Best Way To Start Your Day

Unhealthy Emotional Roller Coaster:

The internet is a source of attention grabbing tactics. For the most part you are only seeing the highlights. By that we mean, people posting the best and worst of everything happening in their worlds.

Either it is their engagement photos, new expensive house, their most recent vacations with the beyond perfect beach bodies. Or you are hearing about the loss of a loved one, enraging political posts, horrific tragedies and so on. It is only the highest highs and lowest lows. Which can turn out to be an exhausting and stressful way to start your day.

You either feel the guilt and yearning for the best of what other people have in life, or the stress and dread of the most tragic situations going on in the world. It leads to a lot of burden, which is a terrible way to start your morning.

Unnecessary Added Stress:

The other half of the emotional roller coaster is that there is nothing productive you can do in that moment to fix all of these problems. You are half asleep in bed and you now know of a natural disaster, a friends illness, plus the urge to live in a luxury home on an island with a fantastic body and perfect spouse. You cannot fix all of these things while half asleep in bed.

Instead you have to wake up and start your day. Plus all of these new urges and desires are created by an external source. Which can make it difficult to determine what you really want out of life. Without being able to take action on any of these new “problems” that need solutions, you are left feeling defeated before you have even started your day. Which is why it is an unnecessary stress.

Lose Track of Time:

Time sure can fly when you’re aimlessly scrolling through your phone. This can not only waist time that you could be using more productively. It can also lead you to losing track of time entirely. This can lead to rushed mornings when you are running late for no good reason what so ever.

There is nothing uncommon about this, it has happened to most of us. However, no one wants to tell their boss that they are late to work because they were scrolling through their phone and lost track of time. Plus, our time is far to valuable to be wasting on your phone, essentially doing nothing at all.

Shopping Temptations:

The internet is design to be selling you something constantly. Whether it is a lifestyle, career, donations for causes, or a new handbag.

You are constantly being targeted for purchases. This is especially true with free apps. Keep in mind that nothing is ever free. Especially when it comes to social media, everything your eyes see is seen as a space for advertising.

Even if you are not directly seeing and advertisement and it is just a friend showing off their new purchase of social media. This can lead to you being tempted to make a purchase that you otherwise wouldn’t have. In the mornings you can be especially tempted and swayed. Which is yet another reason to avoid your phone in the morning.

Want to learn how to wake up earlier in the morning? Head over to our post How To Become A Morning Person

How to Break The Addiction – Stop Scrolling & Wake Up:

Put Your Phone In Another Room:

If you typically charge your phone by your bed every night. Then we suggest moving your charger into another room entirely. Charge your phone in your bathroom or something like that. This way the temptation to simply grab your phone is gone.

For many of us the urge to grab your phone is an unconscious impulse.

By removing the phone you may even find yourself reaching toward the empty place where your phone normally sits without having made a conscious choice to reach for your phone or with any particular goal in mind if your phone was there.

Lock It Up:

Sometimes to break a bad habit you need to be firm. If you have a partner or spouse that can “hide” your phone, that is a great way to ensure you don’t get it. However, if you don’t have the self control to do it on your own you may need a forced way of putting your phone down.

Luckily you can simply “lock it up” with a clever timed box that will hold your phone until the time is up. By giving yourself no choice it can make the process a little easier than just putting your phone in a different room. Or trying to put the responsibility on your partner.

Check out this clever device and buy one for yourself HERE!

Invest In An Actual Alarm Clock:

Worried you won’t have your phone to wake you up? Go old school and get an alarm clock.

While you could keep your phone across the room and get out of bed to turn off your alarm. It might be too tempting for some not to unplug the phone and bring it back to bed with them.

Which is why we suggest making things easier and less tempting by getting an alarm clock instead. This way you don’t see an email, text, or notification and get drawn into the sirens call of your smartphone.

Replace Scrolling With An Easily Achievable Goal:

Instead of scrolling your morning away as you wake up. Replace this with a simple activity that is easily achieved. For instance, making your bed is a quick and easy activity that can be easily achieved in a matter of moments. Yet it is something that is often left undone by many. By getting out of bed, and taking the time to straighten out the bedding and pillows.

You will have already accomplished something that day. It only took a few seconds and now your bedroom looks tidy and clean. Giving you a sense of accomplishment and a mini dopamine hit. It also makes it easier to avoid getting drawn back into bed for a bit more sleep.

Reflect & Prepare:

How are you feeling this morning, how did you sleep, and so on. Take the time to digest how your day went yesterday, everything you would like to accomplish today, and where you can start. Your mornings should be a time of reflection and preparation. So you can start your day with intention instead of mindless consumption.

This is also a great time to check in with yourself before heading out into the world. If you are waking up feeling like anything needs to be dealt with before you start your day. This gives you the time and energy to do so. It is good to check in with your own needs and desires before the internet tells you what those needs and desires are for you.

Other Low Energy Activities You Can Wake Up To:

• Read A Book
• Write In A Journal
• Take A Shower
• Relaxing Yoga
• Go For A Walk
• Drink Coffee In Bed
• Listen To Music
• Crossword Puzzles
• Sudoku Puzzles

Learn more about creating a soothing morning routine in our post: Stress Free Morning Routine

Benefits of Waking Up Without Scrolling:

Less Stress & Anxiety:

Whether you like to read the news, work emails, or social media in the mornings. All of these can cause stress and anxiety. Which is not a great way to start your day.

By waking up before you mindlessly scroll through your phone or get all your necessary updates. You are able to wake up and check in with yourself before getting bombarded with information from the outside world influencing you.

Awake Before You Reach Your Phone:

You are awake and ready to take on whatever information your phone will give you. Whether it is an urgent email from your boss or a call from your mom. You will get to that once you are awake and better prepared to send that email response of call someone back.

Even though it may be a slightly later response than it may have before, your response will be better thought out as you are not sending it while you are still half awake in bed. Which is absolutely worth the wait.

Engaging With Your Own Thoughts:

When you are not waking up to an overwhelming amount of external stimulation, you brain is able to start waking up and working on it’s own. If you have ever had brilliant thoughts and remembered things you needed to do while you were showering.

This is likely because it is one of the only times when you are not digesting information from outside sources. Instead you are left with four plain walls and nothing but shampoo to entertain you. Which allows your mind to start turning it’s own gears instead of focusing on digesting information.

If you stop engaging with stimulus from your phone while you wake up. This is a great way to get the cogs in your brain to start working on their own.

More Time To Yourself:

We are always running low on time. When you are on your phone it is easy for time to simply slip through your fingers. Once you are off of your phone, you essentially get your mornings back to start your day off right.

Even though you have the same amount of time in the day. You will feel like you have much more now that you are spending it living life instead of mindlessly ingesting social media or scrolling through the news.

Increased Focus:

When you are not overloaded with stimulation first thing in the morning, it makes it easier to focus throughout the day. This is because your mind is no longer accustomed to getting an overload of information and entertainment first thing.

Which makes it easier to focus on daily normal activities because it is not craving the super speed stimulation of the smartphone. By avoiding the stimulation in the morning, it allows more focus throughout the day because you’re no longer hankering for the fix of the smartphone.

Trouble staying focused and awake during class? Head over to our post: How To Stay Awake In Class

Start Your Day Without Your Phone

Waking up without your phone is a much healthier way to start your day. Research shows that staying overly connected to social media can be addictive and cause increased stress and anxiety. Which can start your day off on the wrong foot. We hope this new information and tips help you to start a new morning routine so you can face your day with focus and positivity.

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