The Habitual Dream – Using Tools and Visual Cues to Establish Creative Ritual

I have, on multiple occasions, heard friends muse that they wish they could remember their dreams better. They have a vague awareness that dream journaling is a thing, but it’s not something they actively practice. They don’t even really know how to get started. 

As it happens, I do know how. I don’t actually keep a dream journal, but I’ve heard from those who do, and I know the basics of how it’s done. Do you want to know the secret? Here it is:

You have to have a dream journal that you keep next to your bed.

Sounds simple, right? But the people I’ve talked to, who wish they could keep a dream journal… Generally speaking, they don’t do this. They don’t have a notebook by their bed where they can write down their dreams. There are other steps, of course. But without this one, you’re never going to be able to keep a dream journal.

Not a Morning Pages notebook. Not an Ideas notebook. Those are separate journals. Now, if you do Morning Pages, I have no doubt that some of your dreams will make their way into them from time to time. Likewise, some of the ideas in your Ideas notebook may spring from dreams you’ve had. But if your goal is, specifically, Dream Journaling, then you need a notebook that’s just for that. Because the key to making it a regular practice is establishing the ritual.

Establishing the Habit
If you just wake up and say, “Oh, that was a wild dream! I should remember that!”, then sometime round about noon, you’ll find yourself saying, “OK, there were some people… who wanted this thing… And they were in a place… that looked like… What was it again?”

Or maybe you do have the foresight to write it down. You get out of bed, walk to your desk, fumble for a pen that works… And by the time you’ve done that, half the dream is gone.

If you have a specific dream you really want to remember, you might get away with using your Morning Pages or Ideas notebook, or whatever else is on hand. But if you want to make it automatic, you need that separate notebook. And you need it right there, next to your bed.

Why? Because when you look at those other notebooks, you don’t think Dream Journaling. You think Morning Pages, or Ideas. So when you see them, first thing in the morning, your instinct isn’t to grab them and start writing down your dreams. And without that instinct, you can’t develop the habit of dream journaling.

Likewise, if you HAVE a Dream Journal, but it’s not on hand where you sleep and readily visible when you wake up, you’re not going to be able to grab it, and you’re not going to be able to write down your dreams before they disappear. But if you see the notebook you’ve established as your Dream Journal, as soon as you wake up, you not only have the means, but the reminder, right at your fingertips. 

The Morning Pages Reminder
Now, the point I’m trying to make isn’t actually about dream journaling, specifically. Rather, it’s about ready tools and visual cues. Having a specially designated dream journal within easy reach and easy sight will help you train yourself to write down your dreams as soon as you wake up every morning. If you want to start a different ritual or develop a different creative habit, then a handy tool and a visual cue for that will do the same thing.

When I did The Artist’s Way last year, I kept my Morning Pages notebook (and pen) not just next to my bed, but on it. I’d open my eyes, and there they’d be, next to me. Even if I decided to put off doing them, I had it in my head. And any time I came back to my room throughout the day, there was the notebook, reminding me that I still had Morning Pages to do. If it hadn’t been there, I doubt the Morning Pages habit would have made it a week, much less 12.

The pen is essential, too. I know, it seems like a given. But pens are easy to lose, and they tend to dry up or run out of ink. You may have the visual cue of the notebook, but if you still have to get up and go in search of a working pen, it can break your momentum and make it that much harder to follow the daily ritual.

Other Visual Cues
Of course, not all creative rituals are writing-based, and not all of them happen first thing in the morning. But visual cues can still be helpful. When I was in college, I bought myself a cheap keyboard, in the hope of starting to play the piano regularly again. I stored it under my bed, and I don’t think I played the thing more than once or twice, the entire time I had it.

My current keyboard, I keep on a small table in the living room. Admittedly, I still don’t practice regularly. But since I see it every day, I play this keyboard a lot more often than I did the one that I hid away out of sight.

Another daily ritual of mine is reading. It’s a practice I consider essential to my creative growth, so I make it a point to read every day, even if it’s just a couple of pages, or a couple of paragraphs. I used to keep whatever book I was reading on or next to my bed, for that first-thing-in-the-morning, last-thing-at-night visual reminder. Lately, I’ve started keeping it next to my computer instead. My computer is very old and appallingly slow, so having my book on hand is a good way to kill two birds with one stone: get my daily reading done and kill time while waiting for the current page to load. And the visual cue of the book next to me is a great way to establish that new routine.

But then there are days when I don’t use my computer—or simply days when it runs at a reasonable pace, and I don’t have to spend time waiting for it. So I don’t have a chance to read while I’m working. But then I also don’t have the visual cue of the book in my room by my bed.

There are also times when the book I’m reading is on the Kindle app on my phone. Then there’s no visual cue at all, because I don’t look at my phone and think, “Book,” any more than I look at my Ideas notebook and think, “Dream Journal.”

Fortunately, at this point, I’ve been at my reading habit long enough that I can generally remember, even if I don’t have a book in front of my face. Still, I do like having the reminder, so I’ll try to find some other visual cue if I can, just to make sure I stay in the habit.

Environmental Distractions
Visual cues work the other way, too. Sometimes, seeing something regularly can foster bad habits instead of good ones, and limit your productivity.

For me, my Work Computer is also my Personal Computer. And I used to keep that computer in my bedroom. So whether I was working on an assignment, writing a story, browsing social media, or trying to sleep, the visual cues were all the same. This made it really difficult to get anything productive done.

I’d open my computer to start writing a new script, but instead I’d end up browsing the Internet for several hours. Or I’d just take a nap. Then that night, when I was trying to go to bed, I’d find myself watching Netflix instead. (This was back in the early days, when Netflix streaming was still something you did on your computer, instead of on your TV.)

I used to be able to sit down at my computer, open a blank Word document, and start putting words on the page. But over time, my space became a series of distractions. My computer was now a visual cue that said, “Internet,” or “Netflix,” instead of “Work.” If I wanted to develop better habits, I needed to get away from those cues and foster new ones.

Let’s Go to the Mall
And so I started writing in the food court at Northridge Mall. I don’t remember why I chose the mall, but it worked. I would go there in the late morning or early afternoon with a notebook and pen, grab lunch, and spend a few hours writing. If I got stuck, or just needed a break, I would get up, walk around the mall, browse a few stores, and then come back.

I tried just to let the words flow, rather than worrying whether or not they were any good—though the pages still ended up with their fair share of crossed out bits, carets to add a word, asterisks to add a sentence or paragraph, and other changes and rearrangements throughout.

Afterwards, I would come home and type up what I’d written, which also served as my first round of edits. Having actual words in front of me instead of a blank page made it easier to concentrate on the task at hand, instead of getting distracted. Then when I was done, I could browse the Internet and watch Netflix, guilt-free.

I did this for a couple of years, on and off, but in early 2011 was when I really committed to it. Beginning of the year, a former professor of mine posted a call for submissions for a short story anthology she was putting together. So I spent weeks going to the mall regularly to work on my submission. Some days, I would get a couple of pages. Some days, I wrote until my fingers had blisters. And by the end of the month, I had a 6,000-word story, which they accepted and published.

Separating myself from the habits and visual cues that signaled distraction in my old environment allowed me to establish this new environment as a place of productivity. And as I did that, the new habits and visual cues that came from that new environment signaled creativity instead.

Even now, 15 years later, when I go to the mall, I’ll sometimes find myself thinking, “Right there in front of that JC Penny is where I came up with my villain!” (In retrospect, part of me wishes that lunch hadn’t been a part of the ritual, as I ended up spending way too much money on pretzel dogs, pizza, brownies, gelatos, etc. Still, they were a big help in getting the story flowing.)

New Cues, New Habits, New Distractions
It’s been years since I’ve been to the mall to write. I don’t know that it would work as well anymore. Back in 2011, leaving the house, for me, meant leaving the Internet behind. But now I have a smartphone, so all the distractions that used to be on my computer now apply mobilely, too.

Back in the day, if I came across a question or conundrum, I’d draw a blank on the page, leave a space, and keep going. Then I’d look it up once I got home and fill in what I needed. Now, no matter where I am, if I run across one of those roadblock questions, out comes the phone. Before I know it, I’ve spent the next hour scrolling on social media, while a mostly-blank page stares back at me.

Fortunately, I’ve managed to establish other routines and habits that help eliminate distraction. I have a separate space in my home for writing that’s not my bedroom, and entering that space helps put me in productivity mode. I still don’t have separate Work and Personal computers, but there are still habits and cues that get me into Work Mode when I need to be and Creative/Personal Project Mode when it’s time for that.

It also helps that, at the moment, my phone is old and in poor condition. The battery drains very quickly, so most of the time while I’m working, it’s in the other room charging.  Annoying, sure, but hey, I’m not scrolling!

But even though my approach has changed over the years, the core lessons remain the same. Establishing those visual cues and keeping those tools handy helps to build the environment and cement the ritual. And once the environment is established and the ritual is ingrained, distractions can be dealt with, productivity can flow, and creativity can burst forth.