Phone-Free Morning Reset
Clear your mind and hydrate before opening the day to demands
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 93%
Jason Perkins starts his day with a short sequence that delays reactive inputs. He gets up without looking at his phone, looks outside, walks around, and clears his thoughts. He then drinks water with an electrolyte powder before having coffee and checking email or Slack. The mechanism is boundary-setting: postponing attractive or demanding inputs creates a small act of discipline, while the walk and drink act as a physical and mental transition into the day. Perkins recommends trying the sequence for a week rather than judging it after one morning. The core method is the order of operations, not any single product: clear the mind, hydrate, then allow secondary demands into the day.
Origin
Jason Perkins described the routine he uses before his young children wake up. Extracted from Coffeez for Closers.
Core principles
- 01Protect attention before inviting external demands
- 02Prepare mentally and physically before starting work
- 03Use a fixed sequence to reduce temptation
- 04Practice the routine long enough to judge its effect
How to run it
- 1
Delay the phone
Get out of bed without looking at or thinking about your phone. This keeps other people's demands from becoming your first input.
Pro tip Put the phone beyond arm's reach before sleeping.
Watch out Keep a separate path for genuine emergency calls if required.
- 2
Clear your thoughts
Look outside and walk around briefly before doing anything reactive. Use the movement to create mental space.
- 3
Hydrate first
Drink water before reaching for coffee. Perkins adds an electrolyte powder or salt to his water as part of his own routine.
Pro tip Treat the electrolyte choice as personal nutrition, not a universal medical prescription.
Watch out Consider individual dietary or medical restrictions before adding sodium.
- 4
Open the day deliberately
Only after the reset, move to coffee, email, Slack, and other secondary demands. Repeat the sequence for one week before evaluating it.
Pro tip Track whether your attention feels calmer and more deliberate.
In the wild
Perkins gets up around 5:30, roughly an hour before his children. He avoids his phone, looks outside, walks downstairs, drinks electrolyte water, and only then moves to coffee and work messages.
→ He describes the sequence as a way to clear his mind and create discipline before the day becomes reactive.
Common mistakes
Opening the phone first
Going directly to messages lets external demands pull attention and energy before the day has begun deliberately.
Treating coffee as the reset
In Perkins's sequence, hydration and mental clearing come before coffee rather than being replaced by it.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people whose mornings are quickly consumed by family and work demands.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for anyone who must immediately monitor a genuine emergency channel on waking.
From the transcript
“the first thing you do when you wake up don't even think or look at your phone get up look outside walk around clear your…”
“what I'm doing is I'm clearing my mind and I'm creating discipline in my morning”
From the episode
Conversations at Scale ft. Jason Perkins
Jason Perkins