Working Mom Morning Routine: 8 Practical Tips to Start Your Day With Less Stress
Learn our favorite tips and tricks to streamline your working mom morning routine and help get everyone out the door on time.

A No-Rush Morning Routine for Working Moms
As moms, we love our kids.
But can we just take one second to acknowledge how much easier mornings were before we had them?
- Sleeping in
- No school lunches to pack
- Peace and quiet to concentrate and prepare for the day ahead.
Ahhhh…we really should have appreciated that more because IT’S OVER!
I am pretty sure that working moms accomplish more before 7 am than most people do in an entire day.
But just because you get it done, doesn’t mean it’s not rushed and chaotic (which is not a great way to start your day).
If you are a mom who:
- Struggles to get everyone out the door on time
- Often forgets items at home that you or the kids need for work or school
- Always feels rushed
- Would love to feel more organized and less stressed in the morning
Then this working mom morning routine is for you!
A Practical Working Mom Morning Routine
If you are a working mom (like me) I am sure you are ready and willing to try anything to get your ducks in a row and out the door on time.
Over the past decade I have collected a number of tips and habits that help to calm the morning chaos.
Ready to see what they are?
You can use the following tips as a checklist to prepare the night before and to leave the house with everything you need on time!
Read through the list below and start with integrating the ideas that would be easiest for your.
Overtime you can adjust or incorporate more of the suggestions to ensure a great start to your day:
1) Wake up before the kids
Listen up mama: Getting yourself dressed and ready to go before the kids are awake is a game changer.
While it may feel impossible to drag yourself out of bed earlier, this simple change will pay of big time.
When you are dressed and prepared to leave before you even wake them up it makes everything so much easier. Instead of feeling like you are running around trying to get everyone (including yourself) ready, you will be able to focus on helping them while knowing you are all set to go.
A mom who isn’t rushed or busy multi-tasking in the morning is modeling very important behaviors for her children. It will also create more time to interact positively and connect in the morning before you all go your separate ways.
Lauren Tingley – Simply Well Balanced
2) Prep lunches ahead of time
Part of having more time in the morning means using your time on the nights and weekends wisely.
School lunch prep can be a huge time-suck in the morning. Not-to-mention the mess that is created in the process.
I haven’t made a school lunch in the morning for years, but my kids take a home packed lunch every day.
One of the first posts I ever published on this site was for my DIY freezer ready uncrustables. The post has been very popular because it teaches busy moms how to prep a month’s worth of school lunch sandwiches in just 30 minutes!
I also recommend keeping your kiddo’s favorite pre-packaged snacks that you can quickly toss into lunch bags that require zero prep:
- apple sauce
- cuties (mandarin oranges)
- cheese sticks
- baby carrots
- trail mix
- popcorn
With just a little practice, even preschoolers can pack their own lunches in the morning when all the items are prepped, organized and ready to go.
Related Post: Easy After School Snacks that won’t Ruin Dinner
3) No Phone Until You’re Ready To Go
Depending on your level of social media addiction this will be easier for some than others. No matter what, it will help to cut out wasted time from your morning routine.
Whether you are mindlessly scrolling through your feed or taking a quick minute to check your email, it’s sabotaging your goal of having a productive and calm morning.
Even just a few minutes can make all the difference when it comes to being on time,
Instead, get yourself ready and then schedule 10 minutes to check email, texts and social media before you wake up the kids.
4) Empty the dishwasher after dinner
This is another “night before” tip that will create more time in your morning.
Waking up to a full dishwasher increases the likelihood that you will just put any dishes from breakfast in the sink.
Then, you will come home from work and have a sink full of dishes…not fun!
Instead, load up all your dishes right after dinner, start the cycle, then empty the dishwasher right before you go to bed. That way, when you start your morning you can put any dishes from breakfast directly in the dishwasher.
Voila’ – now your kitchen is clean as you head out the door!
5) Let your kids watch TV
In a perfect world, mornings would be screen-free, but in the real world children who are quietly entertained make life easier.
Now before you go all Salem-Witch-Hunt on me thinking that it’s not a good idea for children to watch TV in the morning – just hear me out.
In my house it’s much safer to put on a good clean show or some sort of educational program for them to watch while they wait for us to load up in the car.
I have tried leaving the t.v. off and I have ended up with hair pulled, paint on the floor and all the change from my purse being put in the sink.
6) Eat the same thing for breakfast all week.
One simple way to streamline breakfast is to eat the same thing all week. This way you aren’t acting as a short order cook and you don’t have a huge mess in the kitchen when you leave for work.
Think you or your kiddos would get sick of eating the same thing? Mine don’t and I usually alternate a few different breakfast items over the course of a month:
- Week 1: Freezer Waffles
- Week 2: Cereal
- Week 3: Eggs and toast
- Week 4: Bagels and cream cheese
This makes grocery shopping easier too.
7) Set up a family command center
Listen to me busy mama – this step is crucial.
And a family command center is exactly what it sounds like:
“A designated area of your home that will help you to run your family with the precision of a military platoon leader.“
Ok – maybe that’s a little extreme, but it will help you to not forget your purse or your kids backpack as you head out the door.
It’s best to set it up next to the door that you enter and exit your home from.
This is the one stop shop where you are going to put shoes, jackets, backpacks, your purse, your keys, lunch menus, monthly calendars etc. So you know where they are and can quickly grab them as you head out the door.
8) Wake up earlier
I know you don’t want to hear this, but it can be really helpful.
If you are always feeling rushed and stressed in the morning you need to give yourself more time. How much? Try waking up just 10 minutes earlier and see if that is enough, if not add another 10 until you find your sweet spot.
A Working Mom Morning Routine Checklist
Now that we’ve covered some great time-saving tips, let’s put it all together as a nice, easy to follow checklist format.
This is a basic version that you can adjust and edit as you need to.
- Wake up before the kids
- Shower and get ready (dressed with hair and makeup done)
- Prepare breakfast
- Wake up the kids
- Eat breakfast (everyone eats the same thing)
- Load the dishwasher
- Help kids get ready
- Remind kids to pack their lunches with ready to go items
- Check your phone/email/social media while the kids brush teeth and put their shoes on
- Grab any items needed for the day from your Family Command Center area
- Head out the door
There you have it mama! A handful of simple tips for the perfect busy mom morning routine.
It’s so important to set these simple routines in our lives! Thanks for the inspiration and ideas ?
You are welcome! I agree…when we have babies we hear about the importance of routines, but then we don’t apply those same strategies to our adult lives and we wonder why we are not happy.
Wow, so much information – this was a great read. I totally agree, getting up earlier than the kids makes things a lot easier. I do too many things in the morning rather than the night before… need to work on that. I find that my son is more likely to eat his lunch when he is part of deciding between two options the morning of. Thanks for the inspiration!
It took me a long time to start prepping the night before. There have been plenty of days I had wished I had done more the night before, but I have never said “Gee I wish I was not so prepared ahead of time!” 🙂
It dawned on me the other day that my career of 10 years is what lead me to have no routine, I was on call and quite often had to work 12+ hr days without notice, so now that I have total control of my schedule I’m finding it hard to still get organized and set a daily routine. I really need to learn to stay away from social media in the morning, I use it to network, market, and sale but still sucks so much time away and I feel guilty every time it happens