The older I’ve gotten the more important my morning routine has become to me. When I first wrote about morning pages, I was just out of college and desperately trying to adjust. I really wanted to be successful, especially in my career, and created my routines to help accomplish that goal. Now, a few years later, I’m much more in tune with what I really need to feel balanced in every area of my life.
That being said, I still love morning pages and journaling. It’s one of those things I’ve never wanted to needed to nix from my routines.
My favorite thing about morning pages is that they can be anything you want them to be, there are no rules or right or wrong techniques. Anything you put on paper counts as a morning page. When I first started doing them, I didn’t realize just how much stuff we wake up with in the morning.
The alarm goes off, and we instantly start thinking of the emails we need to send, projects that need to move ahead, or that conversation with a friend that didn’t go as planned.
Enter, morning pages.
If you aren’t familiar, morning pages are exactly what they sound like: journal entries you do first thing in the morning. I don’t believe in hard and fast rules when it comes to wellness routines, but it’s ideal to write your page(s) before jumping into the day. Whether you need a more long form writing session or a quick brain dump to clear way to take on the day’s tasks, morning pages will do the job.
There are a few different ways I approach morning pages, depending on where my head is at that morning.
Make a list
A to-do list, a gratitude list, a grocery list –all are applicable! Sometimes it helps just to write out all of the things I need to accomplish that day so that the scope of tasks becomes less overwhelming. I write a lot of lists, but the ones I do in the mornings always help to clear my mind for the rest of the day.
Set a timer
No formatting or structure, just put a few minutes on the clock and free write until the buzzer goes off. The only “rule” is that you don’t stop writing until the timer goes off. Even if that means you just write the same few words, over and over again, you’d be amazed at what a mind clearing activity it can be.
Give yourself a prompt
Maybe you need more creative structure in your morning pages? Draw a sketch every morning, or write a haiku at the start of the day. There are some days when I just take a whole page to write a gratitude log. I split the page into a few categories: work, life, family, home, ect. Then jot down a few things I’m grateful for in each category.
The only “rule” I’d implement is dedicating one space to store your pages, be it an already established journal or separate notebook (what I use). This way, it’s easy to find in the morning (especially before that first cup of coffee) and keep track of. Nothing worse than wasting time in the mornings looking for lost items!
If you try morning pages, let me know how you liked it and which style works for you!
This is one of those things I’ve always meant to do, and hardly ever get to. I think “oh, I can do it later in the day” and I’m fairly good at that, but I know there are days and weeks where I don’t write a whole lot past what I need to do and what got done (and that’s it). It really is something one should be doing, though, even if it just means you write your to-do list again and again, or remind yourself about x-thing to pick up from the store, etc – better to get it out of your head than let it float around forever!
Love this! I don’t wake up early enough to do anything like this (which, I know, is a problem), but I really like the idea. I did recently buy a journal of 1000 writing prompts, & I think that might be really helpful for me in an exercise like this. Thanks for the ideas!
I’m curious to try this. I’m the type to journal a bit at night to unwind so the idea of starting the day with it.. I wonder how I would feel! Definitely going to have to give it a try.
Melody // http://www.marevoli.com
This seems like it would be therapeutic for someone like myself who suffers from a mind that races at 100 mph as soon as I wake up. I like to write to kind of do a mind dump in the evening, but doing it in the morning seems like a great way to start your day. I’m definitely going to give it a try.
Hi Amber, thank you for sharing your thoughts on morning pages. I recently discovered Mel Robbins technique – she’s got two pages to download for free on her website. I think this could be a good one for people who don’t know what to write. If found it helpful to just fill in some blanks instead of filling a whole page on my own. I really love your content! It’s great to calm down and the perfect combination of books and mental health. I’m looking forward seeing more of your posts. Greetings from Europe, Lisa
I follow the artist’s way morning pages so I do 3 pages front and back. The thing for me is that I don’t always write them in the morning so I guess for me they’re just pages haha. But writing and getting everything out clears my head and helps me relax. i just need to find the best time to do it because i work so early in the morning.
aaa, this is such a good idea. i admit; i used to journal on a regular basis, but it soon faded away as i wasn’t sure what to right about. but now i’ll have no excuse, haha 🙂 i think mornings are the best times to journal, because your mind has fresh thoughts.