Since I’ve moved to New York, it seems everything revolves around time. There are just never enough hours in the day here (which I think is a good complaint) so I’m always working to utilize every single minute. I recently did a post all about how to be more productive with your time and in this post, I’m going to share some tips on how to get ready faster in the morning. I love staying in bed until the very last minute, so I’ve discovered some tips to eliminate that crazy morning rush.

1. Don’t Hit Snooze
I think this may be the most important but trickiest tip of them all. I’m sure we’re all aware that those 20/30mins of extra sleep that you get after you hit snooze, in fact, make you even more tired. It’s best to just jump out of bed as soon as your first alarm goes off. Easier said than done, I know, but it honestly makes such a difference to your energy for getting ready. What I do now is as soon as my alarm goes off, I get up and boil the kettle for my morning hot water with lemon. Then often, I’ll jump back into bed while drinking it and spend 10 mins checking emails, catching up on Instagram, etc. I still get that extra relaxing time, but this way, it doesn’t make me feel more tired. Give it a try!

2. Use an at-home coffee machine
My mornings have 100% changed since I bought a coffee machine for my apartment. I did a big post all about it HERE. I’m that person who literally cannot start the day without coffee, so being able to quickly switch on the machine and have coffee made in less than a minute has seriously saved me time. I usually have it while doing my hair & makeup. I’m forever rushing to work and more often than not never leave myself time to stop for coffee on the way, so having my Nespresso machine eliminates all that stress. Some mornings, I even have time to sit on my couch and properly enjoy it. It’s the little things.

3. Easy to Make Breakfasts
Up until recently, I really wasn’t the best for making time for breakfast. But now that I’m in the routine of having it, I couldn’t imagine my mornings without it. It definitely adds extra time to my morning routine so I make sure that what I have is SUPER quick to make. My go-to breakfast right now is Greek Yogurt mixed with chia seeds (soaked the night before), flax seeds, gluten free granola and a mixture of berries. You’ll have seen this a few times on my snapchat (retroflame1). Each night, I get everything together on my countertop so that it’s like clock-work making it in the morning. It literally takes about 3 minutes to make and keeps me going right up to lunchtime.

4. Pack your lunch/bag the night before
Now that I’m working full-time, I’ve actually got really good at making my own lunch. To avoid any stress in the morning, I usually prepare the salad the night before and then just add in the dressing at work. So quick & easy. As well as getting my lunch all packed up, I also ensure that anything else I need for work is ready to go too. Nothing worse than that last minute scramble for your keys!

5. Choose your outfit the night before
I don’t know about you, but I swear by this little tip. Every night before I go to bed, I pick out what I’m going to wear the next day. Mornings are stressful enough without having to plan an outfit, so I find doing this saves me SO much time.

6. Makeup/Hair Multitasking & Dry Shampoo
I’m quite boring with my hair and makeup and more or less do the same thing every day, so I have the timing down to a tee. It roughly takes me about 10 minutes to do my makeup and just before I do the last-minute touches, I turn on my curler so it will be all set to go. Such a small step, but saves me those few minutes of waiting. In relation to my hair, I’m lucky in that I only really have to wash it every 2-3 days, so the days that I don’t wash it I use dry shampoo. Honestly, what did we ever do without this product!? The one I’ve been using recently is the Moroccanoil Dry Shampoo for dark hair tones. I’m definitely a little fussy when it comes to dry shampoo, but I love this one so far. Easy to use and most importantly, it lasts. If you’re also a fan of Moroccanoil products, you could win yourself some free products HERE.

Moroccanoil Dry Shampoo Dark Tones

Hope you’ve found this helpful!

Stylishly Yours,

Erika x

*Thank you to Moroccanoil for collaborating on this post.