Wake, pee, meditate, write.
This is my morning routine lately and it’s working. Mind you I have to wake up at about five a.m. to make it happen so I have the time to myself.
I wake up, resist the urge to check my phone, pee, resist the urge to check my phone, make myself a cup of fake coffee (roasted dandelion root tea — don’t ask), sit down on the couch, resist the urge to check my phone (sometimes unsuccessfully), and then meditate for about ten minutes. I use an app called Insight Timer. It’s free (unlike Headspace) and has both guided meditations and a simple timer so you can meditate on your own. (My favorite teachers on the app are Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield.)
When my meditation is over, my fake coffee is ready to drink and I open the computer, resist the urge to check email (sometimes unsuccessfully), and work on my current novel until it’s time to wake up the kids for school. By the way, this time it’s a novel for grown-ups. Not sure how that happened. The story is kind of like the movie Rushmore, but if Max Fisher was a fifteen-year-old girl who goes to Waldorf school. I’m super excited about it. But I’m sure that will flip-flop to boredom or straight-up terror soon.
Until then, I’m sticking to this morning routine that helps me feel like my day is on the right track. Hope your morning routine is working for you as well. If not, I’d encourage you to try something different.