A Great Way to Create Space for Strategic and Innovative Thinking
The first time I experienced cognitive overload was when Jugnoo (a startup I co-founded in 2014) was scaling up. Planning, delegating, and solving issues seemed endless. As a coach, I now hear similar sentiments from other startup founders and leaders:
“I constantly have so many thoughts and tasks running through my mind.”
“I just can’t switch off.”
“I overthink decisions due to too much context and too many voices.”
One of the biggest downsides of this mental clutter is not having enough space for strategic, long-term, and innovative thinking. A close second is getting stuck in the day-to-day and not prioritizing tasks and time effectively.
When your mind is overloaded, meditation can seem impossible (and it may not work for everyone in every situation anyway). In such cases, I often ask my clients if they like writing and if they have ever tried journaling. Responses vary, often with apprehension, but my favorite tool for this is Morning Pages.
Introduced by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way, Morning Pages was initially a means to help nurture creativity and overcome inhibitions. For me, creating and nurturing an organization is akin to a work of art. And the benefits of Morning Pages go beyond creativity. Here’s how and why it works:
What are Morning Pages:
Three pages (or ~750 words) of long-hand, stream-of-consciousness writing done first thing in the morning.
Best done with pen and paper, without self-censorship. Start writing anything and everything that comes to your mind. Ignore sentence corrections and spelling errors.
The goal is uninterrupted writing. So try to keep writing without lifting your hand off the paper. If you’re stuck, write “I have nothing to write.”
It takes 30–35 minutes to fill three pages, but you can start with five minutes and gradually aim for three pages.
No need to reread what you wrote. Some find it helpful to write on loose paper and discard it afterward.
As Cameron says, “There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages.”
Why Morning Pages work:
Self-reflection: Most of the time, we are moving from one task to another and hardly check in with ourselves. Morning Pages allows the time to really listen to ourselves and the internal chatter (the “veil of ego” and “mind” is weakest in the morning, hence advised to do it first thing).
Clarity via “brain dump”: It allows you to put all your thoughts, ideas, and anxieties down. David Allen’s (author of Getting Things Done) quote “The mind is for having ideas, not holding them” can be extended to chatter as well. This brain dump can clear your mind to create space for important matters.
Long-hand writing vs typing: Slowing down the process allows time to get in touch with our emotions.
Stop spiraling and overthinking: Writing without rules can let us sit with our emotions, process them, and bring the spiral to a natural end.
See things clearly: With emotions and thoughts put into words in long-hand, there’s no wandering away to other distracting thoughts. Getting the “stuff” out and looking at it can help us see things for what they are and helps to ground us.
How to get started:
Start with five minutes or half a page, then aim for three pages. If you have a lot of clutter, you might start with three pages right away.
Give it time. You’ll likely see a difference within a week or two.
When I practise Morning Pages on the regular, I find my ability to tune out the mental chatter and create space for big picture thinking increases.
💡 Pro tip: Pair it with meditation. I usually meditate after Morning Pages, with fewer thoughts to distract me.
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