Morning Routine? Yes, and relax.

I like to get up early and follow a pretty strict morning routine. I prefer autopilot over making a ton of little decisions in the morning.

When I settled in to a specific routine and began to change it less and less, I started skipping over the latest MyMorningRoutine.com interviews in my inbox, and finally unsubscribed. I felt like I didn’t need the inspiration anymore.

"My morning routine? I’m doing everything you’re not supposed to."

Fast forward to early October 2016. Asked about his morning routine, my surrogate Asian fatherexplained how he’s checking Instagram in bed, then reaches for his notebook to reply to a bunch of email before even getting up.

For quite some time I was feeling embarrassed, because I knew better than to check iMessages and Instagram in the morning. It’s distracting your mind, something you don’t want to do before sitting down to meditate in the morning.

Ramit’s comment somehow gave me permission to include checking my phone as part of my morning routine. I like checking in with people whose messages I didn’t yet read because I went to bed earlier than they do, or spend a couple minutes looking at nice travel pictures in the bathroom.

As a result, I don’t feel the need for “checks” during the day anymore. FOMO is obviously taken care of.