Restarting your day after an unwanted doomscrolling session
How to restart your day after a morning scroll spiral.
You wake up and grab your phone for a quick peek. Next thing you know, 45 minutes have vanished. You’re still in bed, glued to an endless scroll while the morning slips away.
For ADHD brains, the phone’s dopamine lure is hard to resist first thing in the morning. And when you finally snap out of it, the guilt crashes in. It feels like the day is ruined before it’s even begun. But here’s the thing: even after a scroll spiral, you can restart your day. I’ve learned a few tricks to hit reset instead of writing off the rest of the hours.
It’s not just you. That morning phone spiral is a common ADHD trap. We reach for our phones because it’s comforting and gives our sleepy brain a quick dopamine drip. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy or “bad” at mornings. So don't beat yourself up. Recognize the scrolling as a reflex, not a failure.
Permission to restart
One of the best things I ever learned: you can start your day over at any time. Just because 8 AM went off the rails doesn’t mean 9 AM can’t be a fresh start. Instead of writing off the day as a loss, give yourself permission to reboot it, even if you’re already on your second cup of coffee.
I pretend it’s morning again. I’ll even say “Okay, new day starting now” out loud. Silly, but it works. That mental reset breaks the all-or-nothing spell. You haven’t “failed” the day by 8:45 AM. There’s still plenty of time to salvage the day once you start now.
For example, I recently lost an hour to mindless scrolling in bed. That familiar wave of panic hit, but I chose a do-over instead of a spiral. At 9:30 AM, I got up, splashed water on my face, opened the window for fresh air, and threw on a clean shirt. By 9:45, I was at my desk drafting an email, day officially back on track.