Want to feel stressed, anxious, and/or completely exhausted before you even have breakfast?
I highly recommend looking at your phone right when you wake up.
But sometimes I wonder if my head would be clearer if I just… didnt.
So I tried it out and asked my coworkers at Zapier to join me.
I didnt set hard rules, but I did offer some suggestions.
To me, this wasnt about hard rules it was about being intentional.
Thinking about our relationship to technology, then tweaking as necessary.
Heres how it went and what we learned.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
The first thing I learned: looking at my phone first thing in the morning stresses me out.
I did not know this.
I thought that cleaning up yesterdays dishes stressed me out.
I thought making breakfast stressed me out.
I thought the problem was the tasks; it turns out the problem was time.
If I dont look at screens, I have more time and, therefore, less stress.
Katie Redderson-Lear, integration engineer at Zapier, felt the same way.
Most days, these things would stress me out, but today I just dealt with them.
Erin Ozolins, senior customer champion at Zapier, noticed that she consistently started her workday on time.
Normally, Id meander into work at 7:15 a.m., annoyed that I was 15 minutes late.
Were all losing time in the morning without realizing it.
Maybe its the weather, maybe its directions, or maybe its my to-do list.
Texts, emails, likes I mindlessly check things, sometimes for an embarrassing amount of time.
Getting into that reactive mindset first thing in the morning makes it harder for me to focus.
Jesse Parker, community manager at Zapier, also found themselves using the time with intention.
Enforcing a hard rule wasnt the point it was about seeing what happens when we tried something.
And what happened depended on each persons unique situation.
Deb Tennen, managing editor for the Zapier blog, learned that her results depended on the day.
Janine Anderson, also a managing editor for the Zapier blog, had a similar experience.
Then I sat up and read some things on my phone.
Because of the changing routines, Deb and Janine each set different rules for themselves.
Jacob Sowles, frontend engineer at Zapier, also found himself adjusting the rules.
He didnt want an extra hour of sleep just an extra hour of bed.
So he changed the rule: no screens for the first hourafter leaving the bedroom.
That worked better for him.
These rules all make sense to me.
I like to journal first thing in the morning, which I do on my laptop.
Maybe prohibition works best for you maybe not.
The important thing is to set rules for yourself and stick to them.
I hope this can become a habit.
Katie, who I quoted earlier, also plans to keep going.
Katie may or may not keep it up after a few weeks.
If that sounds useful, I recommend avoiding screens in the morning for a few weeks.
You might not stick with it, but you will certainly learn something.
This article by Justin Pot was originally published on theZapier blogand is republished here with permission.
you’re able to read the original articlehere.
He loves technology, people, and nature, not necessarily in that order.
it’s possible for you to follow Justin:@jhpot.
You don’t have to.
