Productivity Tip: How Three Pages of Morning Longhand is Changing My Life

I have always wanted to keep a journal. I've always failed.

I viewed journaling as something done in the evenings, when I would write down the activities of the day.

I've always been sort of impersonal about these things. I'd disconnect, write a few sentences, and then stop after a few days because it didn't mean anything. In fact, it was so impersonal that I could never understand (even as a teenager) what the big deal was with privacy.

Morning Pages helped a journalistic failure to finally keep a daily journal!
(Source CC BY)

You probably can't relate to this, and I get that. Most people understand journaling to be a process of pouring one's thoughts onto the page. But I've never been great at the "personal" element. (This is probably one of the reasons that so many of my blogs have failed.)

This year, I committed to keeping a journal because nothing else was going right. I know, I know: Dumb reason to decide to do something, and it breaks with my notion of keeping things positive. I've tried bullet journaling; I've kept a Life Planner; I struggle to complete and keep up with my Rituals for Living Dreambook. Just keeping it real here: I'm a mess.

But! There was salvation! I read about Morning Pages in a roundabout way. Someone (and you'll have to forgive me but I've forgotten who. Probably Boho Berry) had blogged about morning writing as part of Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning*. I don't remember the specifics, but the topic of Morning Pages stuck with me.

What Are Morning Pages?

Morning pages are simply three pages of long-hand journaling that take place in the morning, preferably immediately after waking up. It is a process of letting go of the bitterness and anxiety that accumulates throughout the day and while we sleep, pouring it onto the page, and releasing it for the rest of the day.

It is intentionally negative, because this process of complaining into a journal clears the mind to permit the positive to fill it.

It's easy to do:

1. Open your journal.
2. Pick up a pen.
3. Write three pages of whatever's on your mind.

It honestly isn't any more complicated than that. 

Morning journaling is easy: Grab your favorite journal and a pen, and get to writing three pages!
(Source CC BY)

Why Is This A Good Thing?

I hear you in the back: You're asking how something positive can come out of negativity. If our goal is to live a magical life and to welcome positive, happy things into our lives, what business do we have writing down our complaints?

Here's a simple truth as people living magical lives know it: Like attracts like. If you wallow in anxiety and negativity, you will attract anxiety and negativity into your life. Do you remember watching The Secret*? (If you haven't, you should!) What you think about, you attract.

Yeah, I get it. You're worried that writing down the complaints will attract more of what you're complaining about. Maybe I had a fight with my husband and I write in my journal about how much he irritates me sometimes. Won't that attract more of those kinds of fights and irritating behaviors?

Actually, no. Here's why:

When you take the time in the morning to write about the various complaints and anxieties that you experience (maybe they kept you up the previous night), you're "dumping" them onto the page. The process of writing these complaints down longhand releases them into the journal and out of your mind.

I won't promise that you'll never think about the things you're complaining about again, but I will tell you that this has helped me to release most of my anxiety and bitterness. As someone who has struggled with anxiety and PTSD symptoms for many years, this has been a gods-send!

Once you release the complaints onto the page, you will find yourself thinking less about them. 

This clears mental energy for focusing on the things that matter: Creativity and productivity.

Since I began doing morning pages, I've been more creative and more driven to write. I'm less anxious and I spend less time thinking about the things that make me worry. Instead, my mind can focus on the things that I want to get out of my life, not on the things that could possibly go wrong. Once they're written down, that part of my worry is over and I can move on in a healthy way.

(It is healthy, in particular, because writing my worries out is a way of dealing with them. Not only do I deal with the anxiety and the worry, but I put it somewhere that I no longer have to concern myself with it.)

How Does This Improve Productivity?

Morning Pages have improved my productivity by clearing my mind of all the "buildup" and giving me the energy to think about the things that matter. When I write in the mornings, I find that I am more able to focus on the important daily tasks. I'm less stressed and therefore with a bit of coffee (a stimulant -- I have ADD) I can focus through the rest of the day.

It's done one other thing for me. 

I write in free-association, one topic often following another. Sometimes I jump around (which is more the purpose of Morning Pages), but most of the time one thought flows into the next. This is a known tool for creativity that helps me to brainstorm ideas for blog posts and to create an action plan for my day.

Whenever I come up with an idea that would do well in the blog, I index it in the index of my Leuchtturm* (which I use as my journal). That way I can reference it when I'm ready to write that blog post.

Nothing (and I do mean nothing) has provided me with more confidence in my blogging adventure than morning journaling.

How Three Pages of Longhand Have Made Me More Productive

• I get the negativity out of my head before I can begin my day. If it makes me anxious, it's on the page. If it irritated me, it's on the page. If I'm worried about it, it's on the page. Once it's on the page, it's no longer in my mind. Try it; I think you'll find it works for you, too!
• It helps to generate ideas. I think faster than I write (don't we all?) and therefore the process of writing something down gives me time to consider it and to commit it to memory. Even if I wouldn't remember it, now it's down on the page and I keep an index of ideas!
• It's a ritual. I've not had the opportunity to talk about rituals and their importance to productivity yet, but I will. So many blog posts to write, so little time! (And a schedule, of course!). This morning ritual is one of the ways that I jump-start my day, along with a cup of coffee and breakfast!

How can spending an hour writing in the morning create more time later in the day?
Try it and find out!
(Source CC BY)

What has your experience been with morning journaling? Is this something you plan to try? Share in the comments! Don't forget to pin and share this post!

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