prairie point

morning pages

I've tried journaling twice before. The first time was in college but my attention span was too short then to stick with anything.

Then years later a friend gave me a book called The Artists Way, which prescribed a regimen of writing in the early morning. For three or four years I did that diligently, writing several pages by hand in a spiral notebook right after arriving at work, before checking my email. The idea was to write without any editing or revisions, just putting down the thoughts as they came. I had enough free time then to do that. I stopped when my workload became heavier but even then I still carried the notebook in my briefcase every day for at least another year before I realized the habit was gone.

This is my first attempt at journaling since then. It's different from the previous attempt in that it’s electronic and it's also public. Being electronic makes it so easy to go back, edit and revise, that of course I am going to do that. But of course I want to do that because it's public. We'll see if I really stick with it.