Question: Do you have a Morning Routine?

 

Recently, I’ve had a rash of thoughtful conversations about Morning Routines. The other day at work my friend and colleague Racquel Keller, with whom I share the painting classroom, rushed in somewhat flustered as I was packing up to leave, and she was setting up for her class.  ‘I’m feeling a little frazzled today - I didn’t get through my morning routine.’

OMG… me TOO!

Just that morning my OWN morning routine had been interrupted several times. I’d overslept. Then the kid (understandably) needed breakfast, an unexpected logistics decision had to be made, a specific shirt could not be located, the cat may or may not have contributed to some mess on the floor. Each interruption made me grumpier and grumpier, until finally I gave up in a huff, and went (begrudgingly) about my day. 

Having a morning routine is still a relatively new phenomenon for me, and as I drove to school I wondered - why do I care so much about something I’ve existed happily without for so long? Is it worth it, if I wind up dissatisfied and grumpy about an otherwise normal morning? I posed these questions to Racquel.

“I think it’s because of the pandemic. Now that things are getting back to normal, I think we feel the need to reclaim something (time? balance?) that we had when we were working from home.”

Bingo. 

I mentioned this to our Illustration teacher, Carrie Rennolds, when the subject or Morning Routines came up again a few days later. Carrie said “I don’t want to go back to deprioritizing my own needs.”

(aside: I feel very lucky to work with such insightful humans!)

I began my Morning Routine when Nikki, Lauren, and I did Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way together. Julia’s program mandates three full pages of long-hand, no agenda writing first thing every morning, and to be honest, I was not excited about it. I’ve never been much of a journaler, and I hate getting up early, so I was surprised by how quickly I came to depend on those few quiet moments at the start of my day. Life being what it is, I’m continually having to reevaluate, hone, and tweak the morning routine (helloooo Daylight Saving’s time). I’m also getting better at not becoming a grouch when things don’t go to plan. 

Anyway, the basic elements of my Morning Routine have emerged: 

• Wake up before I absolutely have to

• warm tea (ideally in a sunny chair)

• quiet reflection time for writing (10-30 minutes)

• a little walk outside (No bad weather, only inappropriate clothing!)

Tons of research confirms that a dose of exercise and morning sunshine does wonders for the quality of our sleep and mood, but it’s taken me a while to figure out what I get out of the writing. Back in highschool and college, I would often write, or at least refine, the thesis statement  for my papers last, which is backwards of course, but I found that I needed to blather for a while to discover what I was really trying to say. I think the morning writing does something like that for my day. I have to blather, in full sentences, about my grocery and to-do lists, and all yesterday’s minor comings and goings, before I can noodle out what I want out of today. With the morning pages completed, I find that I move through my day in a more focused way - I’m making dozens of tiny decisions that move me incrementally closer to completing  projects, and are more aligned with my core values. I’m better able to prioritize things I care about, like exercise and family time, instead of ‘saving’ those for the end of the day, when more often than not they get rushed or short-changed. It’s also a way to keep the conversations and ideas I’m exploring in the studio front of mind, even on days when I don’t make it there in person. The morning pages help me identify and accomplish teeny studio-related tasks on my off-days, which means I can be more productive when I’m actually there. 

It’s possible that I’m crossing items off my lists of goals and to-do’s at a slightly faster rate, but even if this is all in my head, I feel more satisfied with my day when I start with the Morning Routine, and to me, that makes it well worth the trouble.

So I ask you - do you  have a morning routine? And if so, what does it do for you? I’d love to hear!