100 days of the Morning 750: The benefits of a morning freewrite
Some people start the day with email. (Ugh.)
Some lace up their running shoes first thing. (Better.)
For the last 100 days, I’ve started my day with:
Black coffee
Water
Writing 750 words
Fair question.
It started with reading Julia Cameron’s classic The Artist’s Way. The magic in that book is this:
Creativity is not ego driven. It’s spiritual. The ego attempts to control, shape, and be defined by, our creativity. That’s limiting. We need to learn to settle the ego down and just create.
To quiet our egos and learn to just create, Cameron recommends we start every day by writing The Morning Pages.
But there’s a twist: Cameron insists morning pages be hand-written.
Which I did for a few weeks. But writing by hand drove me crazy. So I found another way.
Making the most of typing your Morning 750
Cameron argues the slower pace of writing by hand draws out insights and creativity you would otherwise miss.
But there's a counterpoint: your hand cannot keep up with your brain. The thoughts you want to share fly by and evaporation before your hand can record them. Not optimal, either. What’s the alternative?
Turns out there’s a secret society of folks who type their morning pages. There's even a web site for it.
Typing my morning pages cut writing time from 45-55 minutes to as few as 20, and rarely more than 30.
And even with the increased speed, you can slow down the writing process to allow thoughts to develop.
Just stop.
Stop typing for a minute. Breathe. Close your eyes and let your mind settle. If something deeper is trying to surface, it will rise up and out in those moments.
Often, we don’t have to choose between A or B. We can select “and” instead of “or.” Typing my Morning 750 lets me capture fleeting thoughts and pause when something deeper is trying to surface itself.
Choosing writing topics for the Morning 750
There’s only one rule when selecting topics for the Morning 750: Do. Not. Censor.
The ego, the center of self-censure, is not invited to the party. Thoughts and ideas are allowed to free-flow. For me, subjects might include:
Recapping negative events from day prior
Recapping positive events from day prior
Prayers
Brainstorming
Day planning
Work strategy
Article ideas
Twitter content
Relationship strategy / issues
Parenting strategy / issues
Feelings of anxiety/excitement/etc.
“No rules, just write,” to play off the Outback Steakhouse slogan.
No publishing allowed
OK, so there is another rule: The Morning 750 isn’t intended to be shared.
Portions of your writing might be used later (this is often the case with my Morning 750), but it’s important that your brain understands you aren’t writing for an external audience. We’re not creating a public journal.
We’re working on eliminating self-censure, and the brain can relax a little bit more when it knows the words will stay private.
What are the benefits?
What’s changed as a result of sticking with the Morning 750? Plenty.
Taking out the trash
The Morning Pages empty the garbage out of your head so you don’t have to carry it around all day. You can get on with the act of creating, working, and living without all the limiting and distracting brain chatter.
Don’t worry: your brain creates new chatter as the day goes on. But that’s the beauty of the Morning 750. You just take out the trash again the next day.
Valuable ideas and insights
Morning Pages are not all trash. You will capture things worth keeping and reusing, which is why I now write my Morning 750 in Roam Research.
Each day, the first line of my Daily Note in Roam is tagged [[Morning 750]], with the current time and a word count. And then I write 750 words underneath it. If a particular block is useful, I’ll tag it appropriately to retrieve later.
A little less conversation, a little more action
Starting every single day with action—and without contemplation—bleeds into other areas of my life. Traditionally, I’ve been adept at thinking my way out of doing anything that might be too uncomfortable.
Now, that’s changing. And it’s because of the Morning 750.
Freewriting created an action-oriented groove in my brain. I think, “Yes, writing this might be emotionally painful, or the process may be slow and difficult. But I’m doing it anyway.”
This mindset now appears elsewhere in my life. Huge, unanticipated change.
Writing breakthroughs
While I can’t fully attribute this to the Morning 750, I recently wrote my most popular article of all time: “James (Altucher) vs. Jerry (Seinfeld): Avoid these writing mistakes to persuade like a pro”
After I published the article, James Altucher himself reached out. He said he loved the article, and republished it in his newsletter and on his own website.
Many factors went into writing that piece, but clearing the cobwebs from my brain and creating the action habit—both attributable to the Morning 750—helped clear the path for the creation of the piece.
Just start typing
Try the Morning 750 for a week.
If 750 words seems too daunting, then write five sentences. A few days later, write ten. Like exercise, there’s nothing wrong with building up endurance.
Like the words you put on the page, there are no rules to the Morning 750. Create the habit. Stay with it. And reap the rewards.