The Single Best Tip for a Productive Morning

We have all read countless self-help and advice articles about morning routines. We all know that Bill Gates and Oprah and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson wake up early and follow regimented schedules like walking self-help books. Not all of us can stomach a 5AM wake up call or a two-hour spartan-like exercise routine.

And certainly these things are not meant to be for everyone.

The typical morning routine advice usually encompasses some combination of the following:

These are the classic morning routine components that comprise listicles on Medium and an overwhelming majority of health and wellness pieces. The articles I have come across always seem to leave out a simple yet salient piece of advice, one which has dramatically improved my mornings, days, and life altogether.

Leave your phone on airplane mode for the first two hours of your morning

Exercising first thing in the morning or reading or journaling remain important and productive, yet each of these could be augmented further by avoiding phone use first thing in the morning. For the modern individual, it is far too common that your smart phone is the last thing you see each night before falling asleep as well as the first thing you see when you begin each morning.

Who came up with the idea that this was what each and every one of us should and would do?

It may be difficult to admit, but this habit which each of us carry is detrimental to our mental health, productivity, and even our sleep habits.

Consider how often you wake up in the morning and pull your phone into bed. You scroll through notifications, social media, emails etc. as if each and every thing you read is absolutely urgent and cannot wait a second longer.

And of course there are many people, including myself at times, who do in fact claim their notifications are urgent, and demand attention immediately upon waking.

But I don’t buy it.

For example, if you wake up at 7AM, there would be little consequence of waiting one or two hours to view your notifications. To view and respond to them first thing in the morning creates friction that reduces your productivity to start the day.

Ask yourself, what really would happen if you checked your phone at 9AM in the office rather than 7AM while you are still in bed?

The answer of course is nothing.

Our actions each and every morning are conducted as if the very balance of the universe is at play — we reach for our phone compulsively and scroll and scroll and scroll.

And scroll.

We assume we will take a mere two minutes to check through things and reply to some messages and emails. And then comes Instagram and Twitter. Maybe a YouTube video or two. The next thing you know, the clock has ran upwards of 20, 30, 40 minutes and your first hour of the day has been wholly unproductive and mindless.

Pulling our phones into bed when we wake up is a hindrance to getting a jump start on each morning. There is rarely anything so pressing that it cannot wait and that demands our attention upon waking.

Of course it is natural to try and convince ourselves that, yes, in fact we are being productive when we pull our phone into bed first thing in the morning.

Taking a defensive stance should be expected, but you must resist the urge to defend your poor habits and instead try and expunge them.

The Takeaway

Before you go to sleep at night, put your smart phone on airplane mode to eliminate the long list of notifications and pop-ups that light up the screen. This ensures that, when you wake up in the morning, your phone is silent and blank.

With a notification-less smart phone, getting out of bed and getting on with your morning becomes easier.

If you need further convincing, ask yourself: Do you want your first moments of consciousness each day to be your own or someone else’s?

It is false to think we have control over our notifications. In reality, it is the notifications that have control over us. The best we can do is limit our exposure to them from the start.

Reclaim your mornings and your first moments of consciousness. Take stock of your first hours of the day and ask yourself if they belong to your phone or your self.

If implemented, you will find that all other morning routine activities (not to mention mental health, sleep quality, and productivity) are improved by magnitudes.

Speaking of productivity, if you find yourself in want of some brain food you can check out my Recommended Reading List.