March 11, 2025 • 24 mins
I want to start off with acknowledging that you may not be a morning person. That's okay! When I read the book, "Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod, he shared that some 75% of his readers come into his book as declared not-morning people. That changes for them once they read this book.
While I’m not here to convince you to become a morning person, I can say that developing a solid morning routine - after spending my teen and young adult years without one - has changed my life.
Wherever you land on the spectrum of being a morning, afternoon, or evening person, I hope that sharing the details of my morning routine with you is enlightening and encouraging.
If you are ready to rethink your mornings, I encourage you to listen in for practical tips and insights.
Don't forget to check out my "Morning Pages Mini Course," which equips you with one of my favorite tools for a powerful start to the day!
You can enroll in my "Morning Pages Mini Course" at fictioncourses.com/morningpages. Use the coupon code "ConfidentMorning" to get it for just $9 (regular price $49. Ends March 17, 2025)
***
Free resources for you:
The Confident Fiction Author Toolkit: fictioncourses.com/toolkit
Dictation + Scrivener Power Combo Mini Course: fictioncourses.com/dictation
Dictation for Authors: Tools and Tips of the Trade: fictioncourses.com/dictationguide
5 Stereotypes to Avoid When Writing about Native Americans: fictioncourses.com/stereotypes
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey there, my fellow author.
I'm Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, anold soul kind of writer living
my dream as a full-time authorand entrepreneur.
But I didn't start out living aconfident, creative lifestyle.
I struggled with the fears andthe mental and emotional
barriers that so often plaguewriters at all stages of their
author career.
(00:22):
But the truth is that with theright knowledge, tools and
training, you can overcome thosebarriers.
I'm here to teach you how I'vedeveloped a lifestyle that's
allowed me to publish 19 booksand counting.
Each week, as you tune into theConfident Fiction Author
podcast, you'll get clarity onthe steps you need to take to
(00:43):
advance your writing career.
Whether it's developing yourideal writing routine, tackling
new skills like dictating yourfiction, or overcoming the
obstacles life throws your way.
This podcast will help you livea more confident, creative
lifestyle.
Let's get started.
(01:03):
Hey there, my friend, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Confident Fiction AuthorPodcast.
I'm your host, Sarah ElisabethSawyer, and today we are talking
morning routines.
Specifically, I want to sharemy morning routine with you.
(03:29):
.
.
.
Because kind of geek out onthis, I like to know what other
people's on t routines , are,but I don't get to hear it from
authors, specifically andespecially fiction authors.
But before we go there, I justwant to acknowledge that you may
not be a morning person.
I hear you, I see you and infact when I read the book the
Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod,which I do recommend.
I don't agree with everythingin his book, but it is really
good, and one of the things thathe included is where he said
that some 75% of his readerscome into his book as declared
not morning people.
Now that does change for themonce they read his book.
And I can tell you that I wasnot a morning person several
years ago.
I was not someone who liked toget up early in the mornings.
I slept in as late as I couldand dragged around and didn't
really get down to businessuntil late in the morning or
even noon before I really feltlike I was getting my day
together and by that point Ifelt like the day was pretty
well wasted.
So while I'm not here toconvince you to become a morning
person, I can say that becominga morning person myself, my
morning routine, has changed mylife.
I don't say that lightly.
Getting my mornings togetherand being intentional about them
has truly changed how I live mylife and how I do my author
career.
So wherever you land on thespectrum of being a morning
person, an afternoon person, anevening person, a night owl, I
hope that sharing my morningroutine with you is enlightening
and encouraging.
Let's get into it.
What does my typical morninglook like?
So I wake up without an alarmand I feel very blessed to do
that.
Anytime I do set my alarmbecause I'm needing to get up
super early for an appointmentor get to the airport, something
like that.
I just feel this apprehensionaround it and even if it's set
for a time that I'm verycomfortable with getting up by
like 530 or six in the morning,I'll go ahead and set my alarm
just to make sure that I'm up.
And I still feel apprehensiveabout it because I'm so
(03:51):
accustomed to not waking up byan alarm.
So on my typical morning I don'thave an alarm set.
I just go with what my bodyfeels like, what it needs for
sleep, and that changes with theseasons, which is really hard
for me to accept because I wantto be up somewhere between 530
and 630 every morning.
(04:12):
But I have found that's astruggle to keep that consistent
, especially in the summertime,when you have that time change
and an hour of your life getssucked out.
I just so don't like that.
Plus an hour of your life getssucked out, I just so don't like
that.
Plus, the sun is coming up nowlater, and that's what wakes me
up oftentimes, and it just givesme a sense that I'm getting up
with the sunrise, which in thewintertime is more like six
(04:34):
o'clock in the morning, and inthe summer it's seven, 730.
And so it's.
It's really annoying, but Ihave learned that I need to just
go with the cycles of theseason.
It stays daylight later in theevening, so I'm not going to bed
as early, which means I'm justnot going to get up as early.
So my wake up time is anywherebetween 5 am and 7 am, depending
(04:58):
on the season, depending on howheavy my workload was the
previous day, which is usuallyMonday, and so I'll sleep in a
little bit later on Tuesday andjust allow my body to get the
sleep that it needs.
The first thing I do is wash myface and brush my teeth, and
then I go into the kitchen and Iget my lemon juice with just a
(05:18):
dash of salt and a little bit ofstevia or stevia, as some
people pronounce it to sweetenit just a little bit, and it's
zero calories.
So I'm not worried aboutcompletely breaking my fast with
that.
But I have heard that gettingstarted with a little bit of
lemon juice and salt in themorning just replenishes your
electrolytes for the day.
So I typically do that in themornings and I also go ahead and
(05:41):
get myself a mug of water sothat I can rinse that lemon
juice off my teeth and also justget myself hydrated after all
night of not drinking anything.
I take that into the livingroom where I have a little shelf
thing set up with a basketunderneath it that I'm so
grateful I incorporated thatinto our living room furniture
(06:03):
Because before that I didn'thave a place for my morning
routine stuff, and so it was.
It was scattered between myoffice and my bedroom and every
morning I would sit down and Ididn't have what I needed for my
morning routine.
But now I have that and sothat's where I keep my my Bible
and my morning pages, notebookand pen and all.
So that's the first thing I dois I do my Bible reading and I
(06:26):
just have my prayer time andsilent time.
That's also when I'll do somedeep breathing and just really
get oxygen flowing to my brain,and once I've done that, I will
get into my morning pages, whichI've talked about morning pages
before.
If you're not familiar withthem or you haven't done morning
(06:46):
pages, I'm going to talk aboutthat a bit more at the end,
because it just makes such adifference in my life as a
creative and I love getting tospend that time handwriting my
morning pages to really get meset for the day.
Now, right after I finish mymorning pages, I get into
(07:07):
fiction writing, and this issomething that I had in my
routine years ago and I fell offof it.
I would get disrupted from myfiction writing or I would be in
seasons of research and editingand that's just not really
conducive to do in my chair inthe mornings because I don't
have my computer.
So that's why I incorporateddoing five minute fiction, where
(07:30):
I can just write on a randomstory, just to keep that habit
of fiction writing in my morningroutine.
I love doing it first thing inthe morning, before I get my
brain going in 100 differentdirections once I get to my
computer, so because I dictate,I'm able to just pull up my
Scrivener app on my phone and domy fiction writing.
(07:51):
Before I did dictation, I diddo fiction writing with my
morning routine.
I used my old AlphaSmart Neokeyboard and so I know a lot of
authors are kind of going backto the distraction free writing
device.
So if you are typing, that's away that you can do it first
thing in the morning withouthaving the distraction or having
(08:14):
to haul your laptop into yourmorning routine space.
So for me, I am in a season ofwriting books that I'm going to
publish, so that's what I doduring my fiction time.
But other times, if I don't,like I said, to get fiction
writing back into my routine, Idid start this five minute
(08:35):
fiction and that is one of mymost popular episodes.
So go back and listen to thatif you haven't already, and that
is episode number 10.
All right, so after I do myfiction writing and I make sure
I sync my Scrivener app so thatit's ready whenever I pull it up
on my computer.
The newest addition to mymorning routine actually there's
(08:59):
two new additions and they camefrom that book Miracle Morning
by Hal Elrod H-A-L and then hislast name Elrod E-L-R-O-D, and
he actually has a book MiracleMorning for Writers that I'm
going to read as well.
So these are a couple of thingsthat I added to my routine
after reading that book, andthat is reading some nonfiction.
(09:22):
I always felt guilty aboutreading in the mornings because
to me, I needed to do my morningroutine to get myself awake and
prepared for the day, and thenit was time to get to work, just
get after it and to slow downand spend some time.
Reading just felt like it was.
(09:43):
It was taking up time that Ireally needed to spend at my
desk working.
So the light bulb came for mewhenever I was reading Hal's
book, the Miracle Morning, andhe talked about how he wanted to
grow personally, do hispersonal and professional
development, and he startedthinking well, when can I do
(10:04):
this?
When can I do exercise, youknow, work out and read to feed
my mind and to grow myself?
When am I going to do that?
And he thought about theevening.
He tried the evening and thatdidn't work because he was too
tired and there was too manydistractions.
He was just too scattered fromthe day, which is where I found
myself in terms of readingnonfiction books.
(10:26):
The evening just really didn'twork because my brain was fried
and I would try to read a fewpages and I would find myself
reading the same paragraphs overand over and just not absorbing
the content.
So I was at the same place.
I'm like I'm with you, hal, Ican't do evenings much in terms
of nonfiction or developmenttype of reading.
(10:48):
And so he thought well, whatabout the afternoons?
Again, so many distractions.
That's when you're trying towrap up your day and finish
running errands.
And so there wasn't a solidtime that he could take to do
his professional developmenttime.
And so he reluctantly came tothe mornings development time.
(11:08):
And so he reluctantly came tothe mornings.
Like he decided, I have to dothis before everything else gets
going in the day or I will notget it done at any other time in
the day.
And I'm just kidding myselftelling the story that
eventually I will work readingtime into some part of my life
and I don't actually have a planfor that.
And realistically, I've triedthese other things and they are
not going to work.
(11:29):
So that's when he went to themorning and developing his
morning routine for his personaldevelopment.
The light bulb for me came onwhen he called his morning
routine.
He started off with defining itas his personal development
time and then he started callingit his miracle morning when he
called it his personaldevelopment time.
And then he started calling ithis miracle morning when he
called it his personaldevelopment time.
That's when it clicked for meand I realized that I didn't
(11:52):
need to feel guilty aboutreading in the morning, because
if that was a part of me and mypersonal and professional
development, then that's work.
So why not put it in my quotework hours first thing in the
morning before I get into 100different tasks on my computer
and projects and all that I'mworking on.
So I'd still call it my morningroutine, but it helps my brain
(12:16):
to think of it as my personaldevelopment time, because I do
spend a good bit of time in themorning on this routine and I'll
talk about that here in aminute of why it's important to
me and why I don't feel guiltyabout the amount of time I spend
in the mornings before I quoteget to work.
So that's what I've added to mymorning routine and so some days
(12:38):
I'm able to get in up to 45minutes of nonfiction reading
time and really that's what I'maiming for, if I get up early
enough in the morning I knowthat I'll have enough time to
get in a good 30-45 minutes ofnonfiction reading time.
And other times whenever Islept in a bit later or my
prayer time went a little longeror I got caught up in my
(13:02):
fiction writing and I went a bitlonger.
On that, I will shorten down myreading time, and that's what's
great about having that pocketof time assigned in my morning
routine.
So I've expanded my time that Ispend in the mornings on this.
That way, if it gets gobbled upby other things, including
sleep, I just shorten down theamount of time and I may only
(13:22):
spend 10 minutes or 15 minutesdoing my nonfiction reading.
So that's my biggest flex thatI have with my morning routine.
And so, as you're thinkingabout a morning routine, that's
something to consider.
Is there something you can putin there?
That is, I won't call it aluxury, but it is an extra thing
(13:44):
or an extra amount of time, orit's flexible in the amount of
time that you can spend on it,so that if you need to shorten
it down, you've got a shortermorning.
That's one area that you can do.
The second thing that I've addedto my morning routine that came
from the Miracle Morning bookis declarations or affirmations,
and I've heard aboutaffirmations.
(14:06):
I've heard people'saffirmations.
I've heard people'saffirmations.
I've heard people teach on it,and it just wasn't something
that clicked with me or that Ijust didn't care for how they
did it, just in short, heteaches it quite differently and
I love his method and so Ifollowed it.
Like he even has a template inthere for creating this, and so
I followed it and created myselfthree declarations that I read
(14:30):
out loud every morning after mynonfiction time, and so I won't
go into the formula.
If you're interested inlearning, if you've never done
affirmations and you don't likehow everyone else does it, or if
you want to just see adifferent way of approaching it
and thinking about those as moredeclarations rather than
affirmations, I do recommend youget the book Miracle Morning
(14:53):
and check it out for yourself.
It was the number one reasonwhy I bought and read the book,
because I wanted to really getinto his method of doing it, and
I'd heard he'd had he had aunique way of presenting it, so
that was the main reason I readit.
So if that's something thatyou've always wanted to do but
you weren't sure you wanted todo, go check that out in his
(15:14):
book.
After I do that, I do mystretches and then I'll usually
do a little bit of a lightworkout.
I have some exercises that I dofor my back which has helped
tremendously in strengthening myback and recover from some
issues that I had whenever I wasdoing my nonfiction book a few
years ago where I kind ofwrecked my back and it took a
bit to get back in shape fromthat.
(15:36):
So I don't do a heavy workoutat this time.
That is something I want toexpand my morning routine to.
So as far as improvements orwhere I want to go with my
morning routine and personaldevelopment, I do want to
eventually get more, more of aworkout in the mornings.
So at that point it's off tothe kitchen to empty the
(15:57):
dishwasher, make myself a teaand get to my desk, which I'm
again very blessed with a shortcommute to my office from the
kitchen, and so I will then fireup my computer, pull out my
planner, review my day and getto work.
I know I promised to share howlong my morning routine takes,
(16:20):
so I spend about two hours on mymorning routine and that may
sound like a lot, but I'm goingto be honest I'd love someday to
have a three hour morningroutine.
One of my virtual mentors hetalked about that one time where
he has a three hour morningroutine, and I remember just
feeling shocked at the idea ofspending that much time in the
(16:42):
morning on your routine routine,so for me, it took a while
before that felt normal andbefore I quit feeling guilty
about the amount of time that Ispent on it, and now I love that
I get to have a two hourmorning routine, especially when
I think of all of the thingsthat it includes, like the extra
reading time, and it's alsoincluding doing the dishes and
(17:06):
just really making sureeverything is ready for the day.
What really helped with that,though, was reframing it to be
called my personal developmenttime, and it's also my fiction
writing time.
So when I say two hours, thisisn't just me staring off into
space or doing a heavy workout.
When you look at all that I doin that two hours, it's actually
(17:29):
a short amount of time to me,and I love that.
I can now look at it as mypersonal development time, and
also that's my fiction writingtime, and so when I say I would
love to expand it to three hours, that's to expand the amount of
fiction writing time that Ihave and to do that workout that
(17:49):
I mentioned.
I would love to get in a morerobust workout in the mornings.
I also look at my morningroutine as my warm up for the
day, which is really the heavyworkout that I have ahead, and
so getting in that full coupleof hour morning routine really
gets me mentally, physically,emotionally, spiritually prepped
(18:12):
for the heavy workout that Ihave for that day and that's why
I love my morning routine.
I take it very seriously.
I do it every morning, mondaythrough Friday.
I am starting to do it more onSaturday and Sunday because, for
reason, I wanted to just getmyself the whole weekend off and
(18:33):
I thought by not doing my fullmorning routine it would
actually make me feel better andreally shift me over to doing
recreation or house stuff, allthe other life stuff, and I
wouldn't feel like I waspreparing for a work day, like I
wanted to take off for theweekends.
But what I found is it reallymade me sluggish for the weekend
(18:54):
, like it had the oppositeeffect not doing my morning
routine, and so I've startedincorporating that better into
my Saturdays and Sundays,including my morning pages.
What I don't do is I don't.
I give myself permission to notdo my fiction writing if I
don't want to, and especially onSundays.
But on Saturday, if I want togo ahead and do a bit of fiction
(19:18):
writing, I'll do it, but it'salso that time that I give
myself permission to not do it.
And typically I'll spend moretime reading on Saturday morning
in my morning routine and goahead and end the week with that
.
And it's not always nonfictionpersonal development books that
I read on the weekend For mymorning routine I may go ahead
(19:39):
and take my novel, and so on mySaturday morning reading time in
my morning routine it may begetting to read a novel, and I
found I'm much less sluggish andI'm enjoying the weekends more
because I have spent that timetaking care of myself, taking
care of my body, taking care ofeven the dishes, like the whole
thing, and really setting myselfup to enjoy the day.
(20:05):
Wrapping it up here, I just wantto say that everyone has a
morning routine.
It just may not be intentional.
So what I want to encourage youto do right now, as we're
wrapping up this episode, is tojot down what you currently do
every morning and decide if it'sreally what you want to do
(20:25):
every morning.
It may be shutting off thealarm, jumping out of bed,
brushing your teeth, gettingdressed and heading out the door
, or getting the kids ready togo to school.
Whatever your mornings looklike, especially if they're
hectic, I just really want toencourage you to read the
Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod andtake to heart his encouragement
(20:49):
of how you can really utilizethose mornings to make your life
better overall and specificallyas a fiction author.
Being able to get your fictionwriting in, get some reading
time in, do your morning pagesand set yourself up for the day,
I think you will make hugestrides forward in living your
(21:11):
best creative lifestyle.
Now, I promised to tell you abit more about Morning Pages
here, and the reason why Iwanted to focus on this is I did
create a mini course MorningPages mini course that you can
find over at fictioncoursescomforward slash morning pages, and
(21:33):
I have a coupon code for you toget $40 off that mini course.
So it makes it just $9.
And that coupon code isconfident morning.
So go to fictioncoursescomforward slash morning pages and
click on the enrollment buttonat the bottom of the page.
You'll see where you can enteryour coupon code, on the right
(21:54):
hand side, and just type inconfident morning apply the code
to get your $40 off.
This course takes you into thenitty gritty of what morning
pages are, what the benefits areand how to do them.
Morning Pages was introduced byJulia Cameron in her book the
Artist's Way, and she does talkabout doing Morning Pages, and
(22:17):
what I have found, though, is alot of a lot of authors struggle
with one how to actually do itphysically, what kind of
notebook do I use, pen, whatshould go in the morning pages,
and how do I make this aconsistent habit, because they
do take up a bit of time.
But myself, at this point, Ican't imagine not doing my
(22:39):
morning pages, and in the bookthe Miracle Morning, he talks
about how writing or journalingis an important part of your
morning.
Reading or journaling is animportant part of your morning,
and my morning pages doesfulfill that, but it fulfills it
in a much fuller and richer waythan just jotting down a few
sentences in a journal.
I do that in the evenings,where I jot down my three wins
(23:03):
of the day and what was the mostimportant thing that happened
that day and what three wins Ihope for the next day.
And that's a great practice.
But morning pages is for uscreatives, especially fiction
authors, to clear away all ofthe things in our brain and
sweep out all the corners of ourmind so that we can give
(23:24):
ourselves permission to settlein and get some fiction writing
done.
And that's why I do my fictionwriting immediately after my
morning pages.
You don't have to do it thatway, but I have found that to be
such a powerful combination andhas helped me become more
confident as a fiction authorthan ever before in my life.
(23:46):
So again, I have that minicourse for you.
It's just called Morning Pagesand it's over at
fictioncoursescom.
Forward slash morning pages anddon't forget to put in your
coupon code, confident morning,to get $40 off that mini course,
making it just $9 for you tolearn about and incorporate this
(24:07):
powerful habit into yourmorning routine.
That's it for this week, myfriend.
I hope you have a great rest ofyour day and a great morning
tomorrow.
I will see you in next week'sepisode of the Confident Fiction
Author.
Take care.
Hey there, my fellow author.
I'm Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, anold soul kind of writer living
my dream as a full-time authorand entrepreneur.
But I didn't start out living aconfident, creative lifestyle.
I struggled with the fears andthe mental and emotional
barriers that so often plaguewriters at all stages of their
author career.
(00:22):
But the truth is that with theright knowledge, tools and
training, you can overcome thosebarriers.
I'm here to teach you how I'vedeveloped a lifestyle that's
allowed me to publish 19 booksand counting.
Each week, as you tune into theConfident Fiction Author
podcast, you'll get clarity onthe steps you need to take to
(00:43):
advance your writing career.
Whether it's developing yourideal writing routine, tackling
new skills like dictating yourfiction, or overcoming the
obstacles life throws your way.
This podcast will help you livea more confident, creative
lifestyle.
Let's get started.
(01:03):
Hey there, my friend, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Confident Fiction AuthorPodcast.
I'm your host, Sarah ElisabethSawyer, and today we are talking
morning routines.
Specifically, I want to sharemy morning routine with you.
(03:29):
.
.
.
Because kind of geek out onthis, I like to know what other
people's on t routines , are,but I don't get to hear it from
authors, specifically andespecially fiction authors.
But before we go there, I justwant to acknowledge that you may
not be a morning person.
I hear you, I see you and infact when I read the book the
Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod,which I do recommend.
I don't agree with everythingin his book, but it is really
good, and one of the things thathe included is where he said
that some 75% of his readerscome into his book as declared
not morning people.
Now that does change for themonce they read his book.
And I can tell you that I wasnot a morning person several
years ago.
I was not someone who liked toget up early in the mornings.
I slept in as late as I couldand dragged around and didn't
really get down to businessuntil late in the morning or
even noon before I really feltlike I was getting my day
together and by that point Ifelt like the day was pretty
well wasted.
So while I'm not here toconvince you to become a morning
person, I can say that becominga morning person myself, my
morning routine, has changed mylife.
I don't say that lightly.
Getting my mornings togetherand being intentional about them
has truly changed how I live mylife and how I do my author
career.
So wherever you land on thespectrum of being a morning
person, an afternoon person, anevening person, a night owl, I
hope that sharing my morningroutine with you is enlightening
and encouraging.
Let's get into it.
What does my typical morninglook like?
So I wake up without an alarmand I feel very blessed to do
that.
Anytime I do set my alarmbecause I'm needing to get up
super early for an appointmentor get to the airport, something
like that.
I just feel this apprehensionaround it and even if it's set
for a time that I'm verycomfortable with getting up by
like 530 or six in the morning,I'll go ahead and set my alarm
just to make sure that I'm up.
And I still feel apprehensiveabout it because I'm so
(03:51):
accustomed to not waking up byan alarm.
So on my typical morning I don'thave an alarm set.
I just go with what my bodyfeels like, what it needs for
sleep, and that changes with theseasons, which is really hard
for me to accept because I wantto be up somewhere between 530
and 630 every morning.
(04:12):
But I have found that's astruggle to keep that consistent
, especially in the summertime,when you have that time change
and an hour of your life getssucked out.
I just so don't like that.
Plus an hour of your life getssucked out, I just so don't like
that.
Plus, the sun is coming up nowlater, and that's what wakes me
up oftentimes, and it just givesme a sense that I'm getting up
with the sunrise, which in thewintertime is more like six
(04:34):
o'clock in the morning, and inthe summer it's seven, 730.
And so it's.
It's really annoying, but Ihave learned that I need to just
go with the cycles of theseason.
It stays daylight later in theevening, so I'm not going to bed
as early, which means I'm justnot going to get up as early.
So my wake up time is anywherebetween 5 am and 7 am, depending
(04:58):
on the season, depending on howheavy my workload was the
previous day, which is usuallyMonday, and so I'll sleep in a
little bit later on Tuesday andjust allow my body to get the
sleep that it needs.
The first thing I do is wash myface and brush my teeth, and
then I go into the kitchen and Iget my lemon juice with just a
(05:18):
dash of salt and a little bit ofstevia or stevia, as some
people pronounce it to sweetenit just a little bit, and it's
zero calories.
So I'm not worried aboutcompletely breaking my fast with
that.
But I have heard that gettingstarted with a little bit of
lemon juice and salt in themorning just replenishes your
electrolytes for the day.
So I typically do that in themornings and I also go ahead and
(05:41):
get myself a mug of water sothat I can rinse that lemon
juice off my teeth and also justget myself hydrated after all
night of not drinking anything.
I take that into the livingroom where I have a little shelf
thing set up with a basketunderneath it that I'm so
grateful I incorporated thatinto our living room furniture
(06:03):
Because before that I didn'thave a place for my morning
routine stuff, and so it was.
It was scattered between myoffice and my bedroom and every
morning I would sit down and Ididn't have what I needed for my
morning routine.
But now I have that and sothat's where I keep my my Bible
and my morning pages, notebookand pen and all.
So that's the first thing I dois I do my Bible reading and I
(06:26):
just have my prayer time andsilent time.
That's also when I'll do somedeep breathing and just really
get oxygen flowing to my brain,and once I've done that, I will
get into my morning pages, whichI've talked about morning pages
before.
If you're not familiar withthem or you haven't done morning
(06:46):
pages, I'm going to talk aboutthat a bit more at the end,
because it just makes such adifference in my life as a
creative and I love getting tospend that time handwriting my
morning pages to really get meset for the day.
Now, right after I finish mymorning pages, I get into
(07:07):
fiction writing, and this issomething that I had in my
routine years ago and I fell offof it.
I would get disrupted from myfiction writing or I would be in
seasons of research and editingand that's just not really
conducive to do in my chair inthe mornings because I don't
have my computer.
So that's why I incorporateddoing five minute fiction, where
(07:30):
I can just write on a randomstory, just to keep that habit
of fiction writing in my morningroutine.
I love doing it first thing inthe morning, before I get my
brain going in 100 differentdirections once I get to my
computer, so because I dictate,I'm able to just pull up my
Scrivener app on my phone and domy fiction writing.
(07:51):
Before I did dictation, I diddo fiction writing with my
morning routine.
I used my old AlphaSmart Neokeyboard and so I know a lot of
authors are kind of going backto the distraction free writing
device.
So if you are typing, that's away that you can do it first
thing in the morning withouthaving the distraction or having
(08:14):
to haul your laptop into yourmorning routine space.
So for me, I am in a season ofwriting books that I'm going to
publish, so that's what I doduring my fiction time.
But other times, if I don't,like I said, to get fiction
writing back into my routine, Idid start this five minute
(08:35):
fiction and that is one of mymost popular episodes.
So go back and listen to thatif you haven't already, and that
is episode number 10.
All right, so after I do myfiction writing and I make sure
I sync my Scrivener app so thatit's ready whenever I pull it up
on my computer.
The newest addition to mymorning routine actually there's
(08:59):
two new additions and they camefrom that book Miracle Morning
by Hal Elrod H-A-L and then hislast name Elrod E-L-R-O-D, and
he actually has a book MiracleMorning for Writers that I'm
going to read as well.
So these are a couple of thingsthat I added to my routine
after reading that book, andthat is reading some nonfiction.
(09:22):
I always felt guilty aboutreading in the mornings because
to me, I needed to do my morningroutine to get myself awake and
prepared for the day, and thenit was time to get to work, just
get after it and to slow downand spend some time.
Reading just felt like it was.
(09:43):
It was taking up time that Ireally needed to spend at my
desk working.
So the light bulb came for mewhenever I was reading Hal's
book, the Miracle Morning, andhe talked about how he wanted to
grow personally, do hispersonal and professional
development, and he startedthinking well, when can I do
(10:04):
this?
When can I do exercise, youknow, work out and read to feed
my mind and to grow myself?
When am I going to do that?
And he thought about theevening.
He tried the evening and thatdidn't work because he was too
tired and there was too manydistractions.
He was just too scattered fromthe day, which is where I found
myself in terms of readingnonfiction books.
(10:26):
The evening just really didn'twork because my brain was fried
and I would try to read a fewpages and I would find myself
reading the same paragraphs overand over and just not absorbing
the content.
So I was at the same place.
I'm like I'm with you, hal, Ican't do evenings much in terms
of nonfiction or developmenttype of reading.
(10:48):
And so he thought well, whatabout the afternoons?
Again, so many distractions.
That's when you're trying towrap up your day and finish
running errands.
And so there wasn't a solidtime that he could take to do
his professional developmenttime.
And so he reluctantly came tothe mornings development time.
(11:08):
And so he reluctantly came tothe mornings.
Like he decided, I have to dothis before everything else gets
going in the day or I will notget it done at any other time in
the day.
And I'm just kidding myselftelling the story that
eventually I will work readingtime into some part of my life
and I don't actually have a planfor that.
And realistically, I've triedthese other things and they are
not going to work.
(11:29):
So that's when he went to themorning and developing his
morning routine for his personaldevelopment.
The light bulb for me came onwhen he called his morning
routine.
He started off with defining itas his personal development
time and then he started callingit his miracle morning when he
called it his personaldevelopment time.
And then he started calling ithis miracle morning when he
called it his personaldevelopment time.
That's when it clicked for meand I realized that I didn't
(11:52):
need to feel guilty aboutreading in the morning, because
if that was a part of me and mypersonal and professional
development, then that's work.
So why not put it in my quotework hours first thing in the
morning before I get into 100different tasks on my computer
and projects and all that I'mworking on.
So I'd still call it my morningroutine, but it helps my brain
(12:16):
to think of it as my personaldevelopment time, because I do
spend a good bit of time in themorning on this routine and I'll
talk about that here in aminute of why it's important to
me and why I don't feel guiltyabout the amount of time I spend
in the mornings before I quoteget to work.
So that's what I've added to mymorning routine and so some days
(12:38):
I'm able to get in up to 45minutes of nonfiction reading
time and really that's what I'maiming for, if I get up early
enough in the morning I knowthat I'll have enough time to
get in a good 30-45 minutes ofnonfiction reading time.
And other times whenever Islept in a bit later or my
prayer time went a little longeror I got caught up in my
(13:02):
fiction writing and I went a bitlonger.
On that, I will shorten down myreading time, and that's what's
great about having that pocketof time assigned in my morning
routine.
So I've expanded my time that Ispend in the mornings on this.
That way, if it gets gobbled upby other things, including
sleep, I just shorten down theamount of time and I may only
(13:22):
spend 10 minutes or 15 minutesdoing my nonfiction reading.
So that's my biggest flex thatI have with my morning routine.
And so, as you're thinkingabout a morning routine, that's
something to consider.
Is there something you can putin there?
That is, I won't call it aluxury, but it is an extra thing
(13:44):
or an extra amount of time, orit's flexible in the amount of
time that you can spend on it,so that if you need to shorten
it down, you've got a shortermorning.
That's one area that you can do.
The second thing that I've addedto my morning routine that came
from the Miracle Morning bookis declarations or affirmations,
and I've heard aboutaffirmations.
(14:06):
I've heard people'saffirmations.
I've heard people'saffirmations.
I've heard people teach on it,and it just wasn't something
that clicked with me or that Ijust didn't care for how they
did it, just in short, heteaches it quite differently and
I love his method and so Ifollowed it.
Like he even has a template inthere for creating this, and so
I followed it and created myselfthree declarations that I read
(14:30):
out loud every morning after mynonfiction time, and so I won't
go into the formula.
If you're interested inlearning, if you've never done
affirmations and you don't likehow everyone else does it, or if
you want to just see adifferent way of approaching it
and thinking about those as moredeclarations rather than
affirmations, I do recommend youget the book Miracle Morning
(14:53):
and check it out for yourself.
It was the number one reasonwhy I bought and read the book,
because I wanted to really getinto his method of doing it, and
I'd heard he'd had he had aunique way of presenting it, so
that was the main reason I readit.
So if that's something thatyou've always wanted to do but
you weren't sure you wanted todo, go check that out in his
(15:14):
book.
After I do that, I do mystretches and then I'll usually
do a little bit of a lightworkout.
I have some exercises that I dofor my back which has helped
tremendously in strengthening myback and recover from some
issues that I had whenever I wasdoing my nonfiction book a few
years ago where I kind ofwrecked my back and it took a
bit to get back in shape fromthat.
(15:36):
So I don't do a heavy workoutat this time.
That is something I want toexpand my morning routine to.
So as far as improvements orwhere I want to go with my
morning routine and personaldevelopment, I do want to
eventually get more, more of aworkout in the mornings.
So at that point it's off tothe kitchen to empty the
(15:57):
dishwasher, make myself a teaand get to my desk, which I'm
again very blessed with a shortcommute to my office from the
kitchen, and so I will then fireup my computer, pull out my
planner, review my day and getto work.
I know I promised to share howlong my morning routine takes,
(16:20):
so I spend about two hours on mymorning routine and that may
sound like a lot, but I'm goingto be honest I'd love someday to
have a three hour morningroutine.
One of my virtual mentors hetalked about that one time where
he has a three hour morningroutine, and I remember just
feeling shocked at the idea ofspending that much time in the
(16:42):
morning on your routine routine,so for me, it took a while
before that felt normal andbefore I quit feeling guilty
about the amount of time that Ispent on it, and now I love that
I get to have a two hourmorning routine, especially when
I think of all of the thingsthat it includes, like the extra
reading time, and it's alsoincluding doing the dishes and
(17:06):
just really making sureeverything is ready for the day.
What really helped with that,though, was reframing it to be
called my personal developmenttime, and it's also my fiction
writing time.
So when I say two hours, thisisn't just me staring off into
space or doing a heavy workout.
When you look at all that I doin that two hours, it's actually
(17:29):
a short amount of time to me,and I love that.
I can now look at it as mypersonal development time, and
also that's my fiction writingtime, and so when I say I would
love to expand it to three hours, that's to expand the amount of
fiction writing time that Ihave and to do that workout that
(17:49):
I mentioned.
I would love to get in a morerobust workout in the mornings.
I also look at my morningroutine as my warm up for the
day, which is really the heavyworkout that I have ahead, and
so getting in that full coupleof hour morning routine really
gets me mentally, physically,emotionally, spiritually prepped
(18:12):
for the heavy workout that Ihave for that day and that's why
I love my morning routine.
I take it very seriously.
I do it every morning, mondaythrough Friday.
I am starting to do it more onSaturday and Sunday because, for
reason, I wanted to just getmyself the whole weekend off and
(18:33):
I thought by not doing my fullmorning routine it would
actually make me feel better andreally shift me over to doing
recreation or house stuff, allthe other life stuff, and I
wouldn't feel like I waspreparing for a work day, like I
wanted to take off for theweekends.
But what I found is it reallymade me sluggish for the weekend
(18:54):
, like it had the oppositeeffect not doing my morning
routine, and so I've startedincorporating that better into
my Saturdays and Sundays,including my morning pages.
What I don't do is I don't.
I give myself permission to notdo my fiction writing if I
don't want to, and especially onSundays.
But on Saturday, if I want togo ahead and do a bit of fiction
(19:18):
writing, I'll do it, but it'salso that time that I give
myself permission to not do it.
And typically I'll spend moretime reading on Saturday morning
in my morning routine and goahead and end the week with that
.
And it's not always nonfictionpersonal development books that
I read on the weekend For mymorning routine I may go ahead
(19:39):
and take my novel, and so on mySaturday morning reading time in
my morning routine it may begetting to read a novel, and I
found I'm much less sluggish andI'm enjoying the weekends more
because I have spent that timetaking care of myself, taking
care of my body, taking care ofeven the dishes, like the whole
thing, and really setting myselfup to enjoy the day.
(20:05):
Wrapping it up here, I just wantto say that everyone has a
morning routine.
It just may not be intentional.
So what I want to encourage youto do right now, as we're
wrapping up this episode, is tojot down what you currently do
every morning and decide if it'sreally what you want to do
(20:25):
every morning.
It may be shutting off thealarm, jumping out of bed,
brushing your teeth, gettingdressed and heading out the door
, or getting the kids ready togo to school.
Whatever your mornings looklike, especially if they're
hectic, I just really want toencourage you to read the
Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod andtake to heart his encouragement
(20:49):
of how you can really utilizethose mornings to make your life
better overall and specificallyas a fiction author.
Being able to get your fictionwriting in, get some reading
time in, do your morning pagesand set yourself up for the day,
I think you will make hugestrides forward in living your
(21:11):
best creative lifestyle.
Now, I promised to tell you abit more about Morning Pages
here, and the reason why Iwanted to focus on this is I did
create a mini course MorningPages mini course that you can
find over at fictioncoursescomforward slash morning pages, and
(21:33):
I have a coupon code for you toget $40 off that mini course.
So it makes it just $9.
And that coupon code isconfident morning.
So go to fictioncoursescomforward slash morning pages and
click on the enrollment buttonat the bottom of the page.
You'll see where you can enteryour coupon code, on the right
(21:54):
hand side, and just type inconfident morning apply the code
to get your $40 off.
This course takes you into thenitty gritty of what morning
pages are, what the benefits areand how to do them.
Morning Pages was introduced byJulia Cameron in her book the
Artist's Way, and she does talkabout doing Morning Pages, and
(22:17):
what I have found, though, is alot of a lot of authors struggle
with one how to actually do itphysically, what kind of
notebook do I use, pen, whatshould go in the morning pages,
and how do I make this aconsistent habit, because they
do take up a bit of time.
But myself, at this point, Ican't imagine not doing my
(22:39):
morning pages, and in the bookthe Miracle Morning, he talks
about how writing or journalingis an important part of your
morning.
Reading or journaling is animportant part of your morning,
and my morning pages doesfulfill that, but it fulfills it
in a much fuller and richer waythan just jotting down a few
sentences in a journal.
I do that in the evenings,where I jot down my three wins
(23:03):
of the day and what was the mostimportant thing that happened
that day and what three wins Ihope for the next day.
And that's a great practice.
But morning pages is for uscreatives, especially fiction
authors, to clear away all ofthe things in our brain and
sweep out all the corners of ourmind so that we can give
(23:24):
ourselves permission to settlein and get some fiction writing
done.
And that's why I do my fictionwriting immediately after my
morning pages.
You don't have to do it thatway, but I have found that to be
such a powerful combination andhas helped me become more
confident as a fiction authorthan ever before in my life.
(23:46):
So again, I have that minicourse for you.
It's just called Morning Pagesand it's over at
fictioncoursescom.
Forward slash morning pages anddon't forget to put in your
coupon code, confident morning,to get $40 off that mini course,
making it just $9 for you tolearn about and incorporate this
(24:07):
powerful habit into yourmorning routine.
That's it for this week, myfriend.
I hope you have a great rest ofyour day and a great morning
tomorrow.
I will see you in next week'sepisode of the Confident Fiction
Author.
Take care.
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