I wish I was the kind of person who woke up an hour before the rest of the household to make coffee and lunches and whatnot, and be all showered and human by the time my kids emerged from their rooms. Maybe I will be one day, but not today. Today, I am all about The Night-Before Hack, because it is during those hours after dinner and before bedtime that virtually everything gets done.
Want to know the real way I “get everything done” at night? I do it all at the same time. All of it. (OK, perhaps talking on the phone while reading a book, brushing my teeth and watering the plants is a tiny exaggeration – but only a tiny one.) But that’s not especially helpful advice – so here are some more specific ways I make things happen at night so that they don’t have to happen in the morning.
Night-Before Hacks To Make Weekday Mornings Easier
- Any face, skin or hair treatment that needs to be done once-daily is lined up right there next to my bed so that I can get in my non-optional dose of Seth Meyers while simultaneously making my way through my beauty routine.
For me, that means cortisone cream for my creepy feet, some kind of face mask, a head-to-toe coating with coconut oil, and Women’s Rogaine 5% Minoxidil Foam applied along my hair part. Nighttime is actually the ideal time for application, because the hair growth process slows down at night, and Rogaine can keep hair follicles active for sustained hair growth. (Sidenote: did you know that it’s Hair Loss Awareness Month right now? ’Tis!) (Another sidenote: I’m on Month 3 of using Rogaine – you can read about why I decided to try it here – and I swear, I am starting to see a difference. I am SO EXCITED.) - I don’t have the wherewithal to lay out my children’s clothing in advance – and besides, they’re at the point where they’re starting to want to pick out their own clothing in the morning – but I try to make sure that something fast, clean(ish) and comfortable is readily available for me to put on. Because if it is not, I will make the trek to school in whatever I wore to sleep the night before. Nothing’s wrong with rocking some PJs at dropoff, in my opinion…but perhaps not every day, you know?
- I don’t have time to wash and blow-dry my hair in the morning, so that gets done at night (when it does get done, which – let’s be honest – is most definitely not every day, or even every other day). If I can’t wash and dry it, I’ll just apply Rogaine along the hair part, spray on some leave-in conditioner, and pull it into a loose, low braid for those next-day waves. In the morning, all I have to do is dampen the very front section and smooth it out with a blowdryer and a large round brush.
I asked Emmy-nominated celebrity hairstylist Jill Crosby for another pre-bedtime styling idea, and here’s her response:
- I don’t pre-pack lunches because so many things get soggy if left overnight, but I often prepare the entree portion in advance. While I’m making dinner, I also make a pot of quinoa or heritage grains (or whatever semi-healthy carb makes sense with the dish), and then mix in the dinner leftovers, adding vegetables or sauces or whatever I have in the refrigerator that makes sense. Presto: meal variety, used-up leftovers, and happy children, because all children love carbs.
- If I am doing my nails, it has to happen at night, because there is no point during the daytime hours when my hands will go un-yanked-upon and my toes will go un-stepped-upon for fifteen entire minutes. Of course, every experienced nail-painter knows that the first rule of nail polish is that if it is put on at night, it will be smudged by the sheets, regardless of the amount of time that has elapsed in between painting and sleeping. So this is kind of a bad idea. Maybe don’t do this. All the rest of this is good stuff, though, I swear.
This post was created in collaboration with Rogaine. Photography by Kim Ebbets.
