20/20/20 Rule and Morning Pages

Whether or not this has you rushing for the nearest notebook, there's a general attitude here that's well worth cultivating – a healthy scepticism toward the part of your brain that's so enthusiastic about controlling how things unfold. You just do the pages, and something else does the rest. The 5 AM Club is the bestselling book by Robin S. Sharma, a leadership coach, speaker, and advisor to the likes of NASA, Microsoft, and Nike.

Sharma says you should spend 20 minutes on vigorous exercise, 20 minutes on reflection by meditating and journaling, and 20 minutes on growth by reading and learning.

I'm experimenting now with doing my daily journaling at night to open up some time in the morning to do more "growth and learning."

Here's what Julia Cameron says about Morning Pages (via Kleon)

Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.

Oliver Burkeman writes about it too:

For example, take the extraordinary efficacy of Morning Pages when it comes to generating ideas – work ideas, ideas for addressing personal issues, and so on. Since the only fixed demand is that you fill three pages, Morning Pages demonstrates the principle that quality is often a function of quantity: there's no time or incentive to judge each idea, to get it right before getting it down, and the result is that ideas flow more freely, unimpeded by the clenched grip of perfectionism. There are far more of them, and sometimes a few of them are good. 

Besides, there's something transformative about achieving a third-person perspective on the contents of your mind by externalizing them on paper. You know how it's often easy to see what someone else needs to do about their problems? Externalising your thoughts can trigger similar insights on your own behalf. And even when it doesn't, the shift in perspective is liberating in itself. That's why I think Morning Pages get to count not just as a form of self-therapy, but a form of meditation – a way of disidentifying from mental content, seeing your thoughts and emotions for the fleeting, insubstantial things they really are.

Whether or not this has you rushing for the nearest notebook, there's a general attitude here that's well worth cultivating – a healthy scepticism toward the part of your brain that's so enthusiastic about controlling how things unfold. You just do the pages, and something else does the rest.