Evigno Habit 2: Morning Pages
Please consider reading the introduction for this post.
My second habit of the day are the Morning Pages, an idea I got from a book my aunt gave me called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
In the authors own words: Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages — they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind — and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page.
I liked the idea of having a consistent writing ritual every morning and so I began one day in the summer holidays of 2009 and never (really) stopped until today. I adapted the practice from time to time and I don’t bind myself strictly to a certain amount of pages anymore — but I still write down first thing after waking-up what’s going on in my head. Every morning begins with the Morning Pages but the writing continues throughout the day and becomes a journal and a protocol of my life.
I don’t want to rely solely on my head to save ideas and memories. With the time the mind just makes this big memory-soup out of all things in the past and important details often get lost. But it’s not merely about the memories but all the things you have learned along the way, about life and about yourself. I see journaling as a cornerstone of self-progression.
Essentially it’s all about self-reflection and this is something I find truly important. Writing down what, how and why you are doing what you are doing gives you a clear view on your work and how you are spending your time and energy, clarifying your intentions and priorities.
Little note on the procedure:
Every single morning I create a new textfile for the day stored in a great app called NvAlt which is synced to the cloud with Simplenote. On the top of the file I have my Evigno Habits (to be marked off) and below space for thoughts throughout the day.
Last words:
For me, writing has become an irreplaceable tool. It’s my self-therapy and problem-solver. When I’m stuck with something I write about it. The mere act of transfering your thoughts to written words can move mountains. I found that this process generates ideas, solutions … and after all: makes me happy.
So even if you only jot down some notes for each day it is a wonderful habit I recommend to anyone.
[…] ➝ EH 2: Morning Pages […]
In reference to your conclusion (Last words):
Heinrich von Kleist wrote about that in «Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden», explaining that the flow of spoken words does form and conclude one’s thoughts. I believe, this is easily transferable to writing.
But what is your experience with writing for publishing? Because in that case, I guess, you have the objective to explain something specific. Is this kind of mindset different from the Morning Pages?
Dear Sebastian,
Thank you for your comment. The Heinrich von Kleist reference is really interesting. And yes, I think it’s very true.
When it comes to writing for publishing (or producing any “real” work) my process is actually quite the same in the beginning. I try to stick to a strategy I learned from an article by Steven Pressfield in which he talks about the importance of “covering the canvas”, a metaphor getting something out of your head, regardless of “correctness”, or “value”. The canvas of course can be anything: a new text document, an empty page in a notebook, a morning in the gym, …
So there is a similarity to the Morning Pages in the sense that I try to ignore the “worrying” part of the brain at this stage of creation. I don’t really care about correctness, I just keep on writing, trying to get everything out of the head at first, worrying about things as structure when I’m editing later. I guess it’s often a good tactic to separate the actual creation from the “official part”, the editing.
For me this idea is a clever hack to get started. After all, this is the most important thing and always the hardest part. Or as Aristoteles put it: “The beginning is half of the whole”.
I hope this answers your question.
Yours,
Hugo
[…] ➝ EH 2: Morning Pages […]