What People Are Saying About Morning Pages on Reddit
We read through four Reddit threads about morning pages, from devoted fans to people who find them depressing. Here is what real people actually say, in their own words.
Loading content...
HabitHabitWe read through four Reddit threads about morning pages, from devoted fans to people who find them depressing. Here is what real people actually say, in their own words.
"What People Are Saying About Morning Pages on Reddit" — Habit Blog — https://habit.am/blog/what-people-are-saying-about-morning-pages-reddit
Community builder and wellness enthusiast who believes small daily practices create big changes. Taylor’s 'Small Habits' methodology has been implemented in corporate wellness programs at over 5,000 organizations.
View all articles by Taylor Morgan →
Morning pages are one of those practices people either swear by or quietly abandon. The idea, from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, is simple: three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing, first thing every morning. No editing, no audience, no rules beyond filling the pages.
We already wrote an honest review of morning pages after a full 12-week experiment. This time, we wanted to hear from everyone else. So we read through four Reddit threads where people talk honestly about the practice:
Here is what people are actually saying, in their own words.
The first thread makes the case that morning pages work less because of what you write and more because of the ritual itself. The replies mostly agree, and one of the clearest benefits people mention is pattern spotting:
They definitely helped me catch patterns that I would've glossed over without them. Like the same friend I'm complaining about in every other page and finally doing something about/understanding it.
— u/SpecificShopping4562 in r/artistsWay
That matches our experience too. When you write every day, repetition becomes visible. The same worry showing up on page two every morning eventually becomes impossible to ignore.
Another writer noticed the effect on the rest of the day:
I am struggling with them, no doubt, but I am also able to see the benefit. I honestly feel better throughout the day on days when I do them, and shittier on the (rare) days when I do not.
— u/Low_Ice_4657 in r/artistsWay
Not everyone in the thread was sold, though:
"Routine" doesn't really work for me, I hate routine and I can't form habits. I don't like morning pages. I am trying them again now I have my hands on the book and they just.... aren't working for me. I keep waiting for the magic to happen and it isn't happening.
— u/Ghoulya in r/artistsWay
The second thread starts from the opposite place: someone nearly a year in, wondering if the practice is doing anything at all. The replies are some of the most thoughtful in all four threads.
One person reframed what the pages are actually for:
Do you ever have a day when something feels off? Like you're forgetting something or there's something you should be doing? It nags at you all day. Your mind keeps spinning with thoughts—obligations, errands, work stuff, family stuff… all of it swirling around.
So you write it down, like a to-do list, but with more thought behind it. You go deeper into each item. Sometimes, as you write, you figure things out. The weight lifts a little because it's no longer stuck in your head. It's on the page. That's what morning pages are for me.
— u/heemano in r/artistsWay
Someone else described a slower, less glamorous benefit, watching their own negativity lose its charge over a year of writing:
I was shocked at how harsh and negative my mind was first thing in the morning. I did not enjoy the practice, but I kept at it and noticed the repeated criticisms and regrets eventually lost their intensity and faded away. I think of it like peeling the layers of an onion until the whole thing is gone.
— u/kudzumon in r/artistsWay
And the most upvoted reply in the thread took the pressure off entirely:
Or just write really large I AM DONE, stop writing, get up, put on a song and dance. Who cares? Move something through you. This life and this journey and this ritual is YOURS.
— u/rosypreach in r/artistsWay
Several replies also gave the original poster permission to quit, which says a lot about how dogmatic the practice can feel from the inside:
TAW is a book. Not a cage. A program. Not a cult.
You don't have to stick with it, especially if you don't think you're seeing results.
You can stop. And later, if you decide, you can start again. It's all up to you.
— u/werebuffalo in r/artistsWay
Over on r/Journaling, the most upvoted reply to someone struggling with the practice was validating rather than corrective:
After many years, I have come to accept that long form journaling just doesn't work for me and actually enables me to wallow in negative thoughts. And it's OK that it doesn't work for me.
— u/P-Celtic in r/Journaling
That same person went on to describe what works instead: a daily line of gratitude, or noting one "lovely thing" per day in a calendar spread. Shorter, lighter, and easier to keep up.
The timing problem came up a lot in this thread too. Some people simply have nothing to say at 6am:
My mind is blank at that time of day - I won't remember what I did yesterday and I have no "stream of consciousness", no overflowing thoughts waiting to spill out on the page. ... Instead, I journal in the evening with a review of the day. What happened and how I felt about it.
— u/downtide in r/Journaling
And the most relatable objection of the thread:
Waking up an hour early to pour out my thoughts is stupid because the only thought I have is "I could be sleeping right now".
— u/MajinCloud in r/Journaling
One reply offered a rename instead of a rebuttal:
I flipped the script: instead of "morning pages," I do "momentum pages." Just a few lines about what I want to build into the day - sometimes that's gratitude, sometimes it's a bold move I'm about to take, and often it's a snapshot of a collaborative project I'm working on. Writing even a line about that shared work shifts my energy.
— u/sam101-7711 in r/Journaling
Though there was one counterpoint worth hearing. The first weeks are supposed to be rough:
It is expected that negative stuff will come out. Imagine if you go clean the plumbing in your house for the first time, a lot of disgusting garbage will come out. But over time, if you do it more frequently, it won't be like that.
— u/hoscillator in r/Journaling
The last thread is our favorite. The original poster is an engineer with a full-time job who writes for 20 minutes at 6am, and openly admits to the daily trade-off: "should I get up and write morning pages or should I choose 20-30 mins extra sleep?" The replies from other non-artists are warm and practical.
One writer started the practice to bring more creativity into their life, and then it became something else entirely:
As a non-artist who started this practice in 2022 as a way to bring more creativity into my life (and then had a devastating life event where I found solace and refuge in the morning pages, maybe "mourning" pages would have been more appropriate!), I find this practice now to be an essential part of my morning routine. ... it is often mundane but sometimes revelatory!
— u/Ok-Giraffe-6429 in r/artistsWay
Another described the practice as maintenance, not magic:
I think writing in the morning helps me be more present and clear headed as I am taking time to digest my life. I liken it to flossing to avoid undigested thoughts and experiences clogging and festering.
— u/lucid2night in r/artistsWay
On the sleep question, the pragmatic answer won:
The days where I write them first thing do feel slightly more spiritual in a way, but I get so much out of them regardless of when I do them in a day. Consistency > perfection imo!
— u/MassageBat in r/artistsWay
Someone mid-way through the book described what the pages are actually doing for them:
I have been using it to "create" my life, it's been helping me determine what I want, what I don't want and it's also helping me work through all the things I'm still unsure about. I find that each week I become more honest with myself as I noticed that I was censoring my own thoughts when I write my morning pages but the more I do it the more it comes out.
— u/Paupi121 in r/artistsWay
And the shortest reply in the thread might be the best summary of the whole practice:
Reading all four threads back to back, a pattern emerges. The people who get the most out of morning pages treat them as a flexible ritual rather than a rule: 20 minutes instead of three pages, evening instead of morning, a few honest lines instead of a word count. The people who struggle most are often the ones holding themselves to the strictest version.
If three pages by hand every morning sounds appealing, try it for two weeks and see what comes out. If it sounds like a chore, that is useful information too. There are lighter ways to get the same benefit: a random journal prompt when you want something to react to, or a guided journal app if you would rather answer a few quick questions than face a blank page.
The goal was never the pages. It is noticing what is actually going on with you. However you get there counts.
Our 2,000-person journaling study found that half of participants 55+ would try the AI-enabled reflection—four times the rate among younger participants.
Marc Andreessen's call for zero introspection mistakes rumination for self-knowledge. Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu, and Marcus Aurelius offer a more useful distinction.
Daily journaling works best when you focus on consistency, not volume. Learn simple techniques to show up regularly and build a meaningful record over time.
Free Resources
For Professionals
© 2026 Habit. All rights reserved.
Build version: v2.18.7