Life Hacks for the Late Girl

Confession: I run late all the time. Every where I go.I'm constantly unprepared. But I do value not looking and feeling like I just rolled out of bed, which 99% of the time I have. So I have developed a routine and few quick hacks that keep me sane and moving out the door. I thought I would share some of my best tips with you so you can get a few more ZZZZs and still look great and feel prepared for the day ahead.

1. Curl your ponytail. Dont have time to make all your hair look good? Simple. Pull your hair up, then straighten/curl just the hair that is in your ponytail. This is much faster and makes your hair looked 'fixed'.
2. Lay out your clothes. This is such a big one for me. I am not exactly coherent in the AM, so the less choices the better. If i want to match and look nice, I must lay out my clothes or it will look like a 3-year-old dressed me....
3. Use a capsule wardrobe. Narrow your choices, create a 'uniform'.
4. Have 2 necklaces that match everything. I have a black/white/gray necklace and a pink necklace. They literally can match anything I will ever want to wear. When I'm running late, I grab one and go. I have other nice ones, but those take some thought to make them match and to find them. These 2 will never fail me and wearing a necklace makes your outfit look polished and well thought out.
5. Wear headbands. Gross hair? No time to fix it at all? Throw on a cute headband and no one notices that you're wearing your hair in sloppy bun for the 10th day in a row.
6. Invest in baby wipes. Gotta feel clean because there's no way I have time to shower every morning or every day...
7. Invest in dry shampoo. This is a must, even for clean hair!
8. Find 'wear to bed' hairstyles. These are 2 of my go to hairstyles. Here and Here. I wear my hair like this almost nightly.
9. Have 2 scarves that match everything. I have a black scarf and a brown scarf that stay on the coat rack by the front door, when I'm late I grab one and go. If I have time I will pick out a pretty colorful one to match my outfit, but I always need a scarf so sometimes its the plain ones that literally save the day!
10. Keep your essentials by the door. We have a coat rack and a bar type station at the front door. On it I keep my scarves, hats, jackets, shoes, raincoat, umbrella, lunchbox, bookbag/purse. This way I'm never hunting for the essentials and I can grab it all and go. Every second is precious.
11. Keep one bag and keep it packed at the door. Some girls like rotating their bags to match their outfits daily, but none of those girls are reading this post because they don't run late. So, pick one bag for the week or month or year, pack it with the essentials, keep it by the door always. No extra decisions to make or things to find.
12. Use a crock pot. This is hands down the best thing I do for myself and my husband each day. I will start easy meals in the crock pot in the morning or if I'm really pushed for time or want to cook in the evening, I will throw in a few chicken breasts. They cook up so deliciously and then I can add them into whatever meal I make at night or just throw them on a sandwich with a sauce of choice. This way I always have a warm, ready meal waiting for me. No cooking at night and no excuses for going out to eat. And a simple hack to make this hack easier, use Crock Pot Liners. 
13. Have a snack stash. I do not have time to eat breakfast in the morning, but I will literally kill over and die if I don't eat something though. At work I have a whole stash of breakfast bars, fruit, packets of grits/oatmeal, cream cheese, bagels, nuts, candy, etc. I keep it stocked and it saves me day after day.
14. Batch it. On Sundays sometimes I will hard boil 5 eggs and bake a whole package of bacon. Then I will separate it out into ziplock bags, one for each day. Or make a huge pot of soup (in your crock pot obviously) then split it into multiple Tupperware containers, now you have lunch or dinner for a few days already packed. Buy a bag of salad and immediately separate it into Tupperware for salads for lunch, etc. The extra 10 minutes I spend doing these things on a weekend or right after dinner, saves me time all week-long and takes away having to plan meals that are on the go. This way I spend less money eating out, eat more healthy and think about it less. Again, I do this as simply as possible. Soup in a bowl, not a 3 course meal.
15. If you don't need it, leave it. This is one of the hardest things for me: "Do I leave this at work or take it home tonight?!" I always set my expectations too high. I think I'll take home this book and read it at home tonight, even though I know I have 100 things to do at home that don't include reading. Then the next morning I'm frantically looking for the book I brought home that needs to go back to work today. Leave it. Cut back on the load of stuff you bring back and forth, if you don't NEED it at home and KNOW that you are going to use, then leave it. Makes your bag lighter, its one less thing to find in the morning and cuts back on guilt.

If you have a routine or any life hacks that cut the clutter and create more time for sleep please share them! Which one of these are you going to try this week?