I gave up 3 of my worst nighttime tech habits for one week — and it was harder than I ever expected

Milan Ilic Photographer/Shutterstock

I quit three of my worst nighttime tech habits —using social media, watching TV, and wasting time on my phone before going to bed — for one week.
Knowing my tech time had a cutoff, I became more intentional with the time I did have access.
While Netflix and Instagram couldn’t bait me, I found that going even just one hour without texting proved too difficult, and I failed repeatedly.
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Every night, I have an idea of what I want to accomplish before bed.

But just as often, I find myself slipping into the quicksand that is the internet.

So when my editor asked me to put a cap on it by cutting out all social media, TV, and phone time an hour before bed as part of a productivity experiment, I jumped at the chance.

The idea of being bored for an hour sounded great. Tasks like doing the dishes, writing more, and packing lunch for work would all seem more appealing once I ceased any real entertainment. I had the pre-diet giddiness of someone trying the new Keto cleanse — I’m going to be so much better this time.

Plus, this would be a piece of cake. If you’re reading this, you’re probably like me — a self-improvement fiend who never met a seven-day challenge I didn’t like. Compared to quitting the trend of fast fashion or a months-long running streak, would this really be that bad? If anything, I worried that an hour wouldn’t be enough to see a difference and I wouldn’t have anything to report. Who wants to read about a null hypothesis?

This is probably a good time to say I failed on the first day.

Let’s get into it.

On Monday night, everything was going great until my phone lit up.

Sara Lepley

Since I go to bed at 11 p.m., I made my technology cut-off 10 p.m. On Mondays, I typically stay late at work and then go for a distance run on a trail near the office. After doing my normal Monday routine, commuting home, and picking up groceries, it was already just about 10 p.m.

It occurred to me that no phone meant no music. As the time inched closer to 10 p.m., I started choosing my songs more judiciously. Whatever played last would set the mood for the night.

First things first, I tried setting up an alarm on the analog clock from my childhood. When it didn’t work, I realized I still needed my phone for alarms and should probably leave it on. Mistake No. 1.

Next, I rolled out my mat to do what I thought was 20 minutes of yoga. A glance at my clock — okay, my iPhone — informed me that actually, no, I only did eight minutes.

Fine. I would read.

As I sat reading, my phone started going off. Not answering would be rude, right? Since many of my friends live far away, I could always cheat a little. Once I found a break in the conversation, I would say goodnight. Mistake No. 2.

While I turned my lights off promptly at 11 p.m., my phone kept glowing, and I kept responding well into the night. What can I say? I’m weak.

On Tuesday, I decided to buckle down and get stuff done — I ended up staying up way too late.

Sarah Lepley

I woke up feeling groggy. No connection to the texting, I’m sure.

Instead of feeling bad about that, I felt guilty about all I didn’t accomplish the night before. Every day, I need to bring a change of clothes, makeup, lunch, reusable containers, coffee, and book for the metro with me to work, and I swear, getting it all into one bag takes more time and brainpower than packing for a two-week trip. This experiment provided the perfect reason to pack this bag the night before work rather than the morning of.

Did I end up making use of the time? Of course not.

This morning I couldn’t find the undershirt I needed for the dress I planned to wear, so I had to swap outfits and repack. I left for work running late and with dishes in the sink. I blamed the eight minutes of yoga.

Tuesday night, I tried a different approach. No internet after 10 p.m. meant I couldn’t save my freelance work until after a Netflix break, which meant I needed to do it as soon as possible. Since I needed to work out and clean my house, I preferred to do that while I could still listen to music.

Instead of seeing the night as an expanse where I could get anything done, preferably later, I felt the urge to get everything out of the way right away.

It worked a little too well. When 10 p.m. rolled by, I didn’t want to stop being productive. Instead, I just pushed my bedtime back by an hour. Mistake No. 3.

Maybe out of guilt for changing my bedtime, I started in on all of my least favorite tasks.

Normally, I hate blow-drying my hair at night even though it saves time in the morning, but Tuesday night I actually did it. Then I packed my bag and made coffee for the next morning before realizing I still owed myself an hour of tech-free time. I had, of course, been texting friends all the while.

I decided reading would help me wind down after all of that productivity. Even though I silenced my phone, I felt phantom vibrations coaxing me to check for messages. I noticed a dripping sound coming from the shower, but resisted the urge to search "leaky faucet fixes." I wondered if morning workouts burned more calories than evening workouts, but didn’t Google. Eventually, I fell asleep.

After staying up late Tuesday to clean, meal prep, and workout, I overslept Wednesday but felt good going into the day.

Sara Lepley

Guess who slept through all their alarms? I didn’t mind. My hair was already styled, my day was packed and my house smelled pleasantly of mint and lemon. Good. This was going to be a busy day. After work, I had a happy hour, a committee meeting for a local environmental group, and then was having a friend over for drinks.

It was the ideal time to nix tech because, really, when would I have the time? When 10 p.m. rolled around, I diligently stayed away from my laptop and TV but kept texting. Shouldn’t I make sure my guest got home safe?

And I was performing in an open mic comedy show the next night. Did it count if I was confirming plans with friends who wanted to attend? At some point, after yet another "just this last text," I did fall asleep.

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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Sara Lepley)