It’s all too familiar. Your cringe-worthy iPhone alarm launches you out of your slumber every morning, your hand reaching to turn it off and then your phone suddenly being glued to your palm. No matter how hard you try to prevent the morning scroll, your brain wills your phone closer and closer to your face until you’re lost in the sea of social media.
What does this routine do for you? Well, VALLEY believes that starting your day off on an unproductive note can set the tone for an unproductive day. Lucky for you, there are some easy substitutions that you can make every morning to remedy the social media ailment.
Water
Do something every morning for your physical and mental health. Drink a big glass of water as soon as you get out of bed, stretch your body out or stare out the window for a minute or two to clear your mind as a form of meditation. Many of us wake up and immediately kick our brains up to 100%, compiling mental to-do lists or thinking about every little detail from the day before. Instead of succumbing to these stress-inducing habits, take a moment to be present. A simple ritual like slowly drinking some water while looking out the window or actively trying to deepen your breathing and clear your mind can work wonders.
Wordle
Now that you’ve had your delicious glass of water and calmed your mind, it is time to slowly stimulate it in a healthy way. Ditch the morning Instagram scroll; starting your morning off with practices that decrease your attention span is a no-no! Instead, hop on Wordle. Seriously. It gets your brain working in creative ways and improves critical thinking skills. The best part of it is that you get to share with your friends the Wordle that you skillfully completed in three guesses. It starts your conversations with them for the day in a productive and fun way.
Wall Street Journal
There is nothing more gratifying than being knowledgeable about the world. An amazing morning habit is hopping onto an online newspaper and picking one or two stories to read every morning. VALLEY is great for this too! Culturing yourselves and expanding your worldviews are essential to being a well-rounded human. Plus, the next time your friend brings up that one shocking pop culture event that happened last week or the crazy thing some tech company did, you can add valuable insight to the conversation.
From Nonsense Scrolling to Productive Habits
As soon as you step out of your room for the day, you have given up some semblance of control. You will be submerged in big crowds of people walking to class, subjected to stressful note-taking and altogether will just have to be go-go-go. The one thing that you have full control over before you walk out that door is the quality of your morning routine and the level of peace it brings you. Use the moments you have in your morning before the craziness to set your mind right.
Next time you wake up feeling an itch to start scrolling through TikToks or spend 20 minutes staring at your Snapchat screen wondering when to snap your situationship back, remember the three W’s and how they can set you up for a happy and productive day.
Tag us on Instagram @VALLEYmag to let us know which of these practices you’ll be implementing into your morning routine.
