Day 10: Get Your Phone Out of Your Bedroom
Welcome to Day 10 of the Phone Breakup Challenge.
Your assignment today is to get your phone out of your bedroom overnight. Yes, you heard me right: from now through the end of the month (and hopefully forever!) you are going to become a person who does not sleep in the same room as their phone.
I know what you’re saying: “But Catherine, I use my phone as my alarm clock!”
To which I say, “I know!” – followed quickly by, “That is why I spent all last week telling you to go get yourself a standalone alarm clock!” (You did that, right? If not, here’s a roundup of some good ones.)
Why is it so important to get your phone out of your bedroom at night? A number of reasons:
You’re probably staying up later than you intended, scrolling
These pre-bed scrolls are taking the place of other more relaxing things one might do before bed, such as read, journal, meditate, or connect with the person sharing the bed with you
You may be checking your phone when you get up in the middle of the night to pee – robbing you of sleep, and making it harder to fall back asleep
If your phone is your alarm clock, you’re guaranteeing that your phone will be the first thing you interact with in the morning (because you need to touch the phone in order to silence the alarm). If there are notifications waiting for you (which there probably will be), then you’re going to be starting your day on someone else’s terms . . . every single day
I could go on, but here’s the bottom line: getting your phone out of your bedroom will change your life. I’m not kidding – people say this to me all the time! (They say it so often that I sometimes joke that I should stop writing books and just hand out alarm clocks.) You’ll be taking back control of 8-10 hours each day, just with one simple change.
So try it tonight. (And then ideally the next night . . . and the next.)
To make this easier:
Create a charging station out of your bedroom so that you know ahead of time where your phone will “sleep” each night (I charge my own phone in a closet)
If you’re worried about missing an emergency call, turn the ringer on before you go to bed (you could also create a list of VIPs and set your phone’s do-not-disturb settings to only allow calls from those people)
Put a book or craft project on your bedside table where the phone used to be
Try it tonight, and report back in the comments. And trust me on this one.
To scrolling less, living more, and getting a good night’s sleep –
PS:
As always, you can ask me and your fellow participants questions—and share observations and insights with each other— by leaving a comment.
You can also send me questions privately simply by responding to your daily email, but I encourage you to engage with the community; you may be surprised to discover that other people are struggling with the same thing!
If you leave a comment on the blog, please be sure to check back — I read through every comment, and try to respond to each one! (And other people often chime in, too.)
How to Leave a Comment/Join the Conversation
If you want to start a new thread/conversation, simply type your comment into the big white comment box below.
If you’re trying to respond to a previous commenter, or add a comment to a thread, simply tap the small “reply” circle on the top right of the post (if you’re on a computer, you may need to hover your mouse over the comment to get the “reply” option to show up) and reply in the thread. This will help keep our conversations organized.
You do not need to log in or create an account in order to comment. Simply enter your first name, ignore the other fields, and then submit the comment as a guest.
Catherine will be popping in once a day to read through and respond to your comments. You may also hear from other members of the team, Maryana and Laura, who are helping with logistics.