British Summertime has ended, and for one morning only, you get an extra hour. Tempted to spend it scrolling under the covers? Fair enough. If you’d like to spend that time differently, here are a few ideas.

Morning Exercise

One of my favourite ways to start the day is with exercise. A jog, morning walk or yoga class are my go-to’s for when I want to feel energised in the morning.

Darker mornings make it easier to stay under the blankets. Moving early, while you have an extra hour might help make morning exercise that little bit easier. You don’t need a rigid plan, just a way to get upright and moving.

Sleep

This may feel like an obvious one, but spending your extra hour on sleep may be the best thing for your body. The clock change can disrupt routine more than people expect, and using the hour to actually sleep may make the rest of the busy week easier to handle. Sleep can be a great way of preserving your energy, which is very important for your overall wellbeing. Taking that into consideration, an extra hour of sleep may be just what you need.

Meal Prep

Spend your extra hour preparing breakfasts for the upcoming week. This one can buy you time every morning for the week ahead, and future-you will thank you for that. Having Huel Ready-to-drink in the fridge doesn’t take your extra hour, and removes one decision from every rushed morning that follows.

Read

Why not take a book to read somewhere quiet. A bench, a cafe, wherever the weather allows, and enjoy the fresh air with a couple of chapters of your favourite book. Finding quiet time to read a new book is incredibly difficult to do with a busy schedule, and this extra hour is a great time to do so.

Tidy one thing

Don’t get me wrong, you won’t be able to clean the whole living space. Start with one shelf, the sock drawer with no paired socks, or one pile of post you’ve been stepping over for a week. A small, achievable task to start the week may fill you with a positive sense of progress for the week ahead.

Plan

Make yourself a coffee and sit down with your calendar. Clear your head of the whirring thoughts of tasks that need to be completed in the week ahead. Spending time planning on a quiet morning may save a missed task later on.

Call someone

Not just dropping a text, but an actual call to someone you’ve been meaning to talk to. Whether this is a friend you’ve missed talking to, a family member, or the mechanic for your car that is making a funny noise that you have been putting off dealing with. An extra hour is a great way to have a chat with someone, or tick some tasks off your never ending to-do list.

Relax

Doing nothing is a rarity. Sit with a cup of tea, watch the world go by, enjoy the turning leaves. You don’t always need to optimise every hour if you don’t want to.

You could use the extra hour to move, get ahead for the week, catch up with someone, or catch up on sleep. If all you fancy is a slow breakfast and an extra cup of tea, that counts too. Pick what feels right for you.