3 Simple Hacks For Clutter-Free Mornings

Why are mornings so hard? I’m a morning person and I still find going through the motions of getting the day started to be really hard. Fall mornings breed a special kind of anxiety because the sun waits to rise and the days get shorter and shorter.

Clutter can really get in your way in the morning and throw off the rhythm of your whole day. The clutter I’m talking about is the little pieces of friction that throw you off track and make things take longer and feel harder. Over the years I’ve honed my morning routine using the strategies James Clear outlines in his book Atomic Habits. The secret to clutter-free mornings lies in 3 little hacks that you can apply easily to your own morning routine. My own mornings are slightly less hectic since the kids have grown. However, there are parts of it that are still hard. Mornings hit especially hard as we head into fall when everything just seems harder!

I’m going to demonstrate how you can achieve clutter-free mornings using my own routine as an example. Your morning stuff may be different than mine but these hacks apply to anything you are trying to do to start your day!

Make it Easy

The first hack to employ on your way to clutter-free mornings is to make the things you have to do easier. Humans will always gravitate towards the Law of Least Effort. Therefore making something easier to do increases the possibility that you will do it. One way to make things easier is to remove as many friction points as possible from the process leading up to the start line.

For instance, I do my workout in the morning. Because I don’t love working out, it’s really important that I remove as much friction as I can all along the path to actually starting the workout. How do I do that?

The first thing I do is lay my clothes out the night before. I put them on my bathroom counter right next to the sink where I brush my teeth. That saves me the extra work of stumbling in the morning, opening multiple drawers to get the clothes I need. I can just make my way to the bathroom and get dressed.

The other thing I do the night before is stack my workout. I have a Peloton and on their app I can select and stack my classes ahead of time so all I need to do is hit ‘play’ and then follow along. The friction points I’ve eliminated are the small decisions (what classes to take?) that could take me down a rabbit hole and throw off my schedule.

My making the small decisions (what to wear, what classes to take) and setting them up (laying clothes by the sink, stacking the classes in the app) the night before, when the morning comes it feels like I’m gliding toward my workout instead of stumbling. It really works.

Make it Obvious

Clutter-free mornings also mean making space for the things that matter. As I’ve gotten older I have various medications I need to take in the morning, as well as a few vitamins and supplements. For years I struggled to consistently take pills on a daily basis. I would forget constantly. Which brings me to another hack from Atomic Habits, making things obvious.

Behavior change begins with awareness. If there is an important habit you need to adopt, start by raising your awareness level. Turns out my problem was tucking the pills away in a drawer. Prescription bottles are ugly. Ditto supplement/vitamin bottles. I have written extensively about my affinity for clear countertops so those things don’t warrant space on my counters.

But it turns out I need to see the bottles to remember to take my medication. I need to make the pills more obvious so my eyes signal my brain that this is something important I need to do. I solved the problem by outfitting my medications and supplements in aesthetically pleasing bottles that sit on a tray. They literally invite me to take my pills in the morning. It’s like magic!

Make it More Attractive

This hack is my favorite of the three and I apply it all the time, to so many things! How do you create clutter-free mornings? My making the things you don’t like to do more attractive. It’s a simple concept: you add something you like into the process of doing something you don’t like. Here’s another example of I how I practice clutter-free mornings..

Taking a shower and getting ready in the morning takes a decent chunk of time (for me about 30 minutes.) Getting in the shower is fine. Getting dressed is fine. But doing my hair and makeup is a pain. Not because it’s hard (my hair is short.) Not because it takes long (15 minutes tops.) I actually don’t have a good explanation for my aversion to doing my hair, it’s actually kind of funny. So, in order to move me more quickly through the process of doing my hair, I stream a sitcom on my iPad while I’m doing it. I literally bring my iPad Mini into the bathroom and turn the show on while I’m brushing, blow drying and straightening my hair. It sounds kind of stupid but it really works. Just that small inducement of a show I like on the screen helps me efficiently get through the thing I don’t like.

By the way, I use this hack all over the place. When I’m too tired to cook dinner or I have to fold laundry, that iPad is my friend. 

These hacks really work

Removing small points of friction, making the things that matter obvious and making the undesirable thing you have to in the morning more attractive are all ways to subtract clutter from your morning and turn it into a well-oiled machine. If you are still in process of raising kids, my guess is your mornings are especially cluttery! These hacks work with kids as well (esp number 3) and I use them all the time when designing systems for organizing clients. That James Clear is a genius. So if you have other habits you’d like to start or stop, you should absolutely read Atomic Habits!