After I read The Artist’s Way, I was dedicated to Morning Pages for about a year. I really got a lot out of the practice, but it was hard to layer in with everything else I wanted to do in the mornings (exercise, meditation, other writing, etc etc). I would love to give them another shot, if I can figure it all out!
Thanks for sharing your experience! So cool that you did it for a year. I've only been doing it a couple months and I already know what you mean. It's funny because you think the hard part is doing a good habit, not choosing which good habit to do! Sometimes when I'm trying to do "all the good habits" it can become overwhelming too—journaling and stretching and meditating and exercising and... But I do think perhaps some flexibility is important. I have been working out more recently, and it really helps my mind. So if I want to do that instead of the morning pages, I feel like that's fine?
Two other things that I've been doing to help fit a bit:
1. I work part-time with a startup, and on "startup days" I have to be up way too early to do morning pages. So those days, I try to do them at night. It doesn't set me up for the day the same way, but it still gives me a chance to dump before bed.
2. I try not to be productive in the morning pages, but sometimes I have an idea for a little story or something. When I do, I allow myself to "stop" the morning pages early and start writing that thing instead. I wrote Angels on the Trains (https://letter.salman.io/p/angels-on-the-trains) like that—maybe 300 words of morning pages, then I switched to just drafting then. I ended up shipping it almost as is.
I think little tweaks like this will help me make it more of a thing that fits my life, rather than trying to morph myself too much to fit its premise. That or I'm just cheating 😅
After I read The Artist’s Way, I was dedicated to Morning Pages for about a year. I really got a lot out of the practice, but it was hard to layer in with everything else I wanted to do in the mornings (exercise, meditation, other writing, etc etc). I would love to give them another shot, if I can figure it all out!
Thanks for sharing your experience! So cool that you did it for a year. I've only been doing it a couple months and I already know what you mean. It's funny because you think the hard part is doing a good habit, not choosing which good habit to do! Sometimes when I'm trying to do "all the good habits" it can become overwhelming too—journaling and stretching and meditating and exercising and... But I do think perhaps some flexibility is important. I have been working out more recently, and it really helps my mind. So if I want to do that instead of the morning pages, I feel like that's fine?
Two other things that I've been doing to help fit a bit:
1. I work part-time with a startup, and on "startup days" I have to be up way too early to do morning pages. So those days, I try to do them at night. It doesn't set me up for the day the same way, but it still gives me a chance to dump before bed.
2. I try not to be productive in the morning pages, but sometimes I have an idea for a little story or something. When I do, I allow myself to "stop" the morning pages early and start writing that thing instead. I wrote Angels on the Trains (https://letter.salman.io/p/angels-on-the-trains) like that—maybe 300 words of morning pages, then I switched to just drafting then. I ended up shipping it almost as is.
I think little tweaks like this will help me make it more of a thing that fits my life, rather than trying to morph myself too much to fit its premise. That or I'm just cheating 😅