Mark Zuckerberg shares this common bad habit with 43 percent of Americans

FAN Editor

If your first instinct upon waking up is to check your phone, then you likely share a popular bad habit with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In a Facebook Live Q&A, Zuckerberg tells comedian Jerry Seinfeld that the first thing he does every morning is grab his cell phone from a nearby nightstand and browse through it. “I look at Facebook to see what’s going on in the world,” he says. “And I check my messages. I look at Messenger and WhatsApp.”

On a “good calm day,” Zuckerberg says that he generally spends just a few minutes scouring his phone. However, the amount of time he spends changes depending on what’s happening in the world. “Before I put my contacts in I often go look to see what’s going on on Facebook,” he says.

“It’s actually a pretty sad situation,” he adds.

Although Zuckerberg is the CEO of Facebook, which owns Instagram and text messaging platform WhatsApp, he says this of his early morning habit: “That’s probably not my best moment.”

Notably, the tech entrepreneur’s habit of checking his phone as soon as he wakes up is quite common. According to a Deloitte Global Mobile Consumer Survey, 43 percent of people check their phone within five minutes of waking up, 76 percent within 30 minutes and 88 percent within an hour.

The study surveyed 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18-75.

However, checking your phone immediately upon waking up could decrease your productivity levels throughout the day, writes business analyst Michael McQueen in his book “Momentum: How to Build it, Keep it, or Get it Back.

The author explains that starting your morning by looking at social media on your phone releases dopamine in the brain, which your body loves. This creates a feedback loop throughout the day that conditions you to constantly check your device and lose focus on other tasks.

Meanwhile, continually shifting your focus while performing cognitive tasks at work has been shown to decrease the IQ by 10 to 15 points and has the equivalent effect of not sleeping the night before, according to research from Bryan College.

Unlike Zuckerberg, sleep enthusiast and founder of Thrive Global Arianna Huffington notes that she refrains from looking at her cell phone or checking email upon waking up. To avoid this temptation, Huffington tucks her phone into a charging station that’s made to look like a bed and keeps the entire set up outside of her bedroom. She tells CNBC Make It that doing so helps her unplug and makes her much more productive upon waking up.

Huffington adds that taking a break from your devices is a simple well-being tip that people don’t give enough attention.

“A big part of my routine is about what I don’t do,” Huffington tells Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander, authors of the book “My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Everyday Inspired.”

“Once I’m awake, I take a minute to breathe deeply, be grateful and set my intention for the day,” she says.

Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook.

Don’t miss: Bill Gates said he had to quit this common bad habit before he became successful

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