Until we figure out the best way to get to pure organic connectivity, I decided to test few things on myself.

In each test, I will try a small step that might help me regain the relaxed yet connected life I wish for myself and others.

One of the annoying things about the smartphone addiction is how it affects my mornings rituals. I’m an early waker. Always was, probably always will be. I wake up around 7AM whether or not I partied last night. Sometimes I wish I could sleep longer, but what can you do, no one is perfect…

I have a cellphone for the last 15 years or so. And one of the things I’ve learnt – because of my early wake – is that I have to take care of my sleeping hours. Meaning that before I get myself under the blanket, I am closing my windows, the door, and also put my phone on Silent Mode. The silent mode helps me not to wake up from stupid phone alerts in the middle of the night.

But since I got my smartphone, this is how my morning ritual looks like:

– I wake up at 7AM with the alarm clock app

– I turn the alarm off

– I see between 1 to 12 new notifications on my phone (Facebook, whatsapp, emails, etc)

– I start to respond to them – read, write, get excited from a new Like, or annoyed by something else

– After between 5 to 45 minutes, I get out of bed.

Now, this connectivity to the world before I even had my morning coffee, can easily make my day start on the wrong foot. Say I got an email from work, about something that HAS TO BE DONE – it will keep me stressed until I really do it – immediately or many hours later.

So for the last two days I tried this: instead of putting the phone on silent mode, I used Airplane Mode – meaning, the phone is not connected to the Internet, which means no notifications, no emails, no whatsapp.

Airplane Mode. Credit: Andrew Preble

First try

Yesterday when I woke up, I actually forgot that the phone was on Airplane Mode, so when I closed my alarm clock, I saw zero notifications, murmured to myself “no one likes me”, and went on with my day. Not until few hours later did I notice that something is weird. Then I remembered that I’m testing an Organic Digital approach, I immediately turned off the airplane mode, and saw the gazillion notifications arriving one after the other. Addicted I am indeed.

Second try

Last night, again, I put my smartphone on airplane mode. This morning I remembered that fact, but I thought how lovely it would be if I will have my coffee before I’m turning it alive again. So I brushed my teeth, had a coffee in my small garden, listened to the birds, dressed up for work, and only then did I turned my phone back to life. So for a long long time (I think more than a year) I had a great relaxed morning, before I start dealing with the connected world…

I’ll keep on with this trial, and see what happens.

If you hate your morning ritual, you should try it as well. If you have a good or bad experience – please tell us about it. Why it worked so great for you, or why it is a stupid idea that didn’t change a thing for you – either way I’d like to hear about it.