Oh Shevia, I envy you! I have always wanted to be this type of person but my body/brain just won't let me!

I am not a morning person, and this year had to adjust to an early schedule.....So to keep the chaos down, I have my tote bag and purse ready the night before. lunch in the fridge. coffee ready

morning routine: get up, make coffee, shower. 5 min makeup. 5 min hair.
get dressed....that goes much better if I decide the night before, as I am usually pretty groggy to figure out anything......

one thing we did get this winter was a Philips Wake up light Alarm clock.....30 minutes before the alarm a light simulates the sunrise. It is so helpful to have the light slowly go on, especially in the winter!! (the chirping birds are a little cheesy..but there are other options)

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-.....B003XN4RIC

good luck!

My advice is to determine a routine that works for you and stick to it. Which sounds so crazy because you're asking for tips, but I think part of the reason you are asking the question in the first place is because you don't yet have a routine that is working. It takes time to create a routine that works and your whole house is going through a big change because you've changed jobs. I mean this in the gentlest of ways - be gentle with yourself through this process. Each day where you do something and that feels like it works, just keep repeating it until it becomes routine. Every time I change schools, I have to tweak my routine a little because there's a new school timetable or location to drive to. But I have basic parts of my routine that have to be there (eg. Walking the dog, drinking coffee) so they get tweaked to accommodate the job change.
The one thing I do in advance that definitely makes mornings easier is to make a pot of oatmeal or quinoa in the rice cooker on Sundays and store it in a container in the fridge for the week. In the mornings, I heat up a bowl and add almond milk, fruit, etc. and have that with my coffee. Keeps me going for a few hours and sets me up for the rest of my routine.
The other thing is to be completely honest with yourself about the time you need to get up and ready. For example, I know that I need at least 1 hour and 45 minutes to get completely ready for work. What can I say, it's a tried and tested routine :). If I try to do it in less time, I am a ball of stress. So knowing that piece of information means that if I want to leave for work at 8, I have to be out of bed by 6:15 at the absolute latest. Knowing that timeline forces me to be disciplined and I know that it means I do everything I feel like I need to do, including fun things like checking YLF and cuddling my dog.

Sending you positive vibes for a great morning routine soon to be in place for you!

The key for me has always been LOTS of sleep. 7 hours absolute minimum, 8-9 hours at least a few times a week. Once I caught up on accumulated sleep debt, I found myself actually waking up before my alarm sometimes. I'm still drowsy and could easily sleep more, but the important thing is being able to function all day.

I don't drink coffee or tea regularly, though. My caffeine is natural fructose, i.e., lots and lots of fresh fruit throughout the day.

I have a quick shower in the morning.
I prepar all my clothes, shoes and acessories the night before.
I prepar my breakfast and the luch to take with me the night before and keep it in the fridge.
I use a simple make up rotine: BB cream, mascara, blush and gloss.
I keep the hair simple, I've embraced my curls and that saves me a lot if time!

So many good things here.

I don't work at the moment, but it can be manic even now as my son has language lessons at kindergarten early on some days. Plus, from September it will be hectic as we'll need to drive him to a different part of town to a school near our new house (we don't want him to change schools), so I'm trying to come up with some system and practice, practice, practice.

The bare essentials:
- have everything that can be prepared ready the night before: my clothes, his clothes, breakfast, lunch box, handbag;
- have the coffee pot ready just to switch it on;
- know where the keys and mobile phone are;
- get to bed on time;
- wake up on time.

What I'll adopt after this thread:
- launch pad.

Shevia, you are my hero. I have figured out I would probably be happiest if I woke up at 5am and did everything while the house is still quiet and I actually have time to boot my system