You wake up and the first thing you think of doing is reaching for you phone.

But don’t. Keep it clear. Don’t put blocks in your way.

Don’t immediately go online. Don’t immediately go into content consumption mode.

Give yourself a chance to boot up. Give yourself a chance to start forming thoughts.

Don’t drown everything in your brain out before it has an opportunity to catch hold.

Keep it clear.

Are we there yet? This journey is taking too long.

Yes, the journey is long. Yes, there are many more steps. But, if you don’t keep going, if you give up too soon, you will have nothing to show for your efforts.

Yes, the start and the finish are the most interesting parts. But the middle, the in-between, matters just as much. The in-between connects beginning to end. Without the middle you have a start but no end.

No, we’re not there yet, but the journey matters.

Sometimes you have to be prepared for the days when you have nothing.

Sometimes you need to be able to pull out a ready made solution. Something you’ve kept for a rainy day, something you’ve kept for when you’re stuck.

It might just be something to help you start. But it will help.

If the day isn’t going your way have you tried switching it off and on again? By which I mean start again.

You cannot work without knowing what to work on.

Without knowing, there can only be the appearance of work. Without knowing, there can only be the appearance of busyness. Without knowing, you can sit at a desk and put in the time but be no further along than when you started.

To do actual, meaningful work, the work must be known.

The problem is that figuring out what the work should be doesn’t look like work. It looks like laziness. It looks like you’re not trying. It looks like you’re not doing anything. It looks like you’re not busy. And if you don’t look busy you can’t be doing anything worthwhile. It’s what others might tell you. It’s what you might tell yourself.

Put up with the discomfort. The work must be known.