With 2018 coming to an end and a new year beginning, it’s important to think about what goals we want to achieve in 2019.
One of the best things you can add to your morning routine is something called, “Morning Pages”.
Add “Morning Pages” To Your Morning Routine
The term first appeared in “The Artist’s Way”, a book by Julia Cameron and is defined as a way of unloading your brain, expressing yourself and your thoughts, and ultimately generating some creative ideas or answers to problems.
Basically, every morning before you start work, sit down and write three pages of whatever comes to your mind. Anything at all.
Here’s how you can make Morning Pages work for you:
1. Let words come first
Whether you’re just writing out things that annoyed you this morning or your working on making a decision, it’s important you write down these thoughts before any sort of to-do list takes over your brain.
The key is to write without any restrictions. Allow yourself the freedom to write down whatever comes to mind.
2. Write in a private space
This part of the morning is meant to be reserved for you. So whatever you have to do to protect this time, do it.
It’s important to allow yourself the time to do this exercise (at least 30 minutes) so if you need to schedule this into your day-to-day agenda, do it, and make sure you turn off any notifications or any distractions during this time.
While you’re protecting this time, protect the space you are writing in as well. Morning Pages should be completely open and honest. Choose somewhere you won’t feel like someone is lurking over your shoulder.
3. Just write
Don’t overthink everything. This is supposed to be a time to dump out your thoughts, no matter how silly or repetitive they might be.
The first few minutes (or pages) might very well be “I don’t know what to write” and that’s fine, keep writing this and eventually you’ll push past the meaningless words and you’ll begin writing something more meaningful.
After a few paragraphs, you’ll start creative new ideas, designs, solutions, and even answers to problems you’ve been struggling to solve.
4. Save anything good
Morning Pages aren’t meant to be saved, but you will want to either copy your good ideas into a new document where you’ll save these musings or write them down in a notebook.
5. Delete the rest
Your final step in this exercise is to delete it.
Remember that this is a private, for-your-eyes-only, experience. Deleting these pages at the end gives you the freedom to express anything you want or anything that comes to mind and knowing that these words will be gone in one click.
Morning Pages are a great way to relieve stress, anxiety, open up a creative outlet, generate new ideas or find the answers to a tough decision.
Thank you, Aytekin Tank on JotForm for writing this helpful article. Click here to view the original.