Jeannette Fernandez loves receiving, reading, digesting and then discussing your concepts near the start of each week (if in the USA). I thank you for her .... and for me as the one who most benefits from her advanced thinking and analysis. Freeman Craig
My #1 priority in the morning is writing in my morning pages. This happens right after I wake up, before I turn on any screens, before coffee. Sometimes I wake up a little later and getting ready for work throws this off, but most days I try to stick to it, even on vacations. I've been intending to tack on a meditation right after the journaling too. After reading your meditation article, I'll attempt to do: morning pages > meditation > coffee
I did morning pages for years after reading The Artist's Way when I was 20... it's a great practice. How has it been for you, so far? What are you learning from it? I'd be curious to hear more about your experience.
Morning pages > mediation > coffee sounds like a good plan!
It's amazing! I love that I can just unload all of my thoughts so I start the day with a blank slate. Sometimes when I'm really ruminating on a thought from the day before, a good night's sleep + word dump via morning pages really helps me untangle the thoughts / see new patterns. How about you? Did you ever stop?
I did stop morning pages eventually... I realized I was using it to ruminate on paper and second-guess my decisions, so at a certain point, it stopped being helpful for me. I also found it was reinforcing what I would call the "narrative self," basically the inner monologue/story you tell yourself about yourself. But I do pull it out at times when there's something I need to think through, and I've been thinking about doing The Artist's Way again at some point.
Part of my morning routine is getting into my inbox and handling as many messages as I can by responding, making decisions, deleting, or scheduling for another time. I find an already full inbox in the morning is very distracting to getting on with productive activity, because I feel I have loose ends hanging over my head. When I'm fresh in the morning I am more efficient and effective at handling things without getting into too much overthinking, cogitation, delay. So I go for zero inbox as soon as I can in the morning and then turn my attention to the most important creative work. Which I know is reverse to what many productivity folks recommend. But that's how my routine has developed.
That makes sense to me, Rick--a full a inbox represents a bunch of open loops, which could be a drain on cognition. I actually need to develop a more effective email habit for myself. If I don't get to something day-of, the flood of incoming messages usually buries it by the next day! Probably what I need to do is time-block 20-30 minutes for emails each morning.
Jeannette Fernandez loves receiving, reading, digesting and then discussing your concepts near the start of each week (if in the USA). I thank you for her .... and for me as the one who most benefits from her advanced thinking and analysis. Freeman Craig
Hi Freeman, thanks for writing in, and give my regards to Jeannette! Your most recent trip sounds like quite an adventure.
My #1 priority in the morning is writing in my morning pages. This happens right after I wake up, before I turn on any screens, before coffee. Sometimes I wake up a little later and getting ready for work throws this off, but most days I try to stick to it, even on vacations. I've been intending to tack on a meditation right after the journaling too. After reading your meditation article, I'll attempt to do: morning pages > meditation > coffee
I did morning pages for years after reading The Artist's Way when I was 20... it's a great practice. How has it been for you, so far? What are you learning from it? I'd be curious to hear more about your experience.
Morning pages > mediation > coffee sounds like a good plan!
It's amazing! I love that I can just unload all of my thoughts so I start the day with a blank slate. Sometimes when I'm really ruminating on a thought from the day before, a good night's sleep + word dump via morning pages really helps me untangle the thoughts / see new patterns. How about you? Did you ever stop?
I did stop morning pages eventually... I realized I was using it to ruminate on paper and second-guess my decisions, so at a certain point, it stopped being helpful for me. I also found it was reinforcing what I would call the "narrative self," basically the inner monologue/story you tell yourself about yourself. But I do pull it out at times when there's something I need to think through, and I've been thinking about doing The Artist's Way again at some point.
That's so insightful for you to understand when this practice stopped serving you. I guess this is true for many habits we have, we just don't see it.
Part of my morning routine is getting into my inbox and handling as many messages as I can by responding, making decisions, deleting, or scheduling for another time. I find an already full inbox in the morning is very distracting to getting on with productive activity, because I feel I have loose ends hanging over my head. When I'm fresh in the morning I am more efficient and effective at handling things without getting into too much overthinking, cogitation, delay. So I go for zero inbox as soon as I can in the morning and then turn my attention to the most important creative work. Which I know is reverse to what many productivity folks recommend. But that's how my routine has developed.
That makes sense to me, Rick--a full a inbox represents a bunch of open loops, which could be a drain on cognition. I actually need to develop a more effective email habit for myself. If I don't get to something day-of, the flood of incoming messages usually buries it by the next day! Probably what I need to do is time-block 20-30 minutes for emails each morning.