Most of us are aware that we need to spend less time scrolling on social media. Changing how we start the day could be the key to a productive new way of life
Do you reach for your phone as soon as you wake up in the morning? Do you tell yourself you’re just going to check WhatsApp and then spend twenty-five minutes mindlessly viewing Instagram and TikTok as you systematically hit the Snooze button on your alarm?
Join the club.
The vast majority of us are guilty of sleeping with our phones beside us, ostensibly as alarm clocks, but really as handy devices to distract us from the real world as we consume hours of random footage before we close our eyes at night and immediately after we open them in the morning.
And although we know it’s not good for us, it’s hard to quit. Ironically, a TikTok trend called ‘low-dopamine mornings’ has gained significant traction in the last six months and its effects could be life-changing.
What is dopamine?
You might be thinking, ‘isn’t dopamine a good thing?’ Well, yes but it depends on how and when you experience it. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in your brain that plays a big role in feelings of motivation, happiness and especially, pleasure. It is connected to our ‘reward centre’ and is also known as the ‘feel good’ hormone. So, why on earth would we want to lower it?
Put simply, if you get your first hit of dopamine by scrolling social media when you wake up, the reward centre in your brain is flooded with the happy hormone and, once you switch off to start working, it is constantly trying to recreate it that feeling. This produces an irresistible draw to your phone over the course of the day so that you can achieve that ‘high’ again which inevitably reduces your productivity, focus and overall output.
Start small
Instead of getting a sharp spike of dopamine first thing in the morning, the objective of the ‘low dopamine morning routine’ is to delay or slow down its release so you can get more done and enjoy a greater reward when you do eventually sit down to look at your phone. Unfortunately, ‘slow release dopamine morning routine’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it!
Here are some steps you can take to create a more focused and mindful start to your day and feel all the better for it:
- When you wake up, instead of reaching for your phone, do something else instead. Read a few pages of the book you’ve had on your nightstand for months, shower and wash your face or go to the kitchen and start preparing breakfast.
- Go for a walk or do a meditation or short yoga routine
- Do a low-stress activity like emptying the dishwasher or unloading the washing machine
- Avoid caffeine for 90 minutes (or as long as you can)
- Eat a high protein breakfast
Lower your stress
Taking a slower approach to your mornings isn’t just about avoiding dopamine spikes, it’s also about reducing cortisol which naturally rises within the first hour of waking up. If you already have good boundaries with your screen time but still suffer with anxiety in the morning, here are a few good ways to reduce your stress and overthinking:
- Gentle stretching
- Listening to your favourite music
- Deep breathing
- Getting up ten minutes earlier to give yourself extra time
- Writing a few sentences about how you would like the day to play out
Whatever your preference, even incorporating one or two of these things into your morning routine could lead to a tangible improvement in your overall mood and productivity levels.
