My phone is usually the first thing I touch and the last thing I want to have touched, and knowing that hasn’t stopped me doing it most mornings. I don’t think the problem is willpower. It’s that my phone is sitting right there, charging on my bedside table, doing exactly what it’s built to do the second a hand reaches for it.
Changing what’s actually in reach has worked better for me than trying harder not to do the reaching in the first place. Here are seven small ways to do that.
Charge it somewhere that isn’t the bedroom.
The kitchen, the hallway, anywhere that means standing up first. I’ve found the extra ten steps does more than any amount of good intentions the night before.
Decide your first move the night before.
One thing is enough. For me it’s usually the same three skincare steps I already do most mornings. Whatever it is for you, deciding it the night before takes the decision away from whoever you are at six in the morning (the version of you that isn’t always great with decisions).
Use an alarm clock that isn’t your phone.
This one’s obvious and I still didn’t do it for years. If the first reason you pick your phone up is to turn the alarm off, you’ve already lost the next ten minutes before you’ve decided anything.
Let the first sound of your morning be one you’ve chosen.
A kettle. A radio. My kids talking before I’ve even sat up. Anything other than a notification deciding what your morning sounds like before you have.
Leave email until you’re actually at your desk.
I used to start mine on my commute and stopped, mostly because I noticed I was answering things before I’d even worked out what I thought about them. Emails in office hours only. Nothing is that urgent.
Wash your face before you check anything.
This is the only screen rule from my own morning, and it’s stuck longer than any of the others. It gives the first few minutes somewhere to go besides a screen, without turning into a bigger routine than it already is.
Notice the urge without acting on it, just for a minute.
The pull to check usually comes from not knowing yet, more than from anything actually on your phone. For me, acknowledging that, even just internally, has taken some of the urgency out of it. It’s still there. It’s just easier to wait out once you know what it actually is.
None of these are a programme, and you don’t need all seven. Pick the one that sounds most doable on a Tuesday, not the one that sounds most impressive.
