A simple ritual. Express something — anything — first thing in the morning.
Before the news. Before your inbox. Before the noise of the world rushes in. Give yourself a moment of quiet output, with no external input at all.
Just you. Just what’s in your heart.
Do it for you
Write. Sketch. Paint. Walk. Stretch. Dance. Build. Whatever calls to your creative spirit — follow it.
There’s no pressure for it to be good. No need to share. No reason except this: because it’s yours.
It can take an hour. Or five minutes. What matters is the act, not the outcome.
Before the inbox
Don’t wake up and become somebody’s inbox.
Take this time for yourself before you give your time to everyone else. The news will be there. The emails will be there. The Slack messages will be there.
But this quiet window — this moment — it’s for you.
My output
I started practicing Output before Input in the summer of 2022. It’s been about three years. It changed my creative life. It changed my professional life.
Because of this ritual, I’ve:
- Taken thousands and thousands of personal notes (some published)
- Created my own handwriting font
- Written and published 39 blog posts (and counting!)
(Just to name a few)
More importantly, it’s helped me get really good at… well, outputting.
Documenting. Diagramming. Prototyping. Making something out of nothing.
And now, when it comes to work — sharing ideas in meetings, making a diagram in FigJam, writing a Slack message that ties everything together — I can do it almost effortlessly.
Not because I’m uniquely skilled in those activities — but because I’m practiced. Practiced in making. In expressing. In sitting with the quiet and turning it into something. Making things. Making sense of things. Saying what I mean in a way others can follow.
I do it every morning. And I have for years.
Inspiration
I first learned this ritual from Tom Sachs. (If you’ve read my blog, you’ve probably heard his name before. It probably won’t be the last time.)
Whether or not you like his art, no one can deny how much stuff he makes. When I saw his practice, I thought: Maybe I can make a lot of stuff too.
Express yourself
So tomorrow morning — before you scroll, before you swipe, before you answer anyone else — make something. Make something great. Do something fun. Do something that will make your heart smile.
Not for them. For you. Just once. Then again. And again. And again. That’s how it begins.
Create something before consuming anything. Before the world tells you what matters, remind yourself what does.