Since last week, I’m keeping track of a new metric. The metric is this: The number of minutes between when my alarm clock goes off and when I check my phone. The goal is that the number grows.
The goal is to completely remove checking of any sort from my morning. Within “check my phone” is email, social media, WhatsApp, any messaging apps, anything at all that can’t be done on airplane mode. It includes those same things on my laptop.
I can journal. I can read. I can make breakfast or exercise. I can open a blank word document and start writing. I can work on a project offline. But that’s it.
It started with 24 and now it’s at 90. My goal is 180 and a higher daily average. Consistently, habitually, later and later. At first I felt that familiar craving for dopamine and now I hardly notice it. At first I would reach for my phone subconsciously and now I forget where I left it.
More challenging is that I’m in a time zone five hours behind my home town. There’s always stuff to wake up to. But now it has to wait.
My mornings are mine again. My output has grown. The practice has reframed how essential I see my tech and I like where it’s going. Do any of us really need to check anything first thing?
Maximising the minutes between alarm click and phone. Feel free to join in with my game.
