Monday memo #58
Give yourself a creative warm-up routine.
The Monday memo is food for thought to fuel your week.
Hi everyone,
Let’s talk about warm-ups. Athletes warm up by stretching, swinging their arms, a light jog. Musicians warm up by tuning their instruments and playing scales. So how do you warm up for creative work?
I keep a journal. Every night, before I go to bed, I write down a few thoughts and reflections from my day. But that’s not the warm-up. The last thing I write every night is a question I want to think about. Something to give me a jump-start in the morning.
In the morning, as soon as I wake up, and before I look at my phone or any screen, I open my journal and write for about 30 minutes. This writing is just for me. I don’t always write on the prompt — that’s just there so I don’t flounder. I usually start by writing down my dreams, if I can remember them. Sometimes I write total gibberish. It’s pure stream-of-consciousness. If there’s a song in my head I write down the lyrics. If I don’t know what to write, well, then I write “I don’t know what to write.” The only rule I follow is to keep writing for four pages, which I’ve learned takes me about 30 minutes.
I picked up this habit, called morning pages, after a lot of friends told me they were doing it. It comes from a book by Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way. She doesn’t mention the evening prompt, that’s just something I added to help myself get started in the morning. You can read more about morning pages here.
Morning pages is one way to do it, but there are tons of other ways to give yourself a creative warm-up routine. It doesn’t have to take 30 minutes. You might just doodle on an index card for five minutes, or make a wish list for your day.
The point of a creative warm-up routine is to get over the fear of the blank page, to rev your creative engine, to shift your mode from passive receiver to active creator. I like to do my warm-up before I look at any screens, because I think I get more original ideas that way.
Creating is more about action than thinking. You can think yourself in circles, but if you start writing or drawing, even before you’re thinking, it will take you somewhere. It gets you off the starting block.
Exercise.
So here’s your exercise for the week: Give yourself a creative warm-up routine. If you haven’t done this before, keep it simple. Five minutes with a pen and an index card. Something like that.
Do it every day for a week, and see what happens.
Membership.
If you’re not a member yet, I hope you’ll join us in the project studio, where we work together to move our creative projects forward. In project studio we encourage each other, share ideas and inspiration, and push each other to do our best creative work.
If you’re already a member, thank you. You’re making this possible, and your membership is what gives me the confidence and encouragement to keep going.
More information for members is below the fold.