Are You Among The 88% That Do This When You Wake Up?

When you wake up every morning, what is the first thing that you do? If you are like most of us, you reach for your phone.

Research conducted by Deloitte in 2016 has shown that 88% of people check their phone within the first hour of waking up. 43% of us are scrolling through emails, news, and social media within five minutes of rising, and 76% of us within the first 30 minutes.

The issue with that is, how we begin our day sets the tone for our creativity, clarity, and productivity. And pretty much nothing on social media, or even in our inbox, sets us up for success.

In the morning, we are at the height of our emotional, mental, and physical potential. This time is best used by focusing our heightened potential toward accomplishing our top priorities.
 
When we check emails, we instantly place ourselves in a reactionary state, becoming overwhelmed at all of the things we must do. Frequently, these tasks are not aligned with our top priorities, derailing us from concentrating on what is important.

In an article on Medium, author Anthony J. Yeung states, “The problem with responding to emails or messages so early is that it puts people in a state of reaction: It fills their head with tasks, stressors, and mini-fires they need to put out before they even had a chance to do all their top priorities.” He goes onto say that, although this seems like “an innocent little peek [at our inbox], it will sabotage our productivity and focus from the get-go."
 
Each time we get a notification on our phone – a text, news alert, incoming email – our concentration gets disrupted. It takes an average of 23 minutes to be able to refocus and return to our prior level of productivity. 

When you consider how often these notifications pull our minds away on a daily basis, and how many 23-minute increments are involved in the process of refocusing, it adds up quickly. Let’s assume that on average, our phone alerts us twice an hour. Each time, it takes us 23 minutes to recalibrate (not counting the time we actually engage with the distraction by responding to a text, etc.) If we are awake 16 hours a day, that is 32 distractions. At 23 minutes per incident to readjust our focus, those 32 distractions result in 736 minutes, or almost 12 and a half hours of lost productivity! So, basically, for each 60 minutes, we have lost 46 minutes of our ability to fully concentrate. And, because our bodies give us a hit of the feel-good chemical, dopamine, each time we check those notifications, we can’t help but go back for more.

It's no wonder we can go through an entire day and feel as though we got nothing accomplished. Our phones are hijacking our productivity!
 
It’s time to reclaim your morning to make the most of your heightened mental and emotional energy. Begin your day by amplifying your focus and motivation.
 
Here are a few suggestions:
 

• The night before, make a list of the top 5 things you must accomplish the next day.
• Avoid checking your phone an hour before bed-this will help you sleep better.
• If you must keep your phone in your bedroom, use the Do Not Disturb function. Set it to activate an hour prior to your bedtime and deactivate at least an hour after you wake up.
• Don’t check any social media or email during at least the first full hour of each morning. Even better, try not to check emails until you are officially “at work.”
• Instead, take this time to focus on you, your family, and how you envision the day ahead. 
• Take time to meditate, take a walk, or whatever helps get you in a place of creativity and productivity.
• Finally, spend time focusing on your top priorities and how to accomplish each of them.

 
Once your mindset is dialed in and you have your “marching orders” established, you will be better equipped to move forward into your day feeling energized, inspired, and with a plan to succeed.

Remember, your future begins each morning when you wake up.