Create Before You Consume

Write your own narrative

Each day, we wake up with a fresh slate. Our alarm goes off, we slap it with frustration, and we roll out of bed. As soon as we take this action, we are presented with an omnipresent choice—do I stay present or do I delve into my phone? At that moment, you set yourself up for the day. This choice is a simple, yet powerful moment. You are asking yourself, should I create or consume?

While this example feels extreme and blown out of proportion, it's not, I promise.

When this choice is presented to you, and you choose to dive into the digital world that is on your phone, you switch into a different mode. You become a consumer, rather than a creator.

The screen lights up—flooding your eyes with blue light. You see the lock screen fade away. Then you are presented with red badges and notification counts. Your eyes skim the screen and you poke the most compelling one. Generally, you end up in an endless scrolling black hole. It's flooded with friends, acquaintances, and influencers. There are short clips, catchy headlines, and colorful circles around avatars. It's a choose-your-own-adventure game that's basically chosen for you.

After scrolling, tapping, and pecking at the screen—you look up to notice that time has seemingly disappeared. Seconds and minutes dissolve into an hour, or more. Now, you are not only behind schedule, you are wired to be reactive—to consume.

Alternatively, when rolling out of bed and slapping your alarm, you could have simply placed your phone on the dresser and gotten started with your day. Sure, you might have to check if there are any calendar appointments or reminders you might have forgotten about. Maybe even glance at your texts or missed calls to see if anything pressing needs your attention. But your email, social messages, and even Slack are not important enough to shift the cadence of your day.

The first action, after making this choice, should be creating something. This can be taken literally or interpreted however you see fit. I personally do one of two things: go to the gym or write.

Monday–Friday, the gym is my priority. I get dressed, do a few things in my kitchen, walk the 8 minutes to my gym, then exercise for 90+ minutes.

On weekends, this looks more like grabbing my reMarkable and heading downstairs to empty my brain. It might start with some journaling, putting some ideas on paper, or planning a project I have been thinking about. It's loose, fluid. No expectations, other than creating something.

After doing this first act of creating, I am generally set up for success. I do a few things around the house, talk to my wife, eat breakfast, etc. After showering and making coffee, I get to my desk or iPad (on weekends). Since I have not doom-scrolled or endlessly texted first thing in the morning, I am not compelled to do that more. I want to create more. Generally, this is writing. Most likely, in the form of this newsletter. Sometimes, it's my consulting work—building or mapping a system.

To be clear, when I say doom-scrolling—I don't exclusively mean social media. While that is the biggest culprit these days, reading the news, watching TV, or anything similar will elicit the same effect.

Some of you might be thinking, "I could never do this," "I need to respond to emails," "I need to check social for my business," "I need ___." These are just excuses. I know, I have made them. 90% of things in life are not important. If you want to be truly productive, feel energized, and most importantly—happy, you have to change the narrative.

A few simple things to prevent the morning scrolling session:

• Put out your clothes the night before. It's one less decision to make and one less procrastination.

• Open your blinds as soon as you are out of bed. Natural blue light is healthier and proven to wake us up naturally.

• Use a real alarm clock. It prevents the reach for your phone altogether.

• Write out your calendar and reminders the night before. This can be on paper, e-ink, or a notes app. Best results will be seen if you do it on a device that is not your phone.

We as humans want to create things. We want to make the stories we sink into endlessly when doom-scrolling. While we also like consuming, as entertainment or an escape, the act of consuming first wires our brains differently. By simply creating before consuming, we can have a real grasp on our day, so we can write our own narrative, rather than endlessly watching others.