A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how moving gave us a chance to reset some less-than-helpful habits, but the truth is, there was one habit that was really wrecking my mindset, productivity, and—frankly—my mornings overall, and I had already started to change it prior to the move. That habit? Keeping my phone by the bed.
I was sneaky about it: the reason for having my phone on hand seemed virtuous. I was doing DuoLingo every morning when I woke up, and the best way to a) make sure I got it done and b) woke my brain up was to do it as soon as I opened my eyes. But naturally, my phone use rarely stopped or started with DuoLingo. Even after setting a time limit around the Instagram app, I was catching myself clicking to ignore the time limit, then falling into the zombie scroll. This wasn’t always a big problem, though it was a 10-15 minute time suck before I finally would click over to DuoLingo. Sure, I was wasting time watching dog videos and home renovation carousels and dumb memes my sister sent me.
But to be totally honest, in recent months, my feed has gotten a lot more stressful. (I’m definitely not the only one experiencing this!) I want to stay informed, yes. But I don’t need it to be at the very beginning of my day. My scrolls were getting more depressing and I was spending more time on the app, which I’m sure thrilled Mark Zuckerberg (and resulted in even more doomscrolling content being shown to me).
My morning mood was tanked before I rolled out of bed.
So, I made a decision: No more phone in the bedroom. Why was I scrolling for cute dachshund videos when my own cute dachshund had hopped in bed and wanted to snuggle and show me his belly? Why was I looking at home reno content when, you know, we just moved and I have a whole house to play in? Why was I reading any Instagram content when I have fun novels on my library app on the iPad?
I moved my charger and my phone out of the bedroom the day I realized I was coming out of bed feeling like I needed to climb right back in and hide from the world.
That was a month ago. How are my mornings going now?
SO much better. I get snuggles with DW, then we get up and moving. I get my core and yoga routine in without looking at anything else on my phone. I clawed back 15-30 minutes before my workday officially starts for me to sit and read my actual book (or get moving on work earlier). My morning core and yoga have stayed steady. And it turns out I can still stay informed and up to date without feeling like absolute crap before I get out of bed.
How has this impacted my DuoLingo 1000+ day streak, the reason for the phone-in-bed routine in the first place? I tried to do it in the morning after exiting my cozy bed, but I was finding it harder and harder to keep it part of my morning routine. I hated trying to do any of the speaking exercises in the dining room with Peter. I had to stop and reevaluate the entire concept: Was I actually getting better at French, or was I just checking an item off of my to-do list? And when I got really honest about it, I wasn’t learning, I was just keeping a streak alive. So, I broke the streak and cancelled the subscription. (I also don’t love how the company has shifted to using AI and fired a lot of the staff, so it wasn’t a hard call to make.)
I had to give up a seemingly good habit to tackle the genuinely crappy one.
Am I waking up without an alarm? We do have a light alarm in our room—literally a string of christmas lights on a timer that clicks on in the morning—so unless we really need to ensure that we need to be up at a certain time, that’s all we need. Now that I’m phone-free in the bedroom, though, I am more seriously considering buying a Hatch-style light alarm, since in addition to lighting up the room, it also lets you set a ringing option for when you actually need to get out of bed.
All of this to say, the really cool thing about this habit shift that has changed my morning is that it cost zero dollars. In fact, it saved me $150 since I cancelled a subscription as a result. (Yes, I may buy another alarm, but that’s a $50 one time spend.)
Maybe your habit isn’t the phone in the bedroom. But look at where in your day there are the little sticking points. Maybe you scroll before you get ready to ride (or while you get ready to ride) and lose 15 minutes. Maybe you’re more of a nighttime scroller, or you’re watching the news and getting stressed every morning. How can you compromise so you can still keep up with friends and current events, without sacrificing your time or your mood? It’s worth the shift.
