I realized when I started my new job that the best way to start a day is to do something that makes you feel really good. It might be going for a run, eating a great breakfast, or even reading this blog. Whatever it is, everyone should do something they really enjoy in the morning.
I've learned this year that taking the time to write in the morning almost guarantees I’ll have a good day. I think this speaks to some kind of truth or wisdom about how to have a good time doing anything – what starts well ends well. For me, getting some writing done early means the next fourteen to eighteen hours are essentially ‘house money’ because of how well the day started.
My target wakeup time of six AM leaves me with between one and two hours each morning for writing. This is a long time to do almost anything – let alone write – and certainly plenty for the demands of this blog. I had to make some basic adjustments to allow myself to have all this time at the start of the day (rather than it being spread across the afternoon and evening). The biggest change is how I now include anything ‘writing related’ in this morning writing period. In the past, I never proofread or typed up book notes in the morning. These days, though, it is a little different thanks to the reality of committing a big chunk of weekday time to a full-time gig.
I suppose this mentality speaks well to my personal growth over the past three to four years. It’s not only because of writing that I’ve become more resilient to trivial setbacks and better able to focus on the best part of a long day. But I know writing in the morning really helps regulate my mood. To put the previous point more bluntly, a shitty day rolls right off my back now if it comes after a couple hours of writing. The past few months aren’t the first time I’ve ever rolled with the punches, of course, but in the past I was more likely to stew on problems overnight or even through the weekend. These days, I don’t get down about anything work related if I had managed to write that morning.
The other half of this personal growth is the ease of my self-expression. If I break down what I’m really doing when I write, I see how writing is a way to express how I feel or work out what my thinking is about a topic. Practicing these skills every morning has naturally bled over into the other parts of my life. When people ask me how work is going these days, I'm able to tell them because I've practiced in a way through writing. This is a big change from the past when I would simply announce that things were ‘fine’ or ‘good’ without giving it much thought. It’s been a small change but an important one.
