My New Morning Routine: Less iPhone, More Calm

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This is what my morning routine has looked like:

  • Wake up sometime after 7 a.m.
  • Lounge in bed with my iPhone, playing SimCity or watching TikTok’s or crap like that
  • Get the kids ready for camp/school
  • Feel depleted by the time I drop them off, nerves frayed
  • Finally sit down and journal and ah, I feel better

Yesterday morning, I woke at 7 a.m. to my alarm and then squandered 25 minutes in bed, playing SimCity. By the time I got home from taking Pippa to school and had Julian set up with an ice pack for his sprained ankle, I was cranky and impatient. I sat down to journal and immediately felt calm. Journaling centers me, clears out the mental debris and prepares me for the day. As I journaled yesterday, I realized, Why am I playing SimCity in bed when I could be journaling?

So that’s what I did today – except my morning routine actually started last night. I’ve been bringing my iPhone to bed and playing more SimCity, also sometimes checking email and text messages, social media, etc. You know how it goes. I would usually finally put the iPhone away at 10 p.m. and then, wired and wide awake, read until I could fall asleep, sometime after 10:30 p.m. If I’m up until 10:30 or later, of course I need to sleep past 7!

I’m playing around with AI to generate images and having so much fun

But mama needs to wake up at 7, and mama wants to feel refreshed, so mama needs a new bedtime. (And ick, I will stop writing about myself in the third person now!)

Last night, instead of bringing my iPhone to bed, I left it in the kitchen. Nathan and I finished watching t.v. at 9:10 p.m., and I was reading in bed by 9:30. At 10, I put my book on the nightstand and fell asleep easily.

I was awake this morning before 7, but let myself doze until my alarm went off. But when the alarm finally chimed, I hopped out of bed, stretched for a moment, and then cozied up on the armchair in our bedroom with my journal. For twenty minutes, I journaled and hallelujah, it felt so good to start my morning this way. When I emerged from my bedroom, I had energy and patience and was delighted to engage with my children while scrambling eggs and making school lunches.

So this is my new routine:

  • Finish up with my iPhone by 9 p.m. and banish it to the kitchen
  • Be in bed by 9:30
  • Set alarm for 7 a.m.
  • Read
  • Lights off at 10
  • Out of bed and journaling by 7 a.m.
  • Get the kids ready for school

Then, when I get home, I can exercise or jump into novel revisions instead of needing time to journal and clear my head.

Eventually, I’d like to get back to waking up at 6 a.m. Then, I can journal and do basic chores (unload the dishwasher, make beds, etc.) before I take the kids to school and when I get back from school drop-off, the day will truly be mine. But sleep is the foundation of my mental health, so I’m not going to be a hero. If my body needs to stay in bed until 7 a.m., that’s what I’ll do.