One habit that brings me joy is ignoring my phone for the first hour of the day.

Most days (99.99% of them) I wake up and perform my morning ritual: stretch, meditate, write, and read.

During this time I ignore my phone. In fact, most mornings it’s in another room.

Ignoring it gives me a chance connect with myself and ideas. The stretching and meditating helps me connect with my body and mind. The writing and reading helps me connect with ideas — my own and others. It’s a beautiful coupling.

I like to take a few minutes to write a daily Stoic-inspired journal reflection and then do some free writing — sometimes I write/outline a blog post, sometimes I write fiction, and sometimes I just write for myself, to process.

After I’m done with the writing, while eating breakfast, I like to read a non-fiction book so I have a chance to connect with others’ ideas. Lately, I’ve been reading The Daily Stoic, Never Search Alone, and The Coding Career Handbook.

The key this is the habit of ignoring my phone in the morning. The notifications on it are (mostly) just noise and distraction. But I can’t ignore it forever so eventually — once I’m satisfied with my morning routine — I go through the notifications. This sometimes comes with joy, but not as much as the sacred time I give myself each morning to write and read.