Story Club
Posts
Why you should never check your phone in the morning

Why you should never check your phone in the morning

Francisco Mahfuz
June 05, 2025

While my kids are getting ready for school, I do what I know I shouldn’t and take a peek at my phone.

There’s a message in one of my groups saying,

“It was good knowing you, my friends.”

The message has a link from a news site talking about how the latest drone attack from Ukraine has infuriated the Russians so much that they’re likely to retaliate with a nuclear strike.

I don’t click on the link.

I just stare at it.

Then I hear the screams.

My 5-year old is on the floor, crying, in front of the shoe rack.

“Olivia, what’s happening?”

“I don’t want to wear these sandals, they hurt my feet!”

“Why can’t you wear your sneakers?”

“I don’t want to!”

“Ok, how about your flip-flops?”

“No, mom says I can’t wear them to school, they’ll fall when I run!”

“If you really want to, you can wear them, baby.”

“No!”

She throws the flip-flops away and sits there, sobbing.

They need to be out of the house in about two minutes.

I pull her on my lap and hug her, with one eye on the clock.

Once she calms down, she lets me put her socks and sneakers on.

She grabs her backpack, gives me a very tight hug and goes off with her mom and sister.

A little while later, there’s another message on my phone, this time from my wife.

“Do you think we need to buy Olivia new sandals?”

I start responding, but I can’t help thinking:

In the days to come, if this is the only kind of crisis I need to worry about…

I’m really lucky.

You can plan it… but you don’t have to

Every Thursday I write this newsletter, usually a few hours before it comes out. When I sit down to put it together, I often have absolutely no idea which story I’m going to tell, or which point I’m going to make with it.

But here’s what I’m never worried about: that I won’t have any stories to tell. Stuff happens all the time, there’s no shortage of things to write about.

Take today’s issue: this happened literally this morning. And something like it happens most mornings. My friend’s message was (luckily) fairly uncommon, but a pre-school crisis (unfortunately) isn’t. And if there isn’t one, then… maybe that’s the story.

Some of what I write about is very fresh, some is years old. I wasn’t keeping a record of potential stories a decade or two ago, but there are other techniques I can use to bring those stories back.

My point here is: there’s always a story to tell–if you know how to find it. You can plan it and do it in advance… but you don’t have to ;-)

If you want to learn how to do that, TODAY is the day!

👇👇👇

This Thursday at 11am EST / 5pm CET I’m running a FREE masterclass about finding and telling all the stories you need. It’s an interactive deep dive with everything I teach my corporate and TED-style speaker clients.

It's happening here, where I hang out with Brian Miller and all the other cool kids: