Daily Writing for Clarity

Last month I started writing morning pages and kept at it every day.

If you’ve never heard of this practice, the idea is simple. Every morning you write before doing anything else. You fill three pages by hand in stream of consciousness.

Julia Cameron popularized morning pages in The Artist’s Way.

I’ve never read that book. But, I’ve come across many people over the years who evangelize journaling. Specifically this method. Most recently, I started watching an ecom entrepreneur and YouTuber named David Fragomeni. He swears by it. Says it changed his life.

Journaling has never been something that worked for me. I’ve tried here and there but I always felt like I didn’t know what to write. I take a lot of notes throughout the day but this isn’t quite the same thing.

Morning pages removes the writer’s block by being a brain dump with no filter. Going into it I still convinced myself I’d have nothing to write.

Yet, for the 30-plus days that I’ve been doing it I have had no problem filling pages and usually get it done in 10-20 minutes.

Now, I don’t fill three pages. I write two pages because I like that every day is a spread in my notebook. I do use a large notebook. I do write by hand. I don’t always do this first thing. Sometimes it’s more like evening pages. I have early meetings and children to work around.

Strict adherence to the structure isn’t really what matters here. It’s the daily routine of brain dumping in full sentences and paragraphs. Something about laying out your thoughts in language helps clear your mind.

Years ago, I read Writing to Learn by William Zinsser. In that book he explains how the act of writing is critical to learning. It helps you organize your thoughts and build understanding. I suspect a similar concept is in play here.

Getting your jumbled thoughts laid out on paper helps to stop them from rumbling around in your head. It helps you better understand them.

I couldn’t say this practice has transformed my life in a month. However, I can’t see a future where I stop.

A few things have happened since I started.

I feel less anxious throughout the day and more certain about what I’m doing.

My hand hurt for the first few days because I wasn’t used to writing so much. I started getting calluses back that had disappeared since school.

While writing these pages I’ve had realizations or ideas that I’ve later put into practice. For example, while writing, I decided that I would post on Substack every day in May this year. Other times it’s things related to work or my various personal projects.

I’ve become more convinced that physically writing has some value over typing. If you tried to do morning pages on a computer the temptation to edit or adjust would be constant. With pen on paper there is no editing. Only moving forward.

What you’re reading now exists because of morning pages. One morning a few days ago I wrote down that I'd post on Substack every day in May, and now here I am doing it. The brain dump isn't just clearing space, it's slowly creating change in my life.