More than two-thirds of U.S. adults keep their smartphone nearby while they sleep (Gallup, 2022). So for a lot of us, the phone is the first thing we can reach in the morning. If it’s also your alarm, you’re holding it before you’re fully awake.
Nobody plans to start the day in their email. It starts with turning off the alarm.
What can you do in the morning instead of scrolling?
Do one small thing with your eyes or your body first. Look up at the sky for 60 seconds, or make your bed slowly. Then pick up the phone if you want to. The ten ideas below are from our list of 100 things to do instead of scrolling.
What can you do before you pick up your phone?
- Look up at the sky for 60 seconds (No. 2)
- Step outside and name five things you see (No. 20)
- Sit by a window and do nothing for five minutes (No. 1)
- Make your bed slowly and with care (No. 13)
- Try one yoga pose and hold it (No. 99)
- Put on music and stretch slowly (No. 80)
- Make a new drink (No. 75)
- Eat breakfast in total silence (No. 15)
- Do a five-minute gratitude reflection (No. 84)
- Go for a walk without headphones (No. 16)
Which ones take a minute?
The first two. Looking at the sky takes 60 seconds, and you can do it from the bedroom window. Naming five things you see takes about as long, and it gets you outside the door.
Both work on mornings when you’re running late. You can do one of them with your coat already on.
Which ones take ten?
Making the bed slowly, or a short stretch with music on. Breakfast with nothing playing fits too. These suit a morning with a little room in it. A walk without headphones is the longest idea here. It can be a walk to the corner and back.
Some people call a start like this an analog morning. There’s more in how to go analog. On dark winter mornings, light matters more. There’s a post on that: a winter morning routine that starts with real light.
What about the alarm?
If your phone wakes you up, your first touch of the day is the phone. A separate alarm clock is the usual fix. A smaller step is to turn off the alarm and put the phone face down until one thing on the list is done.
For the phone itself, see phone-free mornings. This post is about what goes in that time. If the first thing you open is the news, see alternatives to doomscrolling.
How do you make it the first thing you do?
Decide the night before, in one sentence:
“When I turn off my alarm, I look out the window for a minute.”
You can tape that sentence to your mirror. That happens to be No. 87 on the list.
What to do instead of scrolling, and how to make it stick explains why a sentence like that helps. If evenings are the harder end of your day, there’s a matching list for before bed.
About Offline.now
Offline.now offers free help with your phone habits. It starts with two questions. Your answers show your type and a first step small enough to take this week. Find your starting place.
The ideas here come from the book Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance by Eli Singer. The book is on Amazon.
