How can I stop wasting mornings by phone scrolling?

[Mornings1]

I am an early riser, meaning I have hours in the morning each weekend before I need to go anywhere and the same during the week before work.

I have developed an awful habit of either
a) waking up and laying in bed scrolling on my phone before I get up
or
b) getting out of bed straight away and going into the living room to scroll on my phone

I always feel a bit anxious when I wake up in the mornings, so I know that I am using the phone as an immediate distraction for this but then end up spending hours on it which makes me feel worse.

My anxiety feels worse during the week ahead of going to work (totally fine once I get there) so I struggle even more during the weekday mornings to not just waste them mindlessly scrolling to numb the anxiety. I do have ADHD so the battle to get going is even harder, but I’m aware of it and actively want to change it.

I have no children, so my time is completely my own and I’m just wasting it. My mum is a true example of who I wish I could be - she fills every minute of the day including before work. Eg. make a big breakfast, do some baking, go for a walk etc, all within the first few hours of waking up, which just sounds amazing to me. Why can’t I seem to shake myself into doing it myself?!

Not sure what I’m looking for really… maybe some stories of how you fill your mornings to inspire me and give me the kick up the bum I need?

Also adding - I feel like I am using the phone scrolling time to transition me to ‘starting my day’. So I’ll tell myself ok just check my emails, moment, messages. etc etc then I can actually begin the day… but it doesn’t happen and I waste the whole morning and feel awful

I doubt starting a MN thread will help, you'll be checking this now all day!

I don’t sleep with my phone in my bedroom so I can’t stay in bed scrolling.

I consciously choose to pick up my kindle in the morning before my phone to read a few chapters which has helped.

But the biggest of all is I deleted all social media apps off my phone. I have them on my iPad so I can still access if I need to, but it has stopped so much mindless scrolling.

I just need to work out how to cut down my MN time now…

Maybe you’re just worn out? It’s ok to take some time to do nothing. But if it bothers you, maybe a more productive use of phone time? Read a book on your phone/ipad or learn something like duolingo?

I have to get up, have coffee and go to the gym else I would do the same. I treat it as an appointment that I can’t be late for.

Watch TV news instead. Go for a walk every morning.
I volunteer at parkrun on a Saturday to start the weekend with something useful and positive.

I limit Instagram and Facebook scrolling to strictly once a day, in the evening, before bed. Tiredness means that it's self-limiting but also feels like a bit of a treat 😆

I've also started setting Alexa timers, which are more effective IME if they're short - like 5 minutes or so - because my brain is then expecting to get up and do something else.

Get one of those key rings with revision note pads on it and write a ten minute job on each piece eg tidy cutlery drawer or hoover stairs, measure out the ingredients for that cake or peel potatoes for the evening - whatever you need. Then set an alarm every fifteen minutes and when it goes off, spin the notes and do one of the jobs. Try to do four for an hour of scrolling.

Me too . And they say teenagers are addicted to their phones . Definitely a form of escapism for me . I just don't want to face the day as it's so long . In my head I know exactly what I should be doing but somewhere along the line I have lost all motivation. I used to read but I think my concentration has gone because of the phone . Despite the many advantages of mobile phones and internet I think we will see the knock on effect in future generations. Never mind A1 .

With ADHD your brain is searching for stimuli. Scrolling keeps this going in a loop. If you put your phone away and try another thing to stimulate your brain, like reading a chapter of a book /Listening to music/ do a crossword etc it satisfied this urge without losing hours to it and making you feel guilty. Also most apps have timers that you can set.

I've started having 2 hours phone free before bed and one hour phone free on rising. My phone charges in the hallway , so i'm not tempted to look at it in the night or first thing in the morning. It does take some discipline , but you will feel so much better for it. In the morning, I get up, sort out the cat and listen to a nice relaxing c.D on the c d player , as I am avoiding all screens. I wash, get dressed and eat my breakfast before I unplug and look at my phone.

I use the Forest app to block my phone for a set time. It’s simple and fairly pointless (as you can just override it) but it works for me.

Try not to feel too guilty, there’s a great deal to learn on the internet and it’s not all bad!

I have exactly the same issue OP, I was up at 5:30 this morning thanks to the clocks changing. I got myself into a good routine of going downstairs, putting a podcast on, making a nice breakfast and cleaning the kitchen but this is starting to feel a bit mundane now for some reason and I'm reaching for the doom scroll a lot.

I've got a book to read, its right by where I sit, have I picked it up instead of my phone...

On an iPhone, you can create a shortcut that says you can’t use certain apps until you’ve done something else. For example, you can’t check Facebook until you’ve done your Duolingo (one I’ve used).
As an ADHDer myself, I highly recommend the dubbii app. It has pre-recorded videos with activities ADHDers find difficult (like morning routine, making the bed) but there’s also live sessions. Now I get out of bed in the morning because a dubbii host is literally counting me down! I’ve been using it 18 months and I’m on it most days now. It is a su subscription - monthly or annually. Annually is cheaper in the long run but I signed up for a month then cancelled immediately (did you know you can still use something when the subscription is cancelled before the agreed time?) and then signed up for the year when I realised how helpful it was.

How do you do this in iPhone ?

Read how to break up with your phone. I use my phone to transition too but have a fixed limit to what I do in the morning: Wordle, sometimes connections, sometimes strands, waffle and then globle.

I used to be terrible for this. I downloaded the Appblock app and have set it so I can't get on social media until after 9am, and then only at specific points of the day. You can limit whatever apps you need to. This app has reduced my phone usage by a couple of hours a day as a result. I've got the paid version.

I feel like this post reads like a bot advert, but I swear it's been an absolute god send!