Productivity and bad habits

In my never ending quest looking for more time through productivity, I’ve built up a lot of bad habits over the years. Perhaps the biggest of those bad habits is checking my phone when I wake up and while I get ready for the day. Not only is this bad for my mental health, it is also often counter-productive.

I wake up groggy and tired, and often the first thing I do is check my Slack and emails. This isn’t great as I’m not in a proper mindset to actually be constructive. Therefore, not much work actually gets done here. And even worse, my crankiness bleeds into some of my responses and it’s not a great situation all around.

On top of that, it is deteriorating for my mental health. In the mornings when I should be focused on getting ready and hanging out with Colin, I’m already thinking about work and not living in the present. If it’s something annoying that I have to deal with, that could put in a bad mood for the day already 10 minutes after I have woken up.

Of course, this is entirely preventable but has become a morning routine for me. It’s something I had hoped to stop years ago with mild success but me relapsing into the awful habit. This time something needs to change and I think the solution is likely very simple.

When my alarm goes off and I get up, I just need to put my phone down somewhere inaccessible until I’m ready to leave for work. Having my phone with me when I’m doing menial tasks like brushing my teeth just gives me the option to check it. It’s time to end this awful habit.