Waking Up With Redbubble: What’s Your Morning Routine?

Recently, Medium published a post on 8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M., which got us thinking about what you folks in the Redbubble community do as you wake up each day. Do you have a specific routine that you stick to to get your creative juices flowing? We want to hear from you in our latest open discussion.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that there is a correlation between self-care as a creative individual and living a fulfilling and productive life. It’s not really “news”, more common sense, but there are certainly things you can do each and every day to improve upon your own creative life and general well being.

Some of the artists I’ve worked alongside do these things to get their mornings started.

• Make coffee, tea, or enjoy the ritual of making a hot beverage. I know lots of artists who wouldn’t even qualify themselves as humans without a morning cup of joe!
• Doing exercise, hitting the gym, or doing a bout of yoga. Exercise is such a vital part of physical and mental well-being, which bleeds over into our creative productivity. The value of a good run or power walk can’t be underestimated.
• Start off the day with making a t0-do list. One of my art school lecturers always started every morning with making a to-do list in which the first thing he wrote was “make a to-do list” so he could have the satisfaction of crossing something off the list. It’s kind of the same idea as people who make their bed every morning just so they can have accomplished something simple which makes them feel good.
• Start with cleaning to give yourself a clean slate. Some artists begin their day in the studio by cleaning off their desk to make sure they have a clear work surface. One artist I know literally washes her floor, which might sound extreme to mop the floor every morning, but there can be something cathartic about cleaning.
• Another way to start the day might be to write in your journal, sketchbook, or record any dreams you’ve had the night before. Getting your ideas out there and onto paper might help with getting your creative day started.
• Similar to the tip on starting your mornings with exercise, one artist I know who designs books for a living (which means she spends a lot of time inside at a desk staring at a screen) begins each day by waking up and walking into her backyard and staring at the sky for about 30 seconds. This wakes up her body by directing sunlight into her eyes, and also makes her feel grounded before she hits her desk for the day.

So how do you start your day? What’s your morning routine? Do you have a routine that works for you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Let’s discuss.