Well being late and in a rushed state of mind kills my whole day of it starts off that way. Basically it guarantees that the rest of day will be stressful.

Heres 5 tips that will drastically decrease stress and create more time in your day to focus on more important things.

1. Plan ahead

Some days my wife works and some days she doesn’t. It changes every week and she’s on call some of those days.

We look and see if we are going to need additional help with picking kids up or babysitting on the weekend so we aren’t scrambling to find someone last minute.

2. Do what you can the night before.

We make the coffee, lay out the kids outfits, lay out our clothes, pack lunches and anything else that can be done the night before, we do.

We decide what time we will get up to be able to have our one on one time and still have time to play with the kids, get them breakfast and dressed out of the door even earlier than normal.

Sometimes even a crock pot meal or making dinner that morning will save time after work and then your not stressing about what’s for dinner. (My wife cooked chicken and potatoes this morning before we left)

3. Stay organized and clean

There is just something about a clean house that instantly relieves stress when you come home after a long day.

Take 10 minutes in the morning and the evening and clean up. Keep the counters clean. Unload the dishwasher and get the dishes out of the sink.

Staying up on this makes it easier to maintain a clean house and will save you a ton of time when comes to deep cleaning day.

4. Take 10 minutes for yourself.

Time for yourself to relax, meditate, read or take a bath is an amazing way to start your day. It can be anything that recharges you and relieves any mental stress you might have at the beginning of the day.

My wife likes to take baths while I stay downstairs with the kids and I like to get up before everyone and read by myself for 30 minutes to an hour.

It will be different for everyone, but find that thing for you.

5. Go to bed early. Get up early.

The proper amount of sleep is different for everyone. If you’ve already planned on getting up 5 am and you know you need 8 hours to function properly, then go to bed at 9.

The sweet spot for me is 6 hours. I get up at 5–5:30 so as long as I go to bed at 11–11:30 I am solid for the rest of the day.

These are just a few tips that I’ve noticed we do at my house. Even though small changes make a huge impact in my life.