The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Sleeping In: Tricks To Save Time in the Morning

Sleeping in is the best feeling in the world… until you realize you’re running late to work for the third time this week because of it. But just because you hit snooze a few times in the morning, it doesn’t mean you can’t still look and feel like you’ve got it together. A few changes to your routine—like when you shower, or how you plan your meals and outfits—can actually make a huge impact in how you take on the day. Getting up early is overrated, anyway.

Unless you need that morning shower to wake you up and get you feeling ready to take on the day, there’s no need to shower in the A.M. Rather, take your shower at night before you go to bed—it’ll help you wind down, and give you back a little precious sleep time the next morning.

Laziness doesn’t actually go hand in hand with doing things in advance, but trust me on this—the payoff is worth it. Monday (and Tuesday, and Wednesday…) morning may have you feeling lethargic, but on the weekends you’re likely to have more energy. Take advantage of that, and pick out enough outfits to last you through the week. Arrange the outfits separately in your closet for easy dressing. Oh, and make sure you check the weather—even if the forecast is subject to change, if there’s a chance it might rain in the week, at least you’ll have something prepared.

If, like me, you don’t wash your hair everyday, you probably already know that dry shampoo is your BFF. Of course, not everyone can do this—it depends on your hair type—but if you’re a dry shampooer, you probably put it on in the morning and then spend a few minutes massaging and brushing it in before you have to go out, right? A handy trick is to put on your dry shampoo the night before you go to bed, which will give it plenty of time to soak up any greasiness, and all that tossing and turning in your sleep will help massage some of it into your hair, so you have less work to do in the morning.

If you’re trying to get up to work out in the morning, you can save yourself time—and motivate yourself more—by sleeping in your workout clothes. That way, when you get up, you don’t even have to spend time getting dressed. Just, you know, make sure they’re comfortable enough to sleep in. But in my experience, yoga pants and basketball shorts are perfect for both exercising and napping, so, you should be fine.

Sleeping in doesn’t mean your makeup routine has to be sacrificed in its entirety. Rather than using several different products, try switching to multipurpose products, like tints that can be used on your lips, cheeks and eyes, and a foundation or BB cream that contains SPF and moisturizer. By using fewer products to achieve the same results, you can save yourself time and money.

Don’t have time to make breakfast in the morning? If you’d rather stay curled up in bed than make scrambled eggs or oatmeal, just set aside leftovers (whether you cook or order in) and heat them up for breakfast. Or, if breakfast isn’t your thing, you can cook or order a little extra food and take it with you for lunch the next day, rather than trying to make or pack a lunch to bring to the office.

Any night owls out there? What tricks do you use to make your short mornings go smoothly?