Behavior
The behavior I chose to study is using my phone in bed right when I wake up, specifically scrolling through social media or watching short-form videos after I’ve already woken up but haven’t gotten out of bed. I chose this behavior because I do it almost every morning, usually lasts longer than I intend, and I suspect it negatively affects both how quickly I feel energized in the morning and how rested I feel throughout the whole day.
This habit feels small at the moment I do it, but over time it compounds into bad discipline, wasted time, lower energy, and more stress during the day, which is why I wanted to investigate this habit more closely.
Measurement
I measured this behavior over two consecutive mornings, after I have actually gotten up out of bed and off my phone. I would log my experience each morning then after I feel energized to keep track of my daily habit. Rather than tracking exact minutes too specifically, I focused on a few data points that I felt most important for understanding this habit
- Time I got woke up
- Whether/when I picked up my phone for the first time
- Approximate length of phone use
- Type of phone use (scrolling, texting, videos, emails etc.)
- Emotional state before when I woke up
- How long it took me to feel energized for the day
- How I felt throughout the day
Data
1st Morning
- Time I woke up: 8:05 am
- Picked up my phone: Yes
- Approximate phone use: ~20–25 minutes
- Type of phone use: Instagram scrolling, Youtube Shorts
- Emotional state in bed: Feeling mentally tired, sluggish
- How long it took me to feel energized for the day: ~30-35 minutes after getting out of bed
- How I felt throughout the day: Groggy, low motivation for first hour at least
2nd Morning
- Time I woke up: 8:20 am
- Picked up my phone: Yes
- Approximate phone use: ~10–15 minutes
- Type of phone use: Instagram scrolling, Youtube Shorts
- Emotional state in bed: Tired and lazy.
- How long it took me to feel energized for the day: ~15 minutes after getting out of bed
- How I felt throughout the day: Sluggish for the first 30-45 minutes, but good throughout the day
Overall Experience
Logging this habit of mine made me realize how automatic phone use is for me in the morning. I feel like I almost reach over and grab my phone, before I’m even awake. There was very little conscious decision-making involved or whether to do it or not, I simply grabbed my phone when my alarm went off and didn’t put it back, just staying on it. Logging some data for this habit helped me notice patterns I wasn’t fully aware of like stress, mental overload, or feeling behind during the day connected to my length of scrolling in the morning.
Across the two days, these were the most important things that stood out.
- Phone use often started as an attempt to “wake up” but ended up just delaying when I actually woke up in the morning
- Once I started scrolling, stopping felt disproportionately hard
- More phone use correlated with tiredness for more of the morning
- That stress made me more likely to repeat the habit the following morning
To me, this looked like a feedback circle, where the more tired / stressed I was in the morning, the longer I would spend on my phone, and the longer I spent on my phone in the morning the more tired and stressed I felt throughout the day.
Connection Circle
Iceberg Model
Reflection
This exercise made me realize that my morning phone habit isn’t always about mm willpower. I’m not checking my phone first thing because I’m super lazy but sometimes it’s because it immediately gives me stimulation, distraction, and a way to ease into the day without having to think too hard. The problem is that while it feels good in the moment, it usually costs me time, focus, and a better start to my day.
