Tell us about your morning routine.
I never set an alarm in the morning. I don’t need to. My body clock wakes me in the early hours each day. So my morning routine is really about protecting the first part of the day, especially the hour and a half between five and six-thirty.
There are animals to feed first. Then I sit down to write. That writing period is not primarily about productivity. It is about giving time to something that matters before the urgent things begin to take over.
Some mornings I write something I like. Most mornings I simply write something. I try to write as honestly and as simply as I can. The goal is not brilliance every morning. It is the discipline of writing my way towards clarity at the start of each day. Over hundreds of mornings, that becomes a body of work.
I also like that I don’t have to negotiate with myself about whether I feel like writing. The routine has already made the decision for me. I simply follow along.
After that, I take the dog for a walk through the university. The campus is usually quiet. I have been sitting with words; now I am moving through the physical world again.
By the time the working day begins, I have usually written something, walked a few kilometres and watched the university begin to wake up.
None of it is particularly remarkable. But perhaps that is what I like about routine. It gives a place to the things that energise me before the things that demand attention arrive.
Tell us about your morning routine.
View all responses
Leave a comment