A Better Beginning

Since I was 12 years old and my morning paper round, I’ve been up early, usually around 04.45.

It’s been a lifelong habit.

Over the years however, I’ve noticed something creeping into my morning study routines.

So, on the 1st of March, I began a simple experiment.

It was nothing hugely dramatic and it certainly wasn’t some big life overhaul.

It was simply just one small act of self-discipline: I stopped picking up my phone first thing in the morning.

For some years, it had been automatic.

Wake up, walk through to the living room and pick up my phone.

Result – good intentions to aid my studies, but inevitably there were distractions – messages, emails, news and…noise!

For the month of March – I decided to wait…

Just one hour.

Instead, I gave that first hour to quiet.

To my personal study, prayer, meditation, to thought.

To an unhurried, more disciplined slower start.

And the difference has been very noticeable.

My mornings feel calmer.

My mind feels clearer.

I’m less reactive, more intentional.

It’s as if I’ve taken back control of the tone of my day, rather than outsourcing it to whatever happens to be trending overnight.

Interestingly, I’ve also been reading The Anxious Generation, which reinforces just how much our devices – especially first thing – shape our emotional baseline in ways we often underestimate.

This isn’t about rejecting technology, or pretending the world isn’t happening.

It’s about sequence.

What we give our attention to first seems to matter more than we think.

For me, one simple boundary – no phone for the first hour – has become a quiet anchor and provides a better beginning to the day.

If you were to experiment…

What might your first hour look like – without your phone?