When I can actually manage to get up, I do enjoy getting some tasks done early in the morning. I’m currently doing a chair yoga routine, all part of that word flexible (My Three Words).
Then I spend some time reading and praying. I’m not very good at it, but I try.
The other thing I attempt to do is write a thousand words. Sometimes it’s just a matter of journaling. Less often, I do get some serious writing done.
I started this nearly nine years ago while on a trip to Atlanta. It was one of those eras when the day job was particularly sucky. I had plans of morphing my daily writing into a lucrative career, allowing me to exit the day job much earlier than planned.
I called the project “How I Wrote My Ass Out of Hell.”
On a side note, that’s happening this summer. Not because of my lucrative writing career, but because I’ve served my time.
While there have been missed days, and a couple of seasons where I took a break from the project. For better than 90% of the last nine years, I’ve written a minimum of a thousand words a day. Every. Day.
I do best when I write in the morning.
I’m rarely able to start the morning’s writing without taking care of the cat and the dog. That’s unavailable since the coffee maker is downstairs. But there’s something about writing in the quiet of the morning when no one else is awake, or the world isn’t stirring.
Writing in the morning can also help set the tone for the day. Before the distractions set in, there’s a chance to do some writing with a clear head and a blank page. The best part about that is that you can start all over the next morning.
Studies have shown that our brains are often at their sharpest and most creative in the early hours, free from the distractions and fatigue that can creep in later in the day. By capitalizing on this prime thinking time, we can tap into our inspiration and produce work that resonates on a profound level.
It’s hard, but consistency is important. I have my own morning rituals, some mentioned above, and things I need to do before I head out the door to the day job. Although that’s changing soon…just not soon enough.
It takes discipline to write every day. Sometimes it also takes some procrastinating of the other items on the to do list.
It also comes with a great sense of satisfaction.
And something to mark off the to do list.
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