Take Control of Your Mornings: The Top 3 Time Savers For Your Morning Routine
This blog post will save you 15 minutes in the morning. Period.
How? These are my top 3 “must do’s” for saving time with your morning “getting ready” routine! I don’t want to age myself, but suffice it to say, these tips have been tried and tested for decades!
#1. MISE EN PLACE. Yup, for all you cooks out there. Everything in it’s place and a place for everything. Set up your makeup area like a winner this way:
* Have a large stash of Qtips and tissues on hand close to your mirror. If you have taken a makeup lesson from me, you know why. If you haven’t, you should!
* Store your brushes in a cute cup near your mirror. If you don’t like to see the brushes on the counter or you don’t have space, store them in a pencil/pen/cutlery tray in a drawer near your mirror. If you don’t have a drawer, have a case or tray where your makeup lives, and have a separate section for the brushes.
* Keep your spray brush cleaner near your brushes and clean them once a week. Your makeup will go on faster and look better when you use a clean brush.
2. USE A SKINCARE SYSTEM. When you cherrypick skincare, you just make it hard on yourself. Skincare is complicated, your system doesn’t have to be. Use a cleanser, toner, and active product from the same line. Why? Because they are made to work together and this will give you, not only the most bang for your buck, but also, a faster morning routine. You will automatically know Step 1 (I do my first step, cleanser, in the shower), Step 2 and Step 3 etc. like the back of your hand, so there’s no slowing this girl down! Slay!
3. KEEP IT EXPONENTIAL NOT LINEAR. Whah? What I mean by this is take multiple advantage of the time you have. It even starts in the shower. For example, apply shampoo…let it sit for a minute or two (the ingredients need time to work!) and while it’s on your head, apply your face cleanser. After two minutes, rinse both off/out! Apply conditioner… while it’s on your head (again a few minutes)…brush your teeth or shave your legs. Get it? Double or triple up to stay efficient. When it comes to getting ready, try things like this: apply toner, put on underwear, apply active cream/next step in skincare routine, put on bra, apply SPF, put on the rest of outfit. Blow dry hair or apply dry shampoo. You see? If you jump between skincare steps and getting dressed, each product will have dried down on to the skin and be ready for the next step. Then when you start your makeup routine, there is no slow down and you have given products time to dry down and absorb slightly. This works wonders for your skincare because you are not short-changing yourself by skipping a step, and you are letting the ingredients work together as they should, but with no “getting ready” time wasted.
Here’s another routine I do when I want to work in moisturizing my body: (1) toner on face, (2) toner on chest and back, (3) facial day moisturizer, (4) back acne treatment (over-sharing, I know, but you see while I am putting on the acne treatment, the day moisturizer is soaking in), (5) face SPF, (6) body moisturizer (I won’t be touching my facial skin again with my hands so I don’t mind getting my hands a bit oilier with the body moisturizer!), (7) apply hair products (again, I am done touching my face so I don’t mind getting my hands covered with hair product), (8) blow dry hair, (9) get dressed. You see by the time I am done drying my hair, my body skin has absorbed the moisturizer and so it’s not sticky and I can get dressed! BOOM!
A lot of people ask me how long it takes me to get ready for work in the AM. I don’t think that question is specific enough. Getting ready to go to work when you are seeing clients, could mean a different routine than getting ready to go to work on a casual dress day, which is different from getting ready for a video spot. Which in turn is going to be different than getting ready to go out in the evening etc. You have to develop your system. For me, my full shower routine (10 minutes), including shaving my legs and exfoliating the body etc, doing my hair (10 mins), applying my skincare products, moisturizing my body (5 mins total), getting dressed (5-10 minutes), putting on my makeup (10 - 15 mins), and putting on jewelry all happens in 50 minutes. On days when I am not blow drying hair, I can do it in 40. Can I get out the door to run an errand in 5 minutes? Of course, but that’s not the kind of day I am describing. It all depends on the day, what you are doing, and for what you are preparing.
What will you do with the extra 15 minutes you saved?
