I chuckled at “getting up earlier” because that’s exactly what I started doing this summer. I wouldn’t have to if I could just leave the phone alone, but the plus of it has been that I see the sun rise and listen to the birds waking up. It also means that my slow morning routine is complete while it’s still cool enough to work in the garden and I’m seeing the fruits of this practice. (In Florida, if you’re not out there by 7:30, it gets too hot too quickly)
As the weather gets cooler, I should add a morning walk to my routine. Maybe I will, but for now I’ll continue writing in my journal, reading my book for 15 minutes and making my plan for the day as these are the things that keep me sane and focused.
Thanks as always for joining me on the patio this morning.
I love hearing these markers of morning for you.... and yes.... how they shift with seasons and months. The routine you have now sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing morning with me here - and in the drawing group!
Yellow 😊 Every time I see one of those lists online, I think “How am I supposed to know that you want me to not use my phone if your advice is online?” However, I could see the benefit of not doing so 1st thing. It is the anchor of my mornings, though. Coffee, Wordle, check weather, check family updates in their various chat groups and then wraps up with making sure the boys have made it to their morning destinations (or at least their phones have 😬).
A shake up of routine might be a good thing. Have a great Sunday (whenever you see this 🤭)
Lol. Exactly! That’s exactly the rant I usually make. Funny you mentioned wordle. Even when I made my list of options, I included wordle and connections (both of which I typically play at night) and then realized it seemed kind of odd to put phone things on the list. Hah! That it can be the anchor but maybe not first thing I think is exactly where I landed. Have a good week - and thank you for commenting. Yellow!
I tried it yesterday morning and found it incredibly hard! I was going to try this morning, as well, and was half way through reading an email before I even realized I was even doing it. Oh boy…
I always forget about Connections! I’m going to try to remember that one. I usually go straight into the crosswords.
- I open the door for the dogs, then fill up food and water bowls around the house. I toast a cinnamon swirl bagel and make myself an iced coffee. I take my morning meds and return to my room.
- On a good morning, my youngest child is still asleep. During waking hours, he demands that I not leave the room for more than a few minutes, which limits my ability to complete tasks around the rest of the house. On a good day I can empty the dishwasher or start a load of laundry before I make my coffee.
- Then I pick up my phone. I have a bad habit of watching a tv show at the same time, which I can’t usually follow while I’m reading emails or Instagram posts. Some mornings I wake up inspired to draw something in my journal that I didn’t get to the night before, but sometimes I get involved in scrolling and run out of time. It is very easy for me to get sucked into something and run out of time.
If I could add something to this routine, it would be meditation. My house is very full of distractors, and while I am pretty good at tuning things out, it has dampened my enthusiasm.
I’m impressed that you don’t reach for the phone first..... It is hard to fit everything that has to happen into those minutes alone. I hope there is some you time in there. If meditation sounds good to you, maybe the first three minutes? I wish for you a bit of a breather this week at some point.
I look at my phone before I get out of bed every single day. 😔 I tell myself it's because my mother is elderly and lives alone, so I check to make sure that there are no calls I've missed from her. But it's also to feed my secret dopamine addiction. What have I missed in the online worlds??
I like writing morning pages. More than anything else, it's just my quiet time. I usually play quiet classical or jazz music and just write and sip coffee. But I'm on again off again with the practice. I'm not a morning person in any way, shape, or form. Most work days, I wake up with barely the slice of time required to turn on the coffee maker, throw on some clothes, and log into work. 😕 I've tried so many times to force myself to bed earlier, to wake sooner, to change this nasty habit, but mornings are very difficult for me. They always have been. I'm trying to accept that I'm just a night person and that it's ok, but it feels awful to constantly wake up feeling dragged directly to the desk.
Thanks, as always, for your lovely writing to start my Sunday. 💙💜🩷
I know the roll out of bed, make coffee, log in routine (no matter what time it is) very well, so I hear you. I’ve gotten better about delaying that “start.” If you can find the bit of time, it (morning) can be really nice.... sounds like you DO have it when you do your pages with music and coffee. I understand about the “what if I missed an urgent message,” too. (You probably have certain people in your phone with ring tones that play no matter what.... so you would know. I do, and yet I still have that same thought.) Thanks for admitting you get this and do reach for the phone. Restarting my analog morning writing is part of where I’m at.... and I think that’s a good thing. Thank you for reading and commenting.
That writing is part of the scaffolding of three is wonderful, Fran. I love seeing that. Being pragmatic about what works is definitely important, but you have a good a la carte menu of things you shift to after the first three! Do you write somewhere specific (in front of a window maybe you said)? Thank you for sharing “A” words, too. Have a good week!
I have a desk in front of a window, yes, that looks out onto trees and sky. A recliner faces another window. Sometimes I write there, using a TV tray to hold the laptop. I always write on a portable keyboard, often held in my lap.
I like writing what I call “triads,” three words that just come. I always find something to say that seems fresh, at least to me.
Axis, acapella, asinine. My morning routine is usually to scroll on my phone a few minutes, care for my son and pets, and start on housework. As soon as I wake up, the to do list starts forming in my mind and I feel like I need to get busy and get things done. I've been getting better at taking a few minutes for myself here and there throughout the day, but I wish my mornings were less hectic.
Oh, Susan.... I wish there was a way to bundle some of the minutes you are finding throughout the day and put them into a little 10 or 15 minute pocket of morning to give you time for you to start the day. What would you do in that time if you could add something? Freewrite (morning pages)? Gratitudes? Affirmations? Intentions? Just enjoy the quiet with a cup of something?
Mango. My morning normally includes checking he weather, planning my day, fixing breakfast and weighing myself. Your post was a good reminder that I want to go back to setting an intention for the day as soon as I wake up. Some gratitude lists would be a good idea too. Avarice, anteater and artichoke.
Mango! Both things you mentioned can be such powerful additions.... Either might slide easily into the planning the day time. The “A” words are proving surprising!
Love the sketch notes/illustrations in this post , Amy.
Color: orange.
3 words: adept, angelic, antagonist
This week I’ve been pretty sleepy in the mornings and thinking more about my late night routine/productivity habits since that’s when I’ve been able to prioritize writing pages for a writing challenge with self-imposed deadlines. I’m just under halfway done with the challenge. Personally, I seem to have low creative focus in the mornings before work and the least amount of mental energy late afternoons/early evenings; plus lots of household/extracurricular obligations between 5-8:30ish, so I’ve been writing for this challenge/project between 9 and midnight.
Curious if all the Instagram followers you lost were just accounts that left the platform. I haven’t quit that platform or unfollowed anyone recently but I’m on it less and less these days.
Interesting, true, about start and end of day differences and how we each occupy those hours differently. I am thinking of this bit of morning as separate from my productive time.... (which is why limiting it to start makes sense to me). Definitely don’t want to lose the chunk of time I am using! So no gentle ease into the day happening for you? I hope the writing project is going well .... precursor project to NaNoWriMo? Thank you for commenting on the illustrations. I really appreciate that. And thank you for the A words!
Yes I don’t think “easing gently into my day” is how I’d describe the way I experience or navigate my mornings. :) And, yes! The current writing project coincides as an early, twice-as-fast version of NaNoWriMo, which ...although I like the collective energy of a challenge like that... I didn’t want to wait for November because I had a draft idea already brewing in my mind. If I keep up my current pace, I’m hoping I’ll be progressing into editing/revising during November (instead of first-draft creation during that month).
There is no yoga or writing of affirmations or meditation or walking around the block in the dark, no chugging of water, with or without lemon.” This made me chuckle Amy. My morning: let the dogs out, coffee, CBS Mornings while I check email/texts, Wordle + Connections, then Words With Friends (yep, I still play with about 4-5). I’m curious about the parrots in your area...how far are you from the fellow who has the documentary out? (Was that Telegraph Hill or Twin Peaks?) Whichever, very cool :)
A good morning routine, Carol.... and connected. But I know you well enough to imagine you do it peacefully, too. It’s funny the line you quoted.... one of those things is in the list I chose. Hah! As for the parrots.... same kind.... that documentary (and book) is about the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. I think there are several groups that move around the city. I hear them (and catch a glimpse in passing) fairly often (hear more than see).... I always hope they will land somewhere that I can REALLY see them at some point. Hasn’t happened yet. They always feel a bit like a symbol. And, of course, I collect symbols ;)
"What about the wedge of morning, a sliver, just before that?" - I like the idea of a little carve-out, like shaking the package to see if you can guess what's there before you open it. But, I worry about setting myself up for failure. Like you, I justify checking the phone for messages from my faraway family, and then one thing leads to the next. Perhaps I could constrain myself to looking for those, and to replying only if they warrant instant response, which they usually don't. No reels, or stories, or goofy app videos. No going off to see what waits for me in email. Thanks for the idea.
Color: Rust
Words: Aspire, attachment, adjust
Thanks, Amy....always good to think things through with you.
I’m giving it a try. Days 1 and 2 were.... difficult (and fascinating to watch from the outside and realize how difficult). I do have certain tones set for people that would make me know if it was something important, I think. Plus, I’ve rationalized to myself that the 15 minutes I’m delaying picking up the phone will surely not be the end of the world. (I’ll hope that’s not a rash statement.) We’ll see how it goes! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good week. I like your shaking the package analogy.
I would like to do a little doodling/writing/creative bit first thing in the morning with my coffee. Usually it’s email, Instagram, to do list. Maybe I could work in paper and pencil before that... I’m enjoying ending my evening with drawing lately, why not begin it too!
Instagram is weird anymore. It’s definitely not the clowns. I love the clowns!
Thank you for the A words and for sharing your morning. Other than our group, I don’t usually draw in the morning either. But it would be good, yes! I am enjoying more writing and more reading, both already as a byproduct of changing my morning this week.
Amy I loved this post so much and I am coming back to comment- I feel pressured to make “substantive” comments that “count” on substack, I don’t know if that makes them harder or easier for you to read and respond to! I’ve given a critical look at my morning routines based on working through “the artist’s way” over the past couple months. I do the morning pages and I never, never, never thought that would be me, until I finally picked up that book! Thank you again for that book recco and for all you to keep up the dialog about our creativity and how we approach it in the context of our days/lives/worlds. I really wouldn’t be where I am now in my creative journey if it weren’t for your podcasts, substack, FB group, and everything else.
Oh, no! No pressure, Lauren. That’s a really interesting comment though about substack.... I’m hoping that’s an overall comment and not just something you feel reading mine? I am glad you are enjoying The Artist’s Way.... I didn’t read it, but I did do a group read earlier this year of one of her more recent books (all writes ups are here in the read along tab). The months when I was writing in the morning first thing were really important.... and I’m finding getting back to that is good for me, too. I really appreciate your words. You are making amazing art and seem very on top of things and good at keeping it all balanced. I really am grateful for your presence in my spaces.... all of the places we interact. Have a good hump day.
I am an (extremely) early riser. And I cherish the quiet darkness of the wee hours before the sun ☀️ rises each day.
These early hours have always been the only time I can write freely and uninterrupted by my easily-distractible brain or other miscellaneous daily tangents.
☮️ These hours are the foundation of peace for me. I need literal hours of stillness daily.
I love how these patterns are often so much a part of how we know and identify ourselves. I do love the morning window for writing. I believe you commented on the portals in your Instagram comment, and thank you for that. Thanks for reading and sharing your A words!
I chuckled at “getting up earlier” because that’s exactly what I started doing this summer. I wouldn’t have to if I could just leave the phone alone, but the plus of it has been that I see the sun rise and listen to the birds waking up. It also means that my slow morning routine is complete while it’s still cool enough to work in the garden and I’m seeing the fruits of this practice. (In Florida, if you’re not out there by 7:30, it gets too hot too quickly)
As the weather gets cooler, I should add a morning walk to my routine. Maybe I will, but for now I’ll continue writing in my journal, reading my book for 15 minutes and making my plan for the day as these are the things that keep me sane and focused.
Thanks as always for joining me on the patio this morning.
I love hearing these markers of morning for you.... and yes.... how they shift with seasons and months. The routine you have now sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing morning with me here - and in the drawing group!
Yellow 😊 Every time I see one of those lists online, I think “How am I supposed to know that you want me to not use my phone if your advice is online?” However, I could see the benefit of not doing so 1st thing. It is the anchor of my mornings, though. Coffee, Wordle, check weather, check family updates in their various chat groups and then wraps up with making sure the boys have made it to their morning destinations (or at least their phones have 😬).
A shake up of routine might be a good thing. Have a great Sunday (whenever you see this 🤭)
Lol. Exactly! That’s exactly the rant I usually make. Funny you mentioned wordle. Even when I made my list of options, I included wordle and connections (both of which I typically play at night) and then realized it seemed kind of odd to put phone things on the list. Hah! That it can be the anchor but maybe not first thing I think is exactly where I landed. Have a good week - and thank you for commenting. Yellow!
I tried it yesterday morning and found it incredibly hard! I was going to try this morning, as well, and was half way through reading an email before I even realized I was even doing it. Oh boy…
I always forget about Connections! I’m going to try to remember that one. I usually go straight into the crosswords.
- I open the door for the dogs, then fill up food and water bowls around the house. I toast a cinnamon swirl bagel and make myself an iced coffee. I take my morning meds and return to my room.
- On a good morning, my youngest child is still asleep. During waking hours, he demands that I not leave the room for more than a few minutes, which limits my ability to complete tasks around the rest of the house. On a good day I can empty the dishwasher or start a load of laundry before I make my coffee.
- Then I pick up my phone. I have a bad habit of watching a tv show at the same time, which I can’t usually follow while I’m reading emails or Instagram posts. Some mornings I wake up inspired to draw something in my journal that I didn’t get to the night before, but sometimes I get involved in scrolling and run out of time. It is very easy for me to get sucked into something and run out of time.
If I could add something to this routine, it would be meditation. My house is very full of distractors, and while I am pretty good at tuning things out, it has dampened my enthusiasm.
Acrimonious, abnormal, a silver assault.
I’m impressed that you don’t reach for the phone first..... It is hard to fit everything that has to happen into those minutes alone. I hope there is some you time in there. If meditation sounds good to you, maybe the first three minutes? I wish for you a bit of a breather this week at some point.
Amorphous, anachronism, apparition
Thank you for contributing A words, Adah!
Turquoise (tur-kwahz), attitude, angel, assemblage.
I look at my phone before I get out of bed every single day. 😔 I tell myself it's because my mother is elderly and lives alone, so I check to make sure that there are no calls I've missed from her. But it's also to feed my secret dopamine addiction. What have I missed in the online worlds??
I like writing morning pages. More than anything else, it's just my quiet time. I usually play quiet classical or jazz music and just write and sip coffee. But I'm on again off again with the practice. I'm not a morning person in any way, shape, or form. Most work days, I wake up with barely the slice of time required to turn on the coffee maker, throw on some clothes, and log into work. 😕 I've tried so many times to force myself to bed earlier, to wake sooner, to change this nasty habit, but mornings are very difficult for me. They always have been. I'm trying to accept that I'm just a night person and that it's ok, but it feels awful to constantly wake up feeling dragged directly to the desk.
Thanks, as always, for your lovely writing to start my Sunday. 💙💜🩷
I know the roll out of bed, make coffee, log in routine (no matter what time it is) very well, so I hear you. I’ve gotten better about delaying that “start.” If you can find the bit of time, it (morning) can be really nice.... sounds like you DO have it when you do your pages with music and coffee. I understand about the “what if I missed an urgent message,” too. (You probably have certain people in your phone with ring tones that play no matter what.... so you would know. I do, and yet I still have that same thought.) Thanks for admitting you get this and do reach for the phone. Restarting my analog morning writing is part of where I’m at.... and I think that’s a good thing. Thank you for reading and commenting.
I struggle with it, but I keep trying. Something has to click sometime.
A words: Attitude
Alchemy
Anarchy
Each more visceral that the previous
I’ve written for years about morning routines. How I plan one out and it lasts for, oh, a day.
Morning and disability really don’t mix. Too many things take too long. So I stick with
1. Getting out of bed
2. Showering (not every day)/dressing
3. Writing exercise
After that, in no particular order: breakfast, time outdoors, writing for Substack.
Email, I don’t want to think about.
Coffee, not necessary, but I like the taste of it.
And I’m not good at putting the NYT Spelling Bee off till later in the day.
That writing is part of the scaffolding of three is wonderful, Fran. I love seeing that. Being pragmatic about what works is definitely important, but you have a good a la carte menu of things you shift to after the first three! Do you write somewhere specific (in front of a window maybe you said)? Thank you for sharing “A” words, too. Have a good week!
I have a desk in front of a window, yes, that looks out onto trees and sky. A recliner faces another window. Sometimes I write there, using a TV tray to hold the laptop. I always write on a portable keyboard, often held in my lap.
I like writing what I call “triads,” three words that just come. I always find something to say that seems fresh, at least to me.
Axis, acapella, asinine. My morning routine is usually to scroll on my phone a few minutes, care for my son and pets, and start on housework. As soon as I wake up, the to do list starts forming in my mind and I feel like I need to get busy and get things done. I've been getting better at taking a few minutes for myself here and there throughout the day, but I wish my mornings were less hectic.
Oh, Susan.... I wish there was a way to bundle some of the minutes you are finding throughout the day and put them into a little 10 or 15 minute pocket of morning to give you time for you to start the day. What would you do in that time if you could add something? Freewrite (morning pages)? Gratitudes? Affirmations? Intentions? Just enjoy the quiet with a cup of something?
Mango. My morning normally includes checking he weather, planning my day, fixing breakfast and weighing myself. Your post was a good reminder that I want to go back to setting an intention for the day as soon as I wake up. Some gratitude lists would be a good idea too. Avarice, anteater and artichoke.
Mango! Both things you mentioned can be such powerful additions.... Either might slide easily into the planning the day time. The “A” words are proving surprising!
Love the sketch notes/illustrations in this post , Amy.
Color: orange.
3 words: adept, angelic, antagonist
This week I’ve been pretty sleepy in the mornings and thinking more about my late night routine/productivity habits since that’s when I’ve been able to prioritize writing pages for a writing challenge with self-imposed deadlines. I’m just under halfway done with the challenge. Personally, I seem to have low creative focus in the mornings before work and the least amount of mental energy late afternoons/early evenings; plus lots of household/extracurricular obligations between 5-8:30ish, so I’ve been writing for this challenge/project between 9 and midnight.
Curious if all the Instagram followers you lost were just accounts that left the platform. I haven’t quit that platform or unfollowed anyone recently but I’m on it less and less these days.
Interesting, true, about start and end of day differences and how we each occupy those hours differently. I am thinking of this bit of morning as separate from my productive time.... (which is why limiting it to start makes sense to me). Definitely don’t want to lose the chunk of time I am using! So no gentle ease into the day happening for you? I hope the writing project is going well .... precursor project to NaNoWriMo? Thank you for commenting on the illustrations. I really appreciate that. And thank you for the A words!
Yes I don’t think “easing gently into my day” is how I’d describe the way I experience or navigate my mornings. :) And, yes! The current writing project coincides as an early, twice-as-fast version of NaNoWriMo, which ...although I like the collective energy of a challenge like that... I didn’t want to wait for November because I had a draft idea already brewing in my mind. If I keep up my current pace, I’m hoping I’ll be progressing into editing/revising during November (instead of first-draft creation during that month).
“My mornings are fine. They involve screens.
There is no yoga or writing of affirmations or meditation or walking around the block in the dark, no chugging of water, with or without lemon.” This made me chuckle Amy. My morning: let the dogs out, coffee, CBS Mornings while I check email/texts, Wordle + Connections, then Words With Friends (yep, I still play with about 4-5). I’m curious about the parrots in your area...how far are you from the fellow who has the documentary out? (Was that Telegraph Hill or Twin Peaks?) Whichever, very cool :)
A good morning routine, Carol.... and connected. But I know you well enough to imagine you do it peacefully, too. It’s funny the line you quoted.... one of those things is in the list I chose. Hah! As for the parrots.... same kind.... that documentary (and book) is about the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. I think there are several groups that move around the city. I hear them (and catch a glimpse in passing) fairly often (hear more than see).... I always hope they will land somewhere that I can REALLY see them at some point. Hasn’t happened yet. They always feel a bit like a symbol. And, of course, I collect symbols ;)
"What about the wedge of morning, a sliver, just before that?" - I like the idea of a little carve-out, like shaking the package to see if you can guess what's there before you open it. But, I worry about setting myself up for failure. Like you, I justify checking the phone for messages from my faraway family, and then one thing leads to the next. Perhaps I could constrain myself to looking for those, and to replying only if they warrant instant response, which they usually don't. No reels, or stories, or goofy app videos. No going off to see what waits for me in email. Thanks for the idea.
Color: Rust
Words: Aspire, attachment, adjust
Thanks, Amy....always good to think things through with you.
I’m giving it a try. Days 1 and 2 were.... difficult (and fascinating to watch from the outside and realize how difficult). I do have certain tones set for people that would make me know if it was something important, I think. Plus, I’ve rationalized to myself that the 15 minutes I’m delaying picking up the phone will surely not be the end of the world. (I’ll hope that’s not a rash statement.) We’ll see how it goes! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good week. I like your shaking the package analogy.
Red is the first color that came to mind in my active, amusing, and amazing day!
Thank you for sharing your A words and color!
I would like to do a little doodling/writing/creative bit first thing in the morning with my coffee. Usually it’s email, Instagram, to do list. Maybe I could work in paper and pencil before that... I’m enjoying ending my evening with drawing lately, why not begin it too!
Instagram is weird anymore. It’s definitely not the clowns. I love the clowns!
Airy. Applesauce. Accept.
Thank you for the A words and for sharing your morning. Other than our group, I don’t usually draw in the morning either. But it would be good, yes! I am enjoying more writing and more reading, both already as a byproduct of changing my morning this week.
Amy I loved this post so much and I am coming back to comment- I feel pressured to make “substantive” comments that “count” on substack, I don’t know if that makes them harder or easier for you to read and respond to! I’ve given a critical look at my morning routines based on working through “the artist’s way” over the past couple months. I do the morning pages and I never, never, never thought that would be me, until I finally picked up that book! Thank you again for that book recco and for all you to keep up the dialog about our creativity and how we approach it in the context of our days/lives/worlds. I really wouldn’t be where I am now in my creative journey if it weren’t for your podcasts, substack, FB group, and everything else.
Oh, no! No pressure, Lauren. That’s a really interesting comment though about substack.... I’m hoping that’s an overall comment and not just something you feel reading mine? I am glad you are enjoying The Artist’s Way.... I didn’t read it, but I did do a group read earlier this year of one of her more recent books (all writes ups are here in the read along tab). The months when I was writing in the morning first thing were really important.... and I’m finding getting back to that is good for me, too. I really appreciate your words. You are making amazing art and seem very on top of things and good at keeping it all balanced. I really am grateful for your presence in my spaces.... all of the places we interact. Have a good hump day.
🟧 orange / adaptive, astonished, accentuate
I am an (extremely) early riser. And I cherish the quiet darkness of the wee hours before the sun ☀️ rises each day.
These early hours have always been the only time I can write freely and uninterrupted by my easily-distractible brain or other miscellaneous daily tangents.
☮️ These hours are the foundation of peace for me. I need literal hours of stillness daily.
I love how these patterns are often so much a part of how we know and identify ourselves. I do love the morning window for writing. I believe you commented on the portals in your Instagram comment, and thank you for that. Thanks for reading and sharing your A words!