How to Get Out the Door in 20 Minutes

There’s a look that women get this time of year, when summer ends and the kids go back to school. It’s a look that’s all too familiar to me, so I can spot it in a nano-second.

It’s darting eyes of frazzled multi-tasking, just being able to keep it together, too much to do, craziness! The Hot Mess Mom.

Personally, I’m trying desperately to eliminate this wild-eyed frenzy from my life (I’m not there yet!), but one thing that’s helped me is to create a morning getting-ready routine for myself that takes 20 minutes or less (even with a little one, and a husband, distracting me).

Here are a few things I’ve done (and you can do too) to make my morning routine quicker, giving more time to focus on the other morning tasks.

5 Ways to Get Out the Door Faster in the Morning

1. Shower at night.
   I often get my shower done with my kid, but if not, then I take the some peaceful quiet time while she’s asleep to have an enjoyable shower. Not only is this ‘task’ off the list for my busy morning routine, but I sleep better. It’s great!
2. Skip the morning face wash.
   You’ve showered at night, your skin doesn’t get that dirty sleeping in your cozy bed. If you want to feel refreshed, splash some water on your face and slather some moisturizer on. Done.
3. Keep your daily makeup routine simple.
   Three to four must-have beauty items is plenty for a daily routine, so choose your faves and stick with them. My personal picks: mascara, bronzer, blush, and lipgloss.
4. Have three go-to hairstyles on hand.
   Practice these three styles until they are second nature. Go with what your hair feels like doing that day and don’t fight it. If one style doesn’t work right away, move on to the next until one does work. You can search YouTube for easy or quick hairstyles for your hair length and choose a few to make part of your arsenal.
5. Have two weeks of outfit choices on the ready.
   This is key! Fiddling around with what you’re going to wear each morning is such a time suck! Take thirty minutes on the weekend and sort out at least two weeks worth of outfits. Take note of what each outfit looks like. I have clients who do this by taking photos and keeping those in their closet, or sorting the photos into albums on their phone or using an app like Style Book or Save Your Wardrobe to keep note of these outfits. Whatever method you use, the key is that they’re at your fingertips so you can just throw an outfit on (that looks great!) without having to think about it.