I’m not a big fan of apps. I try to live a life independent of my screens.
Of course, I find this impossible.
I do manage to minimise my device-dependency with tools like real alarm clocks, analog timers, pen & paper to-do lists, spiral bound notebooks, etc; by keeping my email confined to my computer; and by not participating in social media.
Every now and then, though, I like to question my prejudices. Maybe there are ways that my phone could help support a life of intention and presence rather than distract from it. Whenever I find one, I’ll share it here. (I have no relationships with any app developers.)
Morning!
This app is designed and operated by a one-woman-team. She markets it as a gratitude journal, but you can do a lot more with it. It’s also very, very pretty.
With Morning! you are prompted to answer questions in the morning and the evening of every day. The free version has the questions set; the paid version (about $5) lets you set your own questions and choose your own colour scheme. It also offers daily quotes (they tend toward the banal but there are some good ones too) and an absolutely lovely feature which aggregates answers from previous days on a series of little tiles.
I paid for the app so I could tweak the questions it came with. I think the trick with this sort of practice is to make sure your questions don’t encourage any beating-oneself-up tendencies, so I wanted to change one of the questions the free version comes with.
I think what I like most is that having this app means that when I pick up my phone in the morning, practicing gratitude and setting intentions are now the very first things I do.
Here are the morning prompts I use:
What am I grateful for this morning?
1.
2.
3.
Today I would like to feel…
1.
2.
3.
Today’s mantra is:
And here are the evening prompts:
What am I grateful for tonight?
1.
2.
3.
Three things I learned today are…
1.
2.
3.
My favourite pause today was…
A few suggestions:
Be very careful with the “three things I learned today.” This is not for “today I learned my partner is a jerk” or “today I learned that Booths still isn’t properly staffing the tills.” These things might come to mind, but keep looking. Try “today I learned that the magpies are still living in the nest I watched them build this spring” or “today I learned you can get a good tomato in Lancashire.” Something that makes you smile.
I include the pause question to remind myself of my intention to pause a few times a day. To just stop, breathe, glance out the window, actually taste my biscuit, step outside, feel the texture of the sheet I’m hanging on the line, take in my daughter’s smile or my son’s giggle, etc.
Don’t bother with the “How did I feel today?” question that stays at the bottom of the page even when you change the other questions. You have to answer it with one of four emojis, and let’s be honest: who feels just one way over the course of any day?
If “mantra” doesn’t have quite the right valence for you, try “motto” instead.
If you decide to give this a try, I’d love to hear how it goes 🙂