Permission to Have Screen Free Mornings - Granted
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Do you wake up in the morning, and the first thing you do is reach for your phone? Whether you’re grabbing your phone to check your email, social media, or the news, you may want to consider a change in that habit.
I read a lot and listen to quite a few podcasts. One of the most consistent practices that successful people who want to be intentional about their life report is that they purposely do not look at their phone or other screens first thing in the morning. Most of them have strict boundaries of other habits they perform before they can look at their phone/other screens or a time limit they need to wait before looking at a screen. Over and over again, these people say they want to start their days in a peaceful way and set their own intentions for how they want to be and what they want to accomplish in the day ahead. These thrivers tell us that if they look at their screens before they set their own intentions, then it feels like the rest of the world decides for them how they’re going to move through the day. If they see a somewhat urgent email first thing, then they start the day in alarm and that’s how they often move through the entire day. Or if they read bad news, then that bad news lessens their energy right away in the morning and that malaise persists through the rest of the day. However, if they take some time away from the screens first thing in the morning, then they can peacefully center themselves and they are better able to deal with the urgent tasks and bad news that may confront them during the day.
Recently on his podcast, Greg McKeown interviewed the Executive Productivity Advisor at Google, Laura Martin. She works for Google, and even she has a one-hour screen free rule every morning. She teaches people at Google and elsewhere to have intentional boundaries with their devices. Pretty much all tech companies have a business model that is centered on gaining as much of our attention as possible, so for an executive at one of the biggest and most influential tech companies to be evangelizing screen blackout periods is a powerful endorsement.
So, if you find yourself reaching for your phone right as you wake up and notice that the habit is causing you to start a lot of your days on a foot that you wouldn’t choose for yourself, experiment with screen free morning time. Start small if you need to and do a few things you love in order to ease more into a day you would choose to have. How you start your mornings is often a powerful way to set the tone for the rest of your day.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team