The Hidden Cost Of Morning Updates

The morning updates

Do you start your day by looking at your phone screen? And what do you see there? Unless you have taken an extra step of configuring your settings, the answer might be a screen full of notifications and updates—usually messages or news, most of which you might not pay attention to. But have you ever wondered how it affects your day, even if you don't pay attention? Or, how it could potentially influence your day? Whether you pay attention to it or not, that screen has put a list of things in your subconscious mind already. And deviated you from your plan, in a subtle way. But what if you didn't have a plan to begin with? Well, in that case, you might have one now—to respond to the messages as they might seem important out of nowhere. Those messages, or any form of stimuli, are more than just distractions. They are creativity killers. Citing from an article titled 'The hidden cost of a smartphone' — Research indicates that smartphone notifications can disrupt cognitive control and attention, which are essential for creative thinking. A study published in Scientific Reports found that even the mere presence of a smartphone can impair performance on attention tasks, suggesting that notifications may hinder the ability to engage in deep, creative thought.

Morning energy and finite cognitive capacity

While the specific effects on these notifications in the mornings aren't listed in this particular research, there are many independent studies discussing this correlation. Besides, when we wake up in the morning, we usually wake up with our cognitive tanks full, thanks to restorative sleep, which acts as a good reset mechanism. I've personally experienced a massive difference in my focus and attention capacity when I delay information intake—emails, messages, etc.—until late morning(around 12 pm). I tend to get more done, both physically and cognitively, not just in the morning but also throughout the day. Whether a day goes great or otherwise is influenced not just by reducing information consumption in the early hours, but by structuring it consciously throughout the day. The early hours, however, set a solid stage for the rest of the day, and that's very helpful for me.

The slippery slope of self-discipline

Admittedly, there are days when I begrudgingly slip into checkingemail or Whatsapp, or anything completely random. Even though I've turned off all forms of notifications on my phone, I give in to the urge of seeking dopamine and quickly check 3 different apps in a minute, giving myself silly reasons to do that, or sometimes on autopilot, for there's barely any effort involved in opening those apps. It hardly takes a minute, right? Not always, because the response to the stimuli becomes important now, which might be actually true in some cases—if an important decision is pending, for instance. But in most cases, it's not. Even though we can find ten different reasons to justify it. If that approach works for you, great. But I’ve found that even tiny distractions often have ripple effects.

Try a new challenge

If you're someone who believes you’re in control—despite being bombarded by stuff you didn’t need—I challenge you to try a different routine for a few days, ideally a week. Start your mornings without looking at your phone, laptop or anything that dumps unwanted information into your brain. If you need something specific, look for it, but make sure you only get that, and nothing else. If you feel there's no difference with this new routine, you've proven me wrong. And in that case, I'd love to learn from you and share it with others.

How to Reclaim your mornings?

Like any good habit, it takes time to get better at controlling your mornings. I've come pretty far from where I was a couple years ago, and there's a long way to go. The algorithms catch up fast, but not so much if you have good self-control, or put correctly, if you are being mindful ;) I've turned off all the notifications on my phone, and found it extremely helpful. It's been like that for years now and well, I'm still alive and happy. You can still open those apps, sure. But not having all the notifications dumped on my screen makes my job slightly easier. I'm planning to switch to an actual alarm clock instead of using my phone for waking me up, which further simplifies things. There are apps that restrict unwanted usage during certain periods. And others go a step further and lock the apps completely. All these tools work with a basic idea of introducing friction between you and the algorithms that demand more of your time. But no tool will help if you’re not willing to change. And that’s where it all starts.
Our lives are shaped one morning at a time. Let's get better at reclaiming them.