Narrative:

I planned a short flight from ZZZ for a business meeting. I was feeling stress due to business pressures. When I arrived at the airport; the aircraft was not ready as I had instructed which caused a delay; increasing my stress level. I started up; recorded the ATIS; called for my clearance; and received my taxi clearance to runway xx. Arriving at the hold short point for runway xx; I completed my run up and before takeoff checklists. I was monitoring the ZZZ tower frequency. Upon completion of my checklist and take off preparations; I happened to glance at my iphone; which was laying on the co-pilot seat. I saw an urgent message from my daughter. Since I had not yet called the tower; I decided to reply to her before take-off. After the text exchange; I taxied onto the runway and took off. At about 600 AGL; I received a call from the tower rightfully informing me that I had not called them as ready for take-off and they had not cleared me to take off. I immediately realized he was correct. I was shocked and dismayed at this mistake. The controller asked me to write down a number a call him after the flight; which I did. The root cause of this incident was stress and distraction. My mindset was not appropriately relaxed and focused to begin with; and the text message that I happened to see before takeoff added to my distraction. Additionally; getting out of my pre-take off flow contributed. I lost track of where I was in the sequence of my checklist and I didn't stop to verify where I was and get back in it. I simply proceeded to make a normal take off. Corrective measures that I will implement will be: do not enter the aircraft unless I am focused on the task at hand; no longer simply lay the phone on the seat...I will turn it completely off and place it in my flight bag; and before entering an active runway; make sure I have received and written down and can verify my take off or runway crossing clearance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General aviation pilot reported taking off without ATC clearance.

Narrative: I planned a short flight from ZZZ for a business meeting. I was feeling stress due to business pressures. When I arrived at the airport; the aircraft was not ready as I had instructed which caused a delay; increasing my stress level. I started up; recorded the ATIS; called for my clearance; and received my taxi clearance to Runway XX. Arriving at the hold short point for Runway XX; I completed my run up and before takeoff checklists. I was monitoring the ZZZ Tower frequency. Upon completion of my checklist and take off preparations; I happened to glance at my iPhone; which was laying on the co-pilot seat. I saw an urgent message from my daughter. Since I had not yet called the Tower; I decided to reply to her before take-off. After the text exchange; I taxied onto the runway and took off. At about 600 AGL; I received a call from the Tower rightfully informing me that I had not called them as ready for take-off and they had not cleared me to take off. I immediately realized he was correct. I was shocked and dismayed at this mistake. The controller asked me to write down a number a call him after the flight; which I did. The root cause of this incident was stress and distraction. My mindset was not appropriately relaxed and focused to begin with; and the text message that I happened to see before takeoff added to my distraction. Additionally; getting out of my pre-take off flow contributed. I lost track of where I was in the sequence of my checklist and I didn't stop to verify where I was and get back in it. I simply proceeded to make a normal take off. Corrective measures that I will implement will be: do not enter the aircraft unless I am focused on the task at hand; no longer simply lay the phone on the seat...I will turn it completely off and place it in my flight bag; and before entering an active runway; make sure I have received and written down and can verify my take off or runway crossing clearance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.