‘No phone, no news, no scrolling’: Ankur Warikoo shares 6 habits that can protect your mental wellbeing

Mental wellbeing can easily take a back seat when work, responsibilities and daily distractions take over. But protecting your peace does not always require major lifestyle changes. Ankur Warikoo recently shared six simple habits that can help people make more space for themselves, from keeping the phone away after waking up to embracing boredom and taking guilt-free rest. His advice also focuses on setting boundaries, clearing an overwhelmed mind and being mindful about the people who get access to your energy.

Protect the first 30 minutes of your morning

Warikoo's first suggestion is to keep the beginning of the day free from digital distractions. He advised people to protect the first 30 minutes of their morning by following a simple rule: “No phone, no news, no scrolling.” Instead of immediately reacting to messages, notifications and other people's updates, he encouraged people to “start the day as yourself” rather than as a reaction to everyone else's noise.

The idea is to create a small window of quiet before the demands of the day begin.

Learn to say no without overexplaining

Warikoo's second habit is about setting boundaries without feeling compelled to justify every decision. He pointed out that “I won't be able to make it” can be a complete sentence. According to him, every unnecessary yes takes something away from your own peace.

Saying no to plans, requests or commitments that you genuinely cannot accommodate can therefore be a way of protecting your time and mental energy.

Take one guilt-free day to do nothing

For Warikoo, rest should not be something people wait for until they are completely exhausted. He recommended taking one “guilt-free day of doing nothing” and challenged the idea that rest has to be earned after a period of intense productivity.

“Rest isn't a reward” after burnout, he said. Instead, it can be one of the things that prevents burnout in the first place.

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Give your brain moments of boredom

Constant entertainment can make it difficult to give the mind a quiet moment. Warikoo suggested deliberately creating periods without digital stimulation. That could mean skipping a podcast while taking a shower or putting the phone away while waiting in a queue.

He explained that the mind needs “empty space” to process life. Not every spare minute has to be filled with content, notifications or entertainment.

Put overwhelming thoughts on paper

When your mind feels crowded, Warikoo suggested getting those thoughts out of your head and onto paper. His advice is simple: write down everything you are carrying. Putting thoughts into words can make them easier to see and organise rather than allowing them to remain as a vague sense of mental pressure.

Warikoo described much of what feels like stress as “unsorted thought”, suggesting that writing can offer a way to bring some structure to an overwhelmed mind.

Be careful about who gets access to you

The sixth habit focuses on relationships and personal boundaries. Warikoo advised people to pay attention to how different people affect their energy. “Some people refill you, some quietly drain you,” he wrote, adding that people should protect their energy because it is finite.

Being selective about who gets regular access to your time, attention and emotional space can therefore be an important part of protecting mental wellbeing.

Warikoo says wellbeing should not come last

Alongside the six habits, Warikoo questioned the way people often prioritise productivity while neglecting themselves.“We spend so much energy trying to be productive,” he wrote, that people can forget to protect the person doing all the producing.

He also pointed out that people often treat rest as something they have to earn, peace as something they will get to later and themselves as “the last item on a long list”. Warikoo stressed that people are not machines powered by willpower alone. In his view, goals lose their meaning when the person pursuing them is constantly running on empty. “Looking after yourself isn't falling behind,” he wrote. Instead, he described it as the way to “last long enough to get anywhere worth going.”