Start each morning with pure action.

Do not connect to anyone but yourself in the morning. Keep the channel pure, uninterrupted by the influences of the outside world. Reserve those precious morning minutes for yourself, and aim to extend that time to one or two hours. The impact on your day is immense.

I’ve had many days ruined by connecting first thing in the morning. I’d grab my phone, check Instagram, check emails, scan the news. My mind would go into a flutter—it’s already a chatterbox, and now it’s conversing with the whole world. Filled with visual images, to-dos, and people to correspond with, my thoughts become disorganized, fraught with too much information.

That overfilling seeps into the entire day. I notice a distinct shift on those days: I’m more distracted, get fewer things done, feel mentally cluttered, and end up exhausted. I am not my best self when I start the day connecting with the world through the black mirrored dopamine device.

Now, I follow a strict morning routine—no screens, no connectivity until after I write. I handle my toiletries, grind my coffee beans, heat the kettle, prepare my French press coffee, and enjoy drinking it on the balcony. Then, I take out my physical notebook and write down what I want to tackle for the day. Finally, I sit down to write my blog post.

I don’t always succeed, and I’m not always the strictest. But I’ve noticed that staying away from the internet, from immediate connection to tasks and demands of the outside world, gives me a moment of calm in the morning. That calm sets the tone for the rest of my day.