lives. Lastly, another great option is to spend your time in productive activities like brainstorming or even prayer. Honestly, some of the my greatest ideas or revalations have come from behind the wheel.
I suppose none of these items are really lifechanging. But I just hate getting bogged down in the little stuff that steals away my time. Do what you have to do to get on to life’s more important matters.
