Early mornings have always been my favourite part of the day. Before our girls were born I’d wake up early, go for a run, to the gym, or simply just start my day whilst the rest of the world was still asleep. I took the morning as it came and didn’t worry much about anything.
Then I fell pregnant with our firstborn born and all of a sudden things were different. I started to worry about the baby that was growing inside me and felt powerless in keeping him or her safe. As a freelance with pretty much no maternity pay I worried about if we’d be ok financially, and about getting stuff done before the baby was born, like finishing my book. It was overwhelming at times. I struggled to stay positive and focused, particularly during the first trimester. My usual outlet to clear my body and mind by going for a hard tempo run, or giving the boxing bag down at the gym a good pounding wasn’t an option anymore.
To find a way to help me get to a better state of mind, to tackle the worries and thoughts, and to feel somewhat in control, I decided to give a more structured morning routine a go. I bought a new notebook that I called ‘Daily notes’ and decided to give each day a page and divide it in three parts to help me address the bits I was struggling with. It’s a habit I’ve kept going since, though with a few breaks here and there.
So for this week I thought I’d share my morning routine of how I write my daily notes and how I use the three parts. Here’s how I divide up the page:
- Part 1: Visualising the day ahead. The first thing I write down at the top of a new page each day, besides weekday and date, is how I want the day to turn out and how I want to feel. I write this as a story/ paragraph and since the mind doesn’t acknowledge negatives I write down everything as positives. Just try not to imagine a yellow elephant. Sneaky huh? If I’m worried about something, writing down that I feel in control or at peace with whatever it is I’m worrying about will help calm my feelings. It also makes me feel that how I want things to be/ turn out is a possibility. Whenever the worries come back throughout the day, I turn to what I’ve written down and refocus.
- Part 2: Capturing what I’m grateful for. Below the written visualisation I write down things that I’m grateful for as a bullet point list but with more than one bullet point on each row - I write until I need a new row and so it continues. These are usually a mixture of the little and the big things that give me joy in general and with the day ahead. Just as with the day visualisation I sometime use this section to address what I feel negative or worried about by finding the positive angle on it. For example, when I first started doing this and a freelance contract was in flux and I was worried about not having any paid work the following week, I wrote down how I was grateful for the flexibility in my work and that I could use any downtime for my book and UX courses.
- Part 3: Listing my to-do:s. The last thing I capture is what I need to get done in the day, both work and “life” wise. The simple act of writing everything down provides me with a good overview and makes me feel more in control of what I want and need to get done. I tend to write down what comes to mind and once I have my list, I’ll go through and circle the most important things to ensure I’m clear and focused on what’s actually a priority for the day ahead. I’ve also made peace with that I won’t always finish all the items on the list. Sometimes I’d write them down again the next day. Other times I’d go back over previous days and tick them off. I’m not too strict here. The focus is on getting things done.
Once I’ve gone through the three parts and written everything down I go back over and read through it all, circling each of the things I’ve listed as being grateful for. As much as possible I then try to address some of my priorities on my to-do list before the girls wake up, or if I’m working from home, before my first daily meeting begins at 8:40 am. That’s it.
It’s working well for me but you may find that a different format is better for you. Or that you don’t need one. What I like about it is that rather than jumping straight into whatever needs doing, this practice grounds me and provides time for some reflection first off. And it sets my intentions for the day.
???Things AI, UX & Storytelling
Three links related to AI, storytelling and UX design
- (Listen) Designing for AI Agents: The Future of UX Beyond Interfaces. As AI moves from simply responding to user input to making autonomous decisions, what does that mean for defining and designing experiences? This latest episode of the Future of UX podcast by
Patricia Reiners?
explores just that - where the focus must shift to and what it means when the experiences we design are less about where the user clicks but instead about getting AI to make decision and actions for us, and how users can trust the actions AI take and still feel in control.
- (Useful) datavizproject.com This website is a gem when it comes to getting inspiration and insight into what type of data visualisation you should/ could use for your work. I cannot praise it enough and point people to it when they ask for advice on how to present data, or for how to use visuals instead of lots of words in presentations. https://datavizproject.com/
- (Read) Can Generative AI Finally End the Weekly Status Meetings? This post by
Scott Arpajian
isn’t new but it holds some good suggestions of how to use gen AI to supplement and potentially even replace some meetings. How could or are you using AI in your work day?
???Things I’ve added to my list
- The Great CEO Within by
Matt Mochary
. This book has been on my list for a long time but has popped to the surface as building things and leadership are two subjects I’m really interested in.
- That’s the kind of busy work I want to replace. There’s a lot of talk about the type of work that AI will be able to replace. Many naturally think of things that AI is good at today as the kind of work that AI will be able to do, like writing, creating imagery etc. But there’s another side to it. Just because AI can do something for you, does that mean that you want AI to do that instead of you? Or do YOU actually want to do it and get AI to do the work you find boring? This post by
Jason Fried
about the true test of an AI agent is a good example of that.
- Jakob 'vabbar'. This post by
Colin Moon
is gold and sheds a bit of light into some Swedish terms that are frequently used. 'Februari' (February) should be called 'Vabbuari' due to all the time people take off to look after poorly kids. This year has been extreme - after being ill for 8 days, and well for 4, our youngest got the tummy flu last Friday. Luckily it was quick and none of the rest of us got it. Bring on spring!
????Things I’m working on this week
Using AI to create plans and forecasts. I don’t use AI for writing as I really enjoy that bit but I do use it for helping me plan, research, organise, and work through different scenarios. And that I’m doing a lot of at the moment. I’m eager to get hands-on with agents but with too much on my plate right now (yes I’m aware of the irony!) I’m saving agents to April when I have some time on my hand to play around and set things up.
Have a great week everyone.
