Notes on doing it — Day #16: My brain took a huge dump this morning and it felt great

Photo by Jens Johnsson on Unsplash

Today was my first day of writing Morning Pages. A practice where you let every thought in your head spill onto three pieces of paper through a pen. As the title of this post suggests it was indeed a great relief.

I went through the day feeling less distracted by my own thoughts. Thinking back on today, I can’t remember any instance where my mind turned to any of the worries that I addressed in my morning pages. That’s a benefit I will gladly work 10 to 20 minutes for each morning. However, this could just be a good old, regular great day as a result of many different things. So I will definitely need a bigger sample size to draw any conclusions yet. But it does feel promising.

Another reason Morning Pages seem like a habit I could easily stick to is how clear the objective is. Write (three) pages in the morning. It doesn’t leave a lot of things up for interpretation. Author of Atomic Habits James Clear often talks about how this is a vital part of starting a new habit. We need to make it crystal clear what we intend to do on which day at what time and place. This strategy is called Implementation Intentions and it dramatically increases the odds of us actually following through on our intentions.

Today, writing my morning pages was the very first thing i did and I think I’m going to stick to that approach. What I need to do is decide on a place in my home to do it in. Sticking to a certain chair or a specific corner will not only leave me with less decisions on how to follow through on my intention — it will also reinforce the routine benefits of a pre-game ritual that I mentioned in my post yesterday.

Now I can’t wait to find the perfect place for another dump tomorow. Expect a detailed report shortly after.