Editor’s Notes: Two years later, my morning pages habit is still here. Some days the notepad sits untouched, other days I fill three pages before my coffee gets cold. What strikes me rereading this is how I called it strange to label something as joy when it feels like work. Maybe that’s the point about habits that actually stick.
It is strange to call my morning page writing a joy…since I typically find writing work to be excruciating. Coming up with a weekly blog post would be a case in point 🙂
The habit of writing my thoughts/emotions in the morning without any constraints (grammar, spelling, WordPress publication buttons, etc.) grew from my inability to remember people’s names, work to-do lists, and grocery shopping lists… Over the years, writing notes on Post-it moved over to the thin notepads.
With my notepad on one side and my morning coffee on the other, reflecting on the previous day about the events, the people I interact with give me clarity…even though the writing is disorganized and illegible.
On some rare occasions, that clarity paved the way to solutions to whatever problems I was dealing with.
I treat my morning page book as my close friend who I can confide in with anything and everything. Knowing that I can “speak” to my friend every morning (or sometimes evenings) is a “joy” that I did not realize I had to have.
I wish my other writing work would become easy and valuable as my morning page writing routine became.
What have you been struggling with? Why not come up something that is totally unrelated (but easy to do) to help with something you are struggling with.
Life Outside of Design Studio 