alt Hacker NewsEvery morning for the past 14 months or so I've sat down at my desk with a cup of coffee and spent ~20 minutes writing out a page of thoughts in my Hobonichi Techo journal with my trusty Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen. I try to write plainly and honestly about whatever pops into my head, and before I know it, I'm done.
It hasn't been super life changing, but I do enjoy doing it. Sometimes during the course of the day I'll think back about an aspiration I had that morning, and actually do something I might not have done otherwise.
About a year into this practice my hand started hurting a bit, so I've slowly trained myself to write using the muscles in my arm and shoulder rather than moving the muscles in my hand. My handwriting quality took a nose-dive in the short term, but my hand stopped hurting and I have moments now where my cursive looks nearly as good as it used to.
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I do this too but on a laptop. It is more beneficial to use paper but I don’t want readers to think it isn’t incredibly important even without the gear. Like how good running shoes are not important to start running.
I started doing this too after reading The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. She prescribes these “morning pages” as one of principal tools for overcoming internal creativity blocks. I also really enjoy drinking my coffee and writing these pages with my pilot fountain pens.