a realistic, working-woman morning routine

Thursday, December 29

I have an innocently legitimate fascination with taking a peek into other people's lives. Chances are, if you're into reading blogs or watching lifestyle videos, you feel the same way. I love a good what's in my handbag post or video, and I'll click on a home tour link faster than I'll click the top news stories. However, there's one trendy post I tend to roll my eyes at, and that's the morning routine. Every morning routine in the blogosphere or YouTube world is so ridiculously unrealistic for your average twenty/thirty-something. And honorable mention goes to the "running late" routines where they still make time to highlight and contour their face.

So, instead of complaining, I'm making my own post, where I'll share what a realistic, working-woman morning routine looks like.

I'm not knocking all the entrepreneurs out there, but let's be real: working for yourself and creating your own fluid schedule is not a reality for the majority of the people consuming this kind of content, though it may be a goal later on down the line. Having an employer and a somewhat consistent time to be at work is the reality, and there's nothing wrong with that either. Personally, I think our generation would do better by embracing this idea.

For me, every morning isn't always the same, but here are the main ways it could go down in the Active Spirit house.

A Regular Morning
5:30am: Alarm goes off... snooze, snooze, snoozeeee.
6am: Wake & make bed.
6:15: Brush teeth, wash, moisturize & prime face for makeup. Let (curly) hair down from the ponytail atop my head, shake, fluff, and pull it back out of my face.
6:30: Put on makeup. On a regular day I clean up my brows with a pencil, swipe two coats of mascara on my lashes, conceal any dark marks, brush on a light dusting of powder foundation (currently using Bare Minerals), and add a little Sun Beam on the cheek bones.
6:40: Get dressed. I always choose my clothes the night before. Sometimes I put them on the next morning and change my mind; most days I work with what I picked out. I'll also run my favorite rollerball perfume along my wrists, behind my ears, and on the sides of my neck.
6:45: Head downstairs to let the dog out back while I make a quick cup of coffee. Sidenote: I've been using this coffee maker by Melitta for almost 5 years now. I've had it for longer, but it collected dust for a while until I finally decided to give it a try. It has never given me any problems and requires little to no cleanup and maintenance. I love it because I can just make a single cup for myself, and it's much cheaper than a Keurig in the long run since there's no need to buy a special kind of coffee pod.
6:50: Let the dog inside, grab coffee and lunch (always made the night before and usually includes a smoothie for breakfast) & head out the door.
7am: Arrive at work. I have a super easy commute - thank GOD. Even with traffic, the longest it takes me to get to work is about 15 min. If I stop somewhere for breakfast, or opt to pay for coffee instead of making my own like I should, then I'll arrive around 7:30am.

A "Snoozed So Long The Alarm Turned Off On Its Own" Morning
7:22am: (I have an exact time because this is exactly what happened this morning) Wake & make bed.
7:30: Brush teeth, wash and moisturize face.
7:40: Put on face (clean up the brows and a generous amount of Bare Minerals).
7:50: Let (straightened) hair down from the scarf, brush it out, and get dressed. 
8am: Downstairs to let the dog out. Skip the coffee making.
8:05: Dog is back inside and I'm out the door... to Starbucks
8:30: Arrive at work and start the day.

A "Woke Up Super Early for No Reason" Morning
5am: Wake and try to go back to sleep
5:10: Get out of bed. Make the bed.
5:15: Brush teeth, wash face, moisturize, and prime. Let hair down. 
5:25: Put on makeup. This is where I'll spend a little more time since I woke up early. I'll clean up my brows with a tweezer and some scissors, layer more mascara, and add some eyeshadow/eyeliner.
5:45: Take my time getting dressed. Apply perfume.
6am: Downstairs to let the dog out, make coffee, tidy up the living room and kitchen.
6:15: Dog is back inside, and I'm out the door.
6:30: Arrive at work and start the day.

There are a few things to note: 
  1. Even when I try to hurry and get ready, I still end up taking the same amount of time to get out the door. The time frames here are an estimate, but I'm typically off to work within 45 minutes of waking up each morning.
  2. I (almost) always shower at night. If I shower in the morning, that's automatically another 30 extra minutes I probably won't have to spare.
  3. I don't make the dog wait on me to go outside in the morning. She's not a morning dog, at all. I have to call her name, multiple times, to get her up and down the stairs. She'd lay around in bed until noon if it was up to her (which is what she usually does on our lazy Saturday mornings). If J isn't working that day, I don't even bother and just let her stay in her bed until he wakes up.
  4. J's work schedule is all over the place, but on the days he has to work, he leaves the house before I  even wake up. On the days he doesn't have to work, I'll skip making coffee so my banging around in the kitchen doesn't wake him up. I'll also skip making up the bed, obviously.
  5. The first thing I do actually after getting out of bed is pee, but I figured that's a given and omitted said detail from the outlines above.
  6. My hair is something I hardly spend any time on in the mornings. I only wash it once a week and make the curls/straightened look stretch until the weekend. The most I'll do during the week is slick the curls back into a low bun if they're looking too wild or throw some dry shampoo on my straight hair if it's getting oily.
  7. I'm fortunate to have a flexible work schedule. I'm usually in the office by 7-7:30am, but if I don't get there until 9/10am, that's okay too.

Geez, this was a long post, but that's that. I understand why a morning routine like mine isn't plastered on all our favorite content sharing channels: it's boring, and it doesn't fit the picture-perfect aesthetic, but I'm owning it!

I'm curious to know what others' morning routines are like, so I'm tagging a few other bloggers below. Whether you work a day job or not, I'm still interested (read: nosy).

Setarra
Tierra
Zauni
Chymere
Carla (a.k.a. Rae)

♥


Credits:
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