Morning Pages: The Best Way to Start Your Day
How you start your day is a strong indicator of how the rest of it will go.
If you wake up and immediately check your email or social media accounts, you're going to be stressed for the rest of the day and spend your waking hours worrying about other people’s shit.
You don’t need that.
You have your own life to think about.
If you take some time for yourself in the morning, to relax and reflect on your goals, and articulate your own thoughts, I promise you'll be more productive throughout the day.
And one great way to do this is writing Morning Pages.
Writing my Morning Pages in the Croatian Islands as the sun rises
Morning Pages are a process invented by Julia Cameron, which involves writing three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts every morning.
The relaxing effect of Morning Pages on our minds is quite remarkable.
Morning Pages help clarify, comfort, focus and synchronize your mind for the day ahead.
Think of it as an exorcism for the anxiety, negative thought loops, and self-doubt that run through your mind.
In the words of Tim Ferriss:
“Morning pages don’t need to solve your problems. They simply need to get them out of your head, where they’ll otherwise bounce around all day like a bullet ricocheting inside your skull.”
Skip to the bottom of the page if you want to see my version of Morning Pages.
Morning Pages Prompts
The purpose of Morning Pages is to clear your mind and unleash your creativity. If you're having trouble getting started, here are some prompts to help get the ball rolling:
What are my goals for today?
What are my priorities?
What are 3 things I'm grateful for?
Who do I need to forgive today?
What are my goals for this week/this month/this year?
What am I worrying about?
What am I excited about?
What did I dream about last night?
What's something good that happened yesterday?
What's something challenging that happened yesterday
What did I learn yesterday?
What do I need to let go of?
What do I need more of in my life?
How to Write Morning Pages
To do Morning Pages, you only need a notebook and a pen.
Set a timer for 20-30 minutes, and then start writing. Write down whatever comes to mind - there are no rules or guidelines, just let your thoughts flow. Julia Cameron says not to cross anything out as you write and encourages you to do three pages.
Once the timer goes off, put the notebook away, don’t look at anything you wrote, and start your day.
Try Morning Pages for a week and see how you feel. You may find that it helps you to be more creative, productive, and mindful throughout the day.
How I Write in My Morning Pages Journal
I write tomorrow’s date and 5.__AM in my Morning Pages Journal before I go to bed. I leave my journal open on the desk or table where I will be writing the next morning.
I set my alarm between 5 AM and 6 AM and leave my phone in another room. I put an empty mug next to the kettle or coffee machine, then I go to bed - usually with some fiction reading or meditation before sleep.
The next morning my alarm goes off and I have to get out of bed to turn it off. If I have it by my bed it’s too easy to snooze the alarm or open it and have my day knocked off course.
If I do morning pages before everything else in my day, I get to think for myself each morning, without being bombarded by the rest of the world's problems, or a client who needs help.
I get to clearly define my tasks for the day or my future on my terms.
I can assess my mindset and feelings, untangle any negative thought loops, and prime myself for the day ahead.
Once I’m out of bed, I’m usually still tired - it’s 5AM, what do I expect?
I brew myself a coffee and sit down at my desk. My eyes feel like they are going to fall out on the page. I don’t know what to write and sometimes I don’t want to.
I even drift off to sleep while I write, but when my pen drops out of my hand I usually wake up again.
It might sound ridiculous, but, I think there is a hack here - by training my mind and my nervous system to go straight to my desk where my morning pages journal is sitting there open for me - I know I only have one task. I don’t need much energy to write one word at a time.
I write down the time - 5.18 AM in this case. Then I let the words pour out of me without looking back. I do not cross out any mistakes and I try very hard not to pause and think about what I am going to write next.
It takes me between 20 and 30 minutes to complete my morning pages. After that, I move straight into a chunk of creative writing.
I’ve already done 3 pages of writing, why not get some real creative work done now that I’m warmed up? I’ve dumped out all the shit words that make no sense, and now I can try and put a few sentences together that actually make sense.
I wrote my first Morning Pages entry on July 30th, 2020 after listening to Brian Koppelman and Tim Ferriss speak about Julia Cameron’s novel, The Artists Way.
I had been journaling a few times a week but had no real practice in place. After my first morning, I was instantly hooked although my hand ached.
Two and a half years later, or 828 days, and I have almost never missed a day of pages. I have completed 15 journals of A4 size since then (2786 pages and over half a million words (but whos counting)).
I clearly have a lot to say.
Why do I Use Morning Pages Journals?
1. To perform to the best of my ability every single day.
I love the stoic principle Memento Mori. As Marcus Aurelius said, “You could be taken from life right now”. So it pays to remember your death.
If I want to live my life to the fullest and get out of my damn head, which likes to race around the day and miss a lot of the things happening in my reality, then I have to do morning pages.
2. To achieve something.
Morning pages are one task I can tick off every morning. I feel so productive after I have done just one set of morning pages. I was able to beat Resistance. I sit my ass in my chair and pump out three pages. The rest of the day flows a lot easier. Plus, I get a big hit of dopamine after I finish them.
3. To beat Resistance.
I write for a living and over the past few years, I have experienced my fair share of Resistance. I found morning pages to be the easiest way around and through this resistance. It has helped me complete countless numbers of SEO posts for clients, and even complete a novel (a feat I never thought I would achieve, let alone at 26 years old while building an online business).
4. To be more present.
If I don’t do my pages, I have to manually bring myself to the present. I meditate daily as well, but I even find that tricky if I haven’t done morning pages. I itch and scratch because my brain wants to get words out. But once I do, I can enjoy the company of those I love, I feel more mindful, and I can go out on a long walk and not have my mind race to the next task or two weeks into the future and all the way back again.
5. To tap into the creativity of my subconscious
When I wake up and write my pages, I often feel like I am still in a bit of a dream state. I am tapped more into my subconscious than usual throughout the day when my ego starts to chatter. The creativity that sparks through here often makes me laugh. It’s ridiculous and outrageous and most of the time does not feel like ‘me’ writing it.
More often than not it makes no sense. It is not Pulitzer Prize-winning Prose. It is not going to make any bestseller lists. Hell, I don’t think it would even pass an eighth-grade English test sometimes.
But, it’s fun. It’s challenging, and it helps me crack on with the day while getting my mind to shut the fuck up for a while.
6. Morning meetings with the boss.
I work for myself and do not have someone telling me when to arrive at the office and what to work on. With out morning pages reminding me of my tasks at hand and helping me figure out ways to do them, I would have to go back to a 9-5 and have real meetings with the boss.
Morning pages helped me write this blog post too.
What does Morning Pages feel like for me?
When I sit down and start my morning pages. I like to think of myself as a horse, about to start a big race.
The big race is my day.
The moment I wake up and walk to my desk, I am like a horse jogging out onto the track.
My inner state or mindset is like the noisy stadium, the volume of the crowd is deafening - either cheering me on or shouting abuse, but I can't make out what they are saying, it doesn’t make any sense. The other horses are whinnying in excitement and the jockeys shit-talk to each other.
It's chaotic.
The moment I get into the gates and sit down in my chair to write, the world around me falls silent, and all of the noises fall away.
The starter gun goes off with a bang and I jump out of the gate.
I let my pen flow across the page and the rest of the world dissolves. I can't even hear the crowd now, it's just me and that innate ability to run.
Words flow out at a rate of knots.
The wind against my face calms my monkey mind.
Out in front of the pack, there are no noises to distract me. Nothing but me and the motion of the pen, galloping across the paper, and my pumping heart as I feel myself come to life.
My Morning Pages 2nd November 2022 - 5.18am
I typed these out as they are easier to read that way. My handwriting in Morning Pages is barely legible so it may be easier to read the typed version:
2/11/2022 5.18 AM
Not idly do the leaves of my mind fall. The words that flutter across these pages before the sun comes up in the morning. Another fresh journal to sink my pen into. Another story waiting to be told. I want to fill these pages with my thoughts and consciousness streams about life, positive mindset, thinking and growing rich, presence, and my dreams for the future. How to go big and go after my dreams with aggression. And. Of course, I want to continue my creative drive. Right now, that drive of me feels a little limbo’d, its book is resting for two weeks I know i have another book inside of me. The mind real estate. Basic hypothesis - there is a plot of land inside of your head. That plot of land only has 100m2 - your thoughts are what build the city on that land. Do you think about addiction? About your next fix? About your income & how you make more money? Are you entrepreneurial? Creative? Each person has a mind island that they build - consciously or unconsciously. What would it look like if that was to manifest itself out into the world? You have the power to change your thinking, to change your environment, those that surround you, your jobs & clothes, but can you change your minds island? Oh yes. Of course. But you have to be aware of the island you have created first. What does it look like? I got big dreams. Dreams that carry me through my life. I want to share my writing and my thoughts with the world. I dream of creating value for the world and capturing some of that value. I dream of financial abundance so great I can share it with those aroun me and bring them up to a life of freedom. I dream of running a business I am proud of, one that spreads my core message, one that I can scale beyond the bottleneck of myself, one that allows me to talk deeply and conversate with intelligent, wholesome, creative and powerful beings. I dream of traveling the world, breaking free of my imposing beliefs and bursting through the level that I prescribe myself to. I believe there is greatness inside of me, or being channeled through me like a vessel for the muse. I dream of going on a meditation retreat in Asia, I dream of skiing the European alps, of Great American roadtrips, of hiking mountains, and laying out under the stars. I am so grateful for the life of freedom, love, and creativity that I am living. I get to travel the world with those I love, to create something I am passionate about, to rid myself of needless suffering. There are keys to life, lost in the depths of society, ones that we must find as we voyage through the unknown. We must capture them, relentlessly search within ourselves and the natural world to locate them, and then we must find the lock that they fit into. The treasure chest of life that will swing open and reveal the great bounties of a life fully lived. I wrote ‘The End’ yesterday. A creative journey I have worked 2+ years to get to. A point of pride and satisfaction and success was reached. Writing that novel allowed me to find a true passion for life. It helped me find discipline, discover my art, and it challenged me, resistance ridiculed me and blew me off course, hundreds of miles out into the depths of the dark blue ocean. I knew not where this voyage would take me when I first set out on the adventure. It was a intrepid journey into the unknown, through the fog and high seas. And on the otherside of it, an island of calm, land ahoy, a utopia. I found a way to push through resistance. To sit at my seat every morning and allow the muse to whisper insights and sweet nothings into my ear. I did that by rising from bed between 5 and 6 am nearly every morning for the last 2 months. Just because I wrote the end doesnt mean I will stop pursuing new goals or let resistance pull be back down into laziness, I know it will arise, but the only way to beat him is to get too my desk in the hours before sunrise and tap into something greater than myself. I am grateful for this wonderful life. The awe and magnificence of it all inspires me.
This was 750 words of brain scramble. I would never show this to anyone but I want to prove to you that you can literally write down anything you like. No one cares how bad or confusing it may bed.
My writing in this section is about as messy as my brain feels when I haven’t done my daily cleaning and my thoughts jump around like hundreds of bouncy balls. But, after dumping those out I was able to get on with my day and achieve the tasks I set for myself, while also enjoying the company of my friends as we travel the coast of Croatia.
Tim Ferriss and Brian Koppelman Discussing Morning Pages
This is the section of the podcast that changed my life. You hear about Quake Books. Well, this was a Quake Podcast for me. Something that entirely altered the course of my life, and changed my destiny forever.
Brian Koppelman asked Tim if he free writes in the morning.
Tim says he does journaling, which probably isn’t the same thing as free writing.
Brian asks him how he goes about it. The rest, I have quoted from the Tim Ferriss Podcast show notes:
Tim Ferriss: Well, I’m really just journaling my plans for the day, observing myself as a mindfulness practice, but there’s no real narrative, which I suppose is maybe antithetical to free writing, but it’s mostly trying to just examine where I am psychologically and emotionally prior to starting the day and then setting sort of a framework for not completely self-sabotaging for the rest of the morning and the afternoon.
Brian Koppelman: That’s a great practice to get in.
Tim Ferriss: Yeah. It’s one of those things that won’t go away in the way that would seem to indicate before my time on this earth is expired, I have to do it. I’m going to get into it. I’ll dig in. I’m actually fortunate that I have some time opening up in the next few months to really dedicate to trying to really tackle it properly.
Brian Koppelman: But it never gets totally easy. Creating every day, I just want to say something that – I may sound glib about this stuff, but every day is still, for me, all of that stuff that you have and everybody has, the insecurity, the fear that you’re not good enough, I have to wrestle with every day. Mediating, the Morning Pages, and long walks. You have to – every day it’s about building a practice that enables you to try to forget that you’re afraid.
Morning Pages Summary
A type of journal created by Julia Cameron. These are not even “writing.” Think of it as a brain dump. They can be about anything and everything that crosses your monkey mind—and they are for your eyes only.
Don't overthink your Morning Pages: just put pen to paper for three pages first thing in the morning, and then do three more pages tomorrow.
Do you do morning pages? Leave a comment below if you do! We would love to hear your routine for it.
