Last month my husband went out of town for 2 weeks to participate in a ceramics wood firing. This was a perfect amount of time to experiment with some habit adjustment.

To clear headspace and increase my focus for deep work, I stopped social media scrolling by limiting my total social media time on all accounts to a total of 1 hour per day. Each night I shut my phone completely off and resisted the temptation to turn it on until I was ready for my first break in the day at about 11am.

This kept my morning routine running smoothly, from walking the dog, pulling Tarot and eating breakfast to sitting down for work. I showed up at my desk ready to dive in and already clear on where I was starting.

The other thing I tried was setting up Do Not Disturb time blocks on my phone. I like this more than just leaving my phone off or putting it on silent because it lets recipients know that my notifications are silenced so they don’t expect an immediate response.

What changed?

Shifting these habits opened up lots of new inspiration and the time to implement it. I had a new idea for my newsletter approach and actually kicked it off. Sometimes ideas come to me, but they get lost in distractions so take months or years to implement.
I could clearly see where I needed support to hold focus. I started putting all of my work projects, tasks, and personal goals into Asana for tracking. Having the focus and determination to set this up couldn’t happen with constant notifications going off and ideas from social media distracting me.
I completely decluttered my desk. This was a feat of figuring out where to put pieces of projects that had been underway or abandoned for 2 years. Creation is messy, but this had gotten out of control.
I organized all of my flower essences and bottles. If you’ve ever studied herbalism or medicine making, you know the challenge of shelves of little bottles is real. I brought some structure to the chaos so things are more findable.
In working on deep organization, I realized what was lacking and ordered more supplies. This means some projects got postponed, but I’ll actually have what I need to create order from the chaos.
Several of my marketing clients asked me to step up my efforts to strategic management levels. This type of work can only happen if I’m not getting interrupted. I found it fascinating that these requests came in once my experiment was under way, like people could sense my improved boundaries and strategic focus without being aware of it.

How’s it going 1 month in?

These habits have made such a difference that I don’t want to go back to filling every down moment with a quick scroll. It’s rebuilding my trust in my own inspiration. I do feel a bit disconnected from the zeitgeist at times, but it’s worth it to be connecting with my own creativity more. I’m also aware of when I need actual rest. Scrolling keeps me on and plugged in on some level, so stepping away has helped me take more baths and other recharging activities.

It’s a little harder to stay diligent while living with someone who interacts with their phone differently. This is good practice for me to hold my own desires and energy rather than going with the flow or trying to control what someone else is doing.

I’ve had the hardest time with keeping my phone off in the morning. There’s a part of me that still wants to accomplish something like sorting emails or even placing a mobile order with Starbucks, but I still don’t place those as more important than getting exercise… although my old habits are saying differently.

I’m continuing with refinements and focusing more on my creative accomplishments than beating myself up. I am finding that I’m resting differently by reaching for a book or a crossword when my mind really just wants to unplug. This is helping me get off the hamster wheel of anxiety about all I could and should be doing.