Your Phone’s Alarm Clock Doesn’t Work.

In a previous post here, I discussed the importance of having restraint when using social media. Social media can become harmfully, excessively intrusive in our daily lives. If you read that post, you know that I have deleted my fb page. However, as a Realtor and a writer, I have to maintain some connectedness on the internet. Having abandoned facebook, I find I have more time available for other things. While I have more time, the temptation to be overly connected to my digital devices continues. I have realized my phone is hurting me in ways I thought it was helping.

As I went to bed last night, I set the time on my alarm clock to 4am (Yes, even on a Saturday, especially on a Saturday). I was eager to get right to work on my writing and my real estate work. However, I made one critical mistake as I fell asleep. I forgot to properly set my alarm.

You see, the night I deleted my facebook account, I also drove up to the local Meijer around 10pm, and bought a stand alone alarm clock. From the moment I decided I needed to buy a stand-alone alarm clock to the moment I came home with one in hand, there were many obstacles which could have deterred me from accomplishing this mission.

This was a very critical step in my journey to live with inspired resolve. I couldn’t let the time of night, or the fact that the electronics department was closed for the night, or the fact that some of the employees whose help I sought were uninterested in helping me stop me from doing what I felt inspired in that moment to do. I know myself well enough to know that if I did not go buy that alarm clock in that moment, I would probably never do it. But why was buying an alarm clock such an important step?

I have become convinced that if I want to live with inspired resolve, I must be less connected to the distraction of the internet and be more present in the here and now of my life. The internet has been a force for much good in the world since its beginning, but it has also become a monstrous form of living a distracted life.

Compare how the average American today spends his free time versus the average American two hundred years ago. The average American was probably working in his field, living a life of hard work and benefiting from all one can learn from reaping and sowing. If he had any free time, he was probably spending it writing letters, having face to face conversations with others, or reading classic works of literature.

How often do you spend time with a friend or loved one and give that person more than 3 to 5 minutes of thoughtful, intentional, undivided attention through listening and having discourse without ever looking at or thinking about your phone? How much time do you spend reading classic literature versus keeping your brain preoccupied or distracted on sites like Pinterest, facebook, instagram, etc. If you are like me, your answers to those questions are not very encouraging.

I got to the point with my phone that I was always aware of its whereabouts while I slept during the night. I needed my phone as an alarm clock. So I made sure it was well-charged and close by me every night before I fell asleep. I had this strange awareness of my phone’s presence at my bedside at all times. Even though I always try to wake up between 4am and 5:30am, using the phone as my way of doing that was actually hurting me. When I woke up I was faced with immediate distraction; the very thing I depended upon to wake up early to be productive is the thing that overwhelmingly tempted me with instant distraction. I woke up to spend the early morning in prayer, exercise, reading, and other early morning productive activities, and often found myself instead sitting and reading news stories or social media posts which, when I am honest with myself, are very irrelevant to me and my life.

So by using my phone as an alarm clock, I had to literally pick up the distraction and literally hold it in my hand. If I had any hope of being productive each morning, I instantly upon waking, had to be faced with a powerful temptation to be distracted and then make an active choice to deny that temptation. Why would I put myself in such a position every morning.

It was time to separate my phone from my alarm clock. It was time to put my phone to bed every night in a place that was not my bedroom. So with the purchase of a new inexpensive and simple alarm clock is the beginning of a new bedtime routine.

With a new alarm clock, it is important to remember to actually execute the change with intention and resolve. Last night, I set my wake up time for 4am. But I didn’t wake up until 7am. I was so disappointed when I discovered I overslept and perplexed about what happened. The alarm clock seemed ineffective and it was only day two.

As I got going, however, I realized what happened. When I depended on my phone as an alarm clock, I never had to reset the alarm or turn the alarm back on each night. However, my new alarm clock is different. Each night it must be switched back to the “on” position, and each morning when it goes off, I literally need to turn it “off”.

I couldn’t be more excited to have such a seemingly primitive device in the 2019 world of high tech. With this device, I am removing a deeply detrimental temptation to waste time each morning, and am forced to be more intentional about my bedtime and wake up routine. And that is what living with inspired resolve is all about…being intentional.

If you can relate to the problem of using your phone as your alarm clock, or it you want to join me in making this change, leave a comment below to let me know.