I’m a night owl. My excuse has always been, I’m an artist. I work late into the the night. I wear more than one hat. If you’re like me, I’m sure if you have your reasons too. But what if I told you, waking-up earlier than usual helps us be more creative?!
As creatives, we flourish when we are left alone to focus intently on our work. That extra hour can be dedicated to uninterrupted productive time without distractions.
Benefits for artist
Morning pages
The method of writing Morning Pages comes from the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a book that teaches broken and frightened artists to get back onto the path of creativity and away from the fear that holds them back.
The point of morning Pages is to clear out the clutter in your mind, so you can get to the real job of being creative. To encourage artists to overcome the voices within and without that spew of negativity.
How they work: Find a notebook or journal of some kind – cheap or fancy, it doesn’t matter. Grab a pen, one that is easy to write with and comfortable in your hand. Get up a little bit earlier every morning and write longhand for three whole pages. That’s it! Don’t overthink it, if you’re a writer by nature, try not pen what you’re currently at all. Write about the mundane, your to do list. Anything that pops in your head. Even if it not all connected. You’re not writing a best-selling novel, you’re clearing the clutter in your head.
Lucid dreams
This is especially convenient that you can start drawing immediately after you wake up from some vivid dreams. Before you get started with the left-brain, logic oriented work-day, start off the day illustrating your dreams and imagination!
If you start waking up early and keep a dream journal, you increase your chances of having lucid dreams, out of body experiences, or astral projections. If you don’t know what this is, I’ll let you look it up. As creative types, we have a proclivity to explore the dream realm. If this resonates with you, I really encourage you to follow your curiosity!
Problem solving
Our creative thinking is more active in the morning.
Harvard biologist Chris Randler discovered early risers are more proactive and more likely to anticipate and to address problems efficiently. Use this to your advantage. Do some activities that require that extra creative alertness and input. Such as creative problem solving, brainstorming a new concept…etc.
How to become an early bird
- Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.
- Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.
- Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump-start on your day! I like to use that time on planning for the rest of the day; exercising, meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.
- Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep. Try to read while in bed this helps. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.
- Put your alarm clock far from you bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.
- Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.
- Have a good reason. Set something to do early in the morning that’s important. This reason will motivate you to get up. I like to write in the morning, so that’s my reason.
- Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. A good reward is to make a hot cup of coffee or tea and read a book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.