One Thing You Can Do Every Morning to Be More Creative
STEP 1: Fill up your cereal bowl about 2/3rds of the way full (eyeballing it is okay)
STEP 2: Pour your favorite milk (I choose almond milk — unsweetened vanilla) and fill until the cereal is peeking over the top of the bowl.
STEP 3: Walk slowly toward your kitchen sink, one foot directly in front of the other. Go slow, taking care to not spill the food.
STEP 4: Dump your beloved breakfast down the sink.
STEP 5: Never eat before you create something new ever again.
Breakfast is overrated (sorry Mom). Digestion takes a lot of energy. And guess what? You won’t die. It’s incredible — our species got us to this point without Frosted Flakes.
I used to think breakfast was super important. I listened to The Great Internet Teacher (Tim Ferriss) who said I needed to have 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking. Yes, Master Tim.
For 6 months I did this — the exact same breakfast, a thoughtful walk, and a pondering of what I wanted to do that day. Then, I looked up and realized I was nowhere near changing my life in the way I wanted it to.
If you want to be more creative, it makes sense that your default state is creating, not consuming. This has been true for me in the literal sense as well as the figurative. The exercise turns more into a mindset:
You are here to give to the people on this planet, not take.
“So what should I do instead of eating breakfast?”
A) Write from your stream-of-consciousness
No, this is not just an exercise for writers. As a matter of fact, I’m starting to think it’s more beneficial for people who do not have a creative role (those people are, of course, mistaken. All roles are creative).
Personally, I always write for 7–15 minutes every morning with my monitor turned off. Why would I need it? Who cares about spelling? Who is going to want to read my morning ramblings anyway?
Trust yourself. Write what you feel and let it loose. I don’t always come up with more ideas during this time, but I always come up with more ideas throughout the day than the when I don’t do this.
B) Make lists
I know, I know. We’re all too smart to click that article titled “10 Surprising Reasons to Put Pumpkin in Your Underwear at Night.”
That’s why this choice isn’t about writing half-thought-out spam with a group of gifs. It’s about stretching your brain before you do anything else.
“Um, okay, so what should the list be about?”
Here’s the fun part — it doesn’t even matter. Pick a something you are interested in and try to defend your point:
- 10 reasons lobsters are the best animal
- 15 ways to use a rubber band in your refrigerator
- 16 good foods
- 12 topics to write on my blog
Just make a list of 10-ish things. What you’re waiting for is your brain to say “hmm, I’m out of answers.”
Once that happens, double the size of your list. You will come up with bad ideas and THEN you will come up with ideas you never dreamed of.
It’s like magic.
(See also — My Microjournaling Practice)
C) Do something with your hands
For most of the day, I’m betting your hands and fingers are used not to create things, but to instruct a device to create things for you.
I am the worst at this habit. If I’m in my own computer world, I don’t have to worry about how poorly I wrap presents or wash dishes or clean the house.
But I’m starting to believe some of the human condition is simply made to touch and feel things. We are kinetic beings. Writing things with pen and paper doesn’t feel quite the same as writing on a keyboard.
Sometimes, you need to feel the world around you instead of think about it.
D) MOVE
I actually don’t have much of a choice about this. I’ve written before about my French Bulldog, Francis
Since Francis came into my life, I have read and written probably 90% less than I used to in the morning. Instead, we walk. We walk and think about things. We walk and — oh look, there’s a tree! — appreciate the little bits of the universe which would otherwise go by unnoticed.
Strangely, the output of what I do hasn’t been less since I’ve been walking a mile or so every day. It’s been more.
Funny how that works.
