No Bed-Rotting Trial | The Update

For those of you who hate the term: my apologies! As best I can tell, the term originated with some GenZ creators on TikTok, and it refers to the act of lying in bed, endlessly scrolling on your phone and being generally unproductive. 

I know there’s a Scottish term for this practice: hurkle-durkling, but that one feels less familiar to me than bed-rotting.

And that’s probably because all of my kids are GenZ, which means I am most familiar with that selection of slang. 😉 

(Gen Alpha slang is utterly foreign to me, because my kids don’t use it!)

ANYWAY.

As you know, I was trying a two-week trial of not bed-rotting in the morning, and I’m here to update you on how it went. 

The Positives

So, for work mornings, this was amazing. Without setting my alarm any earlier, I felt less rushed, I could get more things done before I left, and I still got to work earlier than usual. 

For these mornings, I just rolled straight out of bed and right into the shower. Which means…

I had time to unload my dishwasher every morning.

I also had time to do my breakfast dishes and leave my kitchen clean and tidy.

I had time to make my bed.

I had time to share the day’s blog posts on my Facebook page and in my Facebook group. And I had time to send the post out to my email subscribers. 

On non-work mornings, I rolled outta bed and threw my gym clothes on.

This meant I was able to get to the gym nice and early, which meant I didn’t sit in any morning traffic. And even though I usually did a workout and then also went for a walk, I still got home at a decent hour to get started on the rest of my day. 

The Negatives

At first, it was a little bit hard to get used to! It’s such an ingrained habit by now to snuggle up in the covers and scroll, and that’s especially tempting on a day when I don’t have to go to work. 

I actually almost forgot I was doing the challenge one day. Ha. But do not fear: I remembered just in time. 

Honestly, though, I really cannot think of a negative aspect. It’s not like I missed anything important in the online world by skipping the morning bed-rotting. 

And my real-life world mornings were much improved. 

I’m still doing a little bed-rotting at night

I haven’t decided if I want to also try to stop this; usually I hop in bed, do a lesson on Duolingo, check my online stuff briefly, and then go to sleep.

The night scrolling is not very problematic, though; I am not a night owl, and I am usually so tired by the time I go to bed, I’m not tempted to stay up past my bedtime.

So for me, the payoff is far greater for skipping the morning bed-rotting. 

Will I keep up the habit?

I think I will! It has made my pre-work hours better, and it’s made my non-work mornings start out better too. 

I probably will operate differently when I’m traveling (especially if the point of the trip is relaxation!), and when I have my night shifts in October, all bets are off for how I’ll handle that.

But for everyday life, I’m gonna try to make this a habit. 

I’m not suggesting everyone else needs to do this

Many of you said you were going to join me, but I just want to make it clear that I understand this is not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, and no one should feel guilty for handling the bed-rotting issue differently than I am! 

 

Some people are better at scrolling for a bit and then putting a stop to it, whereas I am not great at that. 

(This is similar to the way that I am not great at eating just a few Thin Mint cookies. Ahahaha.)

Some people are not at their best in the morning, so it’s not like they’re wasting their most productive hours by doing some morning bed-rotting.

But mornings are my best time, which means I’d rather not spend that time mindlessly scrolling. 

And some people have lots of extra time in their days, which means time spent scrolling in the morning is honestly no big deal. But between blogging, working, doing my BSN schoolwork, and managing other life things, my days are pretty busy right now! 

So while this has been a positive experiment for me, I am not saying everyone else needs to do this too.

Don’t view it as an expectation; just an option, which means you are free to say, “Not for me!” and keep on rolling.

I say this because the online world can feel like a constant onslaught of “Here’s how you need to optimize your life!” and I know it can feel overwhelming.

“Eat this, don’t eat that, use this on your face, buy this product to prevent aging, do this workout, wear this, definitely don’t wear that, please don’t decorate your home like this” and on and on it goes. 

I say, figure out what works for you, and leave the rest. 🙂 And that includes any experiments I try! 

Did you try not bed-rotting? If so, how did it go?