Learn Hardcore Russian: Я стараюсь делать утро более осознанным и начинать день без телефона. - I try to make my morning more mindful and start the day without a phone.

The ending -сь (or -ся after consonants) is the reflexive marker in Russian.
Some verbs exist only in the reflexive form and don’t have a non‑reflexive version with the same meaning. Стараться is one of them: you don’t say я стараю.

Grammatically:

стараться = infinitive (to try)
я стараюсь = I try / I am trying (right now or regularly, depending on context)

Why are делать and начинать in the infinitive form?

In Russian, after the verb стараться, you normally use an infinitive:

стараться + infinitive = “to try to do something”

So:

я стараюсь делать … = “I try to make …”
и (стараюсь) начинать … = “and (I try) to start …”

The second verb начинать shares the same стараюсь; you don’t have to repeat стараюсь:

Я стараюсь делать утро более осознанным и начинать день без телефона.
“I try to make the morning more mindful and (to) start the day without my phone.”

Why is it осознанным and not осознанный or осознанное?

Осознанным is in the instrumental case (neuter, singular: -ым) because of this pattern:

делать / сделать + (object in accusative) + (adjective in instrumental)
“to make something (into) something / in some state”

Examples:

Сделать жизнь легче. (literally “make life easier”) – here легче is an adverb/comparative form.
Сделать жизнь счастливой. – “to make life happy”
жизнь (accusative) + счастливой (instrumental)

In your sentence:

утро – direct object (accusative, neuter singular; same form as nominative)
осознанным – instrumental, predicate describing утро

So the structure is:

делать (что?) утро (каким?) более осознанным
“to make (what?) the morning (what kind of?) more mindful”

Can we say осознаннее instead of более осознанным?

You can say it, but the grammar changes slightly.

Comparative form of the adjective:
- осознанный → осознаннее (= “more mindful”)
- Then you’d normally drop the instrumental:
  - делать утро осознаннее – literally “make the morning more mindfully / more mindful”
Analytic comparative with “more”:
- более осознанный = “more mindful”
- With делать, it goes into the instrumental:
  - делать утро более осознанным

Both are correct, but:

делать утро более осознанным feels a bit more neutral or bookish.
делать утро осознаннее sounds shorter and more colloquial.

In everyday speech both options are possible; your original version is perfectly natural.

Why is there no “my” in утро and день? Why not моё утро, мой день?

Russian often omits possessive pronouns where English uses my / your / his, especially:

with body parts and clothes
with times of day and routine actions
when it’s obvious whose thing it is from context

Examples:

Я чищу зубы. – “I brush my teeth.”
Он мыл голову. – “He washed his hair.”
Я начинаю день с кофе. – “I start my day with coffee.”

So:

делать утро более осознанным
= literally “make the morning more mindful,” but in context it’s clearly my morning.

You can say моё утро, мой день, but here it’s not necessary and might even sound slightly heavier than needed in a simple statement about habits.

Why are делать and начинать imperfective? Could we use сделать or начать instead?

Imperfective vs. perfective is about whether we focus on an ongoing/repeated process or on a completed, one‑time result.

делать, начинать – imperfective (process, repeated/habitual actions)
сделать, начать – perfective (a single completed act, or the result)

Your sentence is about a habit / ongoing effort, not one single morning:

Я стараюсь делать утро более осознанным и начинать день без телефона.
→ I make an effort in general to have mindful mornings and start my days without a phone.

If you said:

Я стараюсь сделать утро более осознанным и начать день без телефона.

this would more likely refer to this particular morning / today (a specific attempt at a one‑time action), or to a single planned change, not a repeated habit. It’s possible, but the meaning shifts.

What exactly does осознанный mean here? Is it “conscious”, “aware”, or “mindful”?

Literally, осознанный comes from осознавать (“to realize, to be aware of”) and means:

conscious
realized
done with awareness / intention

In modern everyday usage, especially with lifestyle / psychology contexts, осознанный is often very close to the English “mindful”:

осознанное дыхание – mindful breathing
осознанное питание – mindful eating
осознанное утро – a mindful morning

So делать утро более осознанным is very naturally translated as:

“to make my morning more mindful”
“to make my morning more intentional / more aware”

Why is it без телефона, and why does телефон change to телефона?

The preposition без (“without”) always takes the genitive case in Russian.

телефон – nominative singular
телефона – genitive singular

So:

без телефона = “without (a/the/my) phone”

Some more examples with без + genitive:

без сахара – without sugar
без денег – without money
без интернета – without internet

The word телефон must change to телефона after без; using без телефон would be incorrect.

Could I say something longer like “without using my phone” instead of just без телефона?

Yes. Без телефона is short and idiomatic, but you can make it more explicit. For example:

и начинать день без телефона в руках
“and to start the day without a phone in my hands”
и начинать день, не пользуясь телефоном
“and to start the day without using my phone”
и начинать день, не беря в руки телефон
“and to start the day without picking up my phone”

Your original без телефона is the cleanest and most natural minimal version in everyday speech.

Is the word order fixed, or can I move things around? For example, could I say Я стараюсь более осознанным делать утро?

Russian word order is relatively flexible, but not every permutation sounds natural.

Your sentence:

Я стараюсь делать утро более осознанным и начинать день без телефона.

is the most natural order:

subject (Я)
finite verb (стараюсь)
infinitive (делать, then начинать)
object (утро / день)
description/complement (более осознанным / без телефона)

Variations:

Я стараюсь более осознанным делать утро.
Grammatically understandable, but it sounds awkward and unidiomatic.
Я стараюсь утро делать более осознанным.
This is possible and emphasizes утро, but still slightly marked compared to the original.

For a learner, it’s best to stick with the original order; it’s clear, neutral, and very natural.

What aspect of time does стараюсь express here — “I try” or “I am trying”?

Russian doesn’t distinguish “I try” vs. “I am trying” the way English does.

Я стараюсь can mean:
- “I try” (as a general habit)
- “I am trying” (right now / these days)

Which one is meant depends on context. In your sentence, because you’re talking about утро and день in a general way, it’s understood as a habitual action:

“I try to make my mornings more mindful and to start the day without my phone (as a general practice).”