113 - Three Before Screens: Guardrails That Protect Your Mornings

Marcey Rader lays out a simple morning guardrail: do three things for yourself before touching a screen. Why it works, what to pick, and the science behind light, breath, gratitude, touch, and inbox timing.

What you'll learn:

• Why a three-item morning ritual beats reactive scrolling
• The science behind light, breathwork, gratitude, and micro-movement
• How to stop starting your day on other people’s agenda
• Ways to manage sleep data without letting it run you
• A menu of quick, repeatable options to build your three

Resource mentioned: Powered Path Playbook - www.helloraderco.com Crossrope Jump Rope app - www.crossrope.com Oura Ring - www.oura.com

References • Negative morning news and bad-day risk. Gielan and Achor, Harvard Business Review, 2015. Check email less and stress less. Kushlev and Dunn, Computers in Human Behavior, 2015. Mark et al., CHI 2012 work-without-email. • Working memory capacity around three to five chunks. Cowan, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001. • Morning light improves sleep and circadian alignment. He et al., 2023; Crowley et al., 2014. • Gratitude RCTs and meta-analysis. Emmons and McCullough, 2003; Diniz et al., 2023. • Five-minute breathwork RCT. Balban et al., 2023. • Foam rolling and ROM/soreness. Wiewelhove et al., 2019; Skinner et al., 2020; Konrad et al., 2022. • Affectionate touch and cortisol. Berretz et al., 2022; Dreisoerner et al., 2021. • Orthosomnia term and guidance. Baron et al., Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2017. • In-bed screens and insomnia risk in students. Hjetland et al., Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2025 overview of 45,000 students.

Sustainable performance beats burnout every time. On the Health-Powered Productivity Podcast, host Marcey Rader, Certified Speaking Professional®, TEDx speaker, and author of Reclaim Your Workday, helps you simplify to amplify. Each episode gives you practical tools for relentless prioritization, focus and attention management, meeting effectiveness, email and chat optimization, task and workflow management, and strengths-based leadership. Healthy guardrails. Zero fluff. From RaderCo, a high-performance consulting company. Proud to be named a Top 50 Productivity Podcast on Feedspot. Subscribe and share this episode with a teammate. Connect with Marcey:

• Consulting, Training, and Coaching: www.helloraderco.com
• Keynote Speaking: www.marceyrader.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marceyrader
• Book: Reclaim Your Workdaywww.reclaimyourworkday.com
• Weekender Snapshot Tipsletter: https://radergoodies.com/profile

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