Blog Post - On Writing: A Morning Routine

There’s few things that have kept me consistent and propelled forward the amount of words I churn out each week, quite like my morning routine.

When I started working full time (all the way back in 2017), I struggled to carve out creative time.

For the first few years, I continued to tell myself “when I get home, I’ll sit down and write”. Every day, every week for the first year I told myself this absolute lie.

It wasn’t until I acknowledged I wasn’t following through on this daily internal promise that I was able to rearrange my life. And honestly., I had to do something I dreaded - become a morning person.

So, here’s a few things I have done over the last few years to cultivate my morning routine - a routine that allows me to write most days (Because you are still a writer if you don’t write every day).

Here’s my tips and tricks - things that have worked for me.

Get intentional.

Getting up at 5am is a wonderful goal. But you’ll consistently hit the snooze button when your alarm goes off if you go to bed at midnight.

Understand your WHY.

Writing a book is a phenomenal goal - but its not your why. If you can figure out why you want to write the book, why you want to spend countless hours on this project, why it needs to be now, you, in the world. Everything else becomes much easier.

Set boundaries.

You may have the most supportive family or you may not. But writing, creating, this part of your life is something for you. Carve out time and space for something you love and then protect it at all costs.

Start with movement.

I walk my dogs every morning from 5am-6am. This routine not only forces me out of bed (a challenge some mornings), but wakes me up and clears my head. Not everyone wants to roll out of bed and be dragged around my two energetic dogs - but I find movement first thing really helps.

Your music/playlist.

Cultivate a playlist. A key component of fighting writers block (for me) is being in the mood to write. The best way to avoid this? Get your brain to associate specific music with your words and creativity. Whenever I sit down, I put on specific music and it immediately connects my brain to the page - just like magic.

Get off your phone.

Hello - guilty of this sometimes still. But you write best when you are not distracted by your phone. This one isn’t a surprise, and certainly isn’t new. But its still just as true.

Be ROUTINE.

Whether you write first thing, after reading for an hour, in the hours after your children go to bed, we all have one thing in common. Life is so much easier if we make it a routine.

Words over perfection.

In the honest and wholesome words of a Panster who has no idea what each writing session will bring - get the words down. No one writes a perfect first draft, you will need to edit, you will need to re-write, you will need to tidy and prune and full your hair out - but all of this comes later. Just get the words down and leave your perfectionism at the door.

And that’s about all the advice I have for mornings, for writing, for carving out time and space.

I hope that you will prioritise something that is important to YOU today,

And we’ll see your words and worlds on shelves in the future,

Much Love,

AM

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