Don't do too much the night before

Maybe you should rethink your night-time prep routines

Over the years, I’ve done a lot of interviews with magazines and websites about how to save time while getting everyone out the door in the morning. A usual line of questioning: What should I do the night before?

My answer is…not much. Interestingly, that answer seldom makes it into the article, because it goes against a lot of conventional wisdom!

So let me explain. No matter how much you get ready the night before you will still have to do something in the morning. Most people don’t sleep in their work clothes. If you wear make-up, you don’t sleep in your make-up. You’re going to have to get yourself, and any other people going with you, physically out of the house, with all that entails.

Moving tasks, not reducing them

This means that when you spend a lot of time preparing things the night before, you are essentially spreading your getting ready over the night and the morning too. That often means it takes longer, in total.

Perhaps there are reasons for doing this spreading (like if someone needs to leave very early and that person likes fancy breakfasts, or you worry you’ll forget something). A lot of my kids shower at night, though mostly so they don’t need to go to school with wet hair. That’s all fine, but if your goal is to save time, getting ready the night before won’t necessarily serve your goal.

Instead, if you want to save time, look for ways to make the mornings easier.

Instead of laying out outfits, have a rotating set of outfits that look great on you. You just put on the next one in the rotation and you’re good to go.

Instead of making kids’ lunches the night before, have the kids buy hot lunch at school. Or, if you need to make lunches for small children, you can throw a few things together while you are in the kitchen eating breakfast.

Speaking of which, instead of prepping or setting out breakfasts the night before, make really streamlined breakfasts. Kids can make their own. Or batch hard boil a bunch of extra eggs while you’re making Sunday breakfast, and let these eggs become the center piece. Paired with a cheese stick, or some smoked salmon, or toast, and a piece of fruit, you’re good to go.

Instead of finding kids’ shoes and backpacks, and putting them by the door, have a place where kids take off their shoes and backpacks and never let these things go anywhere else.

Why life feels like no fun

The reason I’m so sour on elaborate night-before preparation rituals is that they tend to cut into leisure time. People put the kids to bed, do chores, get ready for the next day, and then get to their fun. But if the getting ready takes too much time, then the fun doesn’t happen until late. And so people stay up late because they want their fun!

The trouble with this is that the one thing that is guaranteed to make a morning horrible is not getting enough sleep. This makes the impulse to spend a lot of time getting ready the night before counter productive!

So, instead, enjoy your leisure time at night. Then make your mornings easier by not taking on jobs that shouldn’t be yours, and by making your own getting ready as streamlined as possible. It’s generally better to get ready once rather than get ready twice.