Unlock yourself first.
Start every morning with yourself, before the rest of the world asks for your attention. The Morning Work is a journal with an app. In the evening your social apps lock at a time you choose. The next morning you answer five questions on paper and hold your phone against the back of your journal. Then your apps open, or at the time you set.
You wake up and your hand is already on your phone. A few messages, then a quick look at Instagram. Twenty minutes later you are still in bed, and your head is full of what other people are doing and thinking today.
Your own thoughts get their turn later in the day, after a hundred others have already passed through.
Sound familiar? Then The Morning Work was made for you.
Here is how a morning goes. Every day in the same order.
Good evening.
Instagram stays closed until you've done your Morning Work tomorrow, or until it opens by itself. See you then.
1In the evening
You choose which apps close and at what time, for example 22:00. Open one after that and you see the app's lock screen. They stay closed until you have finished writing the next morning.
2In the morning
You open your journal at today. The five questions are already there: Notice, Choose, Feel, Act and Prove. Five to ten minutes, by hand.
3Done?
You open the app, tap "I've finished writing" and hold your phone against the back of your journal. That is the signal that your morning is complete.
4The rest of the day
Your morning is complete and your day begins. Tonight your apps close again at the time you chose, until you have written tomorrow.
Busy morning? Then your apps open at a time you set, and for real emergencies there is an emergency button.
The app holds one agreement with you: your social apps close in the evening at the time you choose, and in the morning they open once you have finished writing. For the rest of the day it gives you small nudges that keep you on course.
Your apps closed last night at the time you set. Now you see the wordmark, the day that is waiting for you and one button. Scrolling comes back once your phone has touched the back of your journal, or at the time you set yourself. You choose which apps close, too.
Unlock yourself first.
Day 4 of 66 is waiting in your journal. Once you've written, hold your phone against the back.
Close
The widget shows which day you are on, with a new quote every day. On your home screen and on your lock screen, so you see it before you even unlock your phone. One hundred and twenty per journal.
An hour of concentrated work, or a quiet evening with the people around you. With Focus you close your apps until a time you choose: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or your own time. After that they open again by themselves.
Every morning you see which day is waiting for you and what today is about. And at your milestones you get a message that shows how far you have already come.
The Morning Work07:00Day 1, Where you start. Your first question: What in your life right now are you completely fed up with, and what part do you play in keeping it going?
You've started19:30Chris, your first morning is done. What a way to begin. Day 2 is ready for you.
Voice message from our foundernowWelcome to The Morning Work. I have a short message for you.
Journey shows your chapter and every morning you have completed. You see in black and white how far you have come, and after a busy day you simply carry on with the next morning.
Sometimes you need your apps right away. Then you press the emergency button and your apps open until the time you had set. After that your lock works as normal.
I need my apps now.
Your apps will stay open until 09:00. After that, your lock works as normal. Your circle only sees whether you're done.
For iPhone and Android, in Dutch and English. The app subscription comes free with your journal.
Invite up to four people who are doing it too. You can see whether the others have finished their morning. What you write on paper stays between you and your journal.
That is enough to pull each other through the mornings that take a little more effort. Your partner, a friend, a colleague: everyone writes in their own journal, and you can see that the others made it too. Who will you invite?
For the first 66 days, five new questions are waiting for you every morning, written by Niels. Each day has its own subject, in six chapters: from looking honestly at your morning reflex to holding on to what you have changed.
At the front of your journal. What you hope for, and who you want to be in 66 days. Then you close it.
Notice: what is really going on right now? Choose: what will you do differently from today? Feel: who are you when you choose that? Act: what will you actually do today? And Prove, the next morning: did it work? This is how you get to know your own patterns, in your own handwriting.
You read what you wrote to yourself before your first morning. Then you see what has changed since.
The same five steps, with fixed questions. You choose where to apply them that morning: your work, your relationship, your health. On day 120 your journal is full.
Hardcover, A5, 256 pages. Dutch or English edition.
From me. I'm Niels, and this is why I made The Morning Work.
For years I pushed away everything I felt.
From the outside I always looked like that confident guy. Full throttle at work. Giving a hundred thousand percent. No looking back, only forward.
Until at some point my body said: this far and no further.
Looking back now, that was a gift in ugly wrapping paper.
It forced me to stand still and ask myself the questions I had pushed away for years. Why do I do what I do? What do I really want to achieve? And above all: who do I want to be?
That search started with something simple: writing every morning.
But after a week I was back on my phone, disappearing into the apps and the thoughts of other people.
Then I realised something: your morning should start with you, not with the world on your screen.
That is why I made The Morning Work. A journal with an app that only unlocks your social media after you have written. So that you first consciously stop and think about who you want to be and what matters to you today, before the rest of the world asks for your attention.
It helped me get closer to myself again. To get clearer on where I want to go, to live more consciously and to stop more often and notice what I am grateful for.
And now I get to share what helped me with you.
Not because I have all the answers. But because I know how it feels to lose yourself a little along the way. And how valuable it is to find the way back.
This is your moment to start with yourself again.
I believe in you.
Go for it.
Niels Luka, founder of The Morning Work
On your own, or together with the people around you. Every journal comes with the app, subscription included.
The journal with the app, including a free subscription. Hardcover, A5, 256 pages.
On day 66 you open the letter you wrote to yourself before your first morning. By then you have looked honestly at what is going on, morning after morning. You chose what you wanted to do differently and did it that same day. The next morning you read back whether it worked. Every morning your social apps waited until you were done.
Before his first morning, Niels wrote a letter like that to himself too. In it he says:
"I hope you've already been able to inspire people to be the best version of themselves. To show them that life is one big game, and that you can shape it completely yourself, once you let go of all your old beliefs."
"I hope the people who follow you now feel a little fire inside them to take action. Not tomorrow, not the day after, but today."
Build a life you actually want, by starting with yourself every morning. Your journal gives you the questions each morning and the app keeps your social apps closed until you are done.
More questions? Email help@themorningwork.com. You get an answer from us personally.
The app subscription comes free with your journal. You link your journal in the app and you can begin.
Yes, the app is available for iPhone and Android. You create an account, link your journal and choose which apps close in the evening and at what time. On an iPhone this runs through Apple's Screen Time, which asks your permission once.
Your apps still open, at a time you have set yourself. And if you really need them earlier, there is an emergency button. The next morning you simply carry on with the next day, and everything you have done so far stays.
When you have finished writing, you open the app, tap "I've finished writing" and hold your phone against the back of your journal. Then your apps open. What you write stays in your journal.
The Morning Work is the first journal that only opens your social media after you have written. You choose when your social apps lock at night. In the morning you answer the five questions in your journal, hold your phone against the back, and your apps open again. Niels, who made it, started writing every morning and was back on his phone within a week. So he built the journal he was missing. Niels also wrote what is inside. He developed this way of journaling himself, with the same five steps every morning: Notice, Choose, Feel, Act and Prove. You take an honest look at what is going on, choose what you will do differently today, feel who you are when you do, and turn it into one thing you will do today. The next morning, Prove asks whether it worked.
This is a pre-order: you pay now, and we ship in the last week of November or the first week of December. As soon as your journal is on its way, you get an email with a tracking code.
Within the Netherlands €5.95, to Belgium €6.95, to other countries €9.95. From €100 shipping is free, so three journals ship free.
The journal comes in two editions. The questions and the letter are in the language of your edition. You choose the edition when you order; the app follows the language of your phone.
Yes. You have 14 days from the day you receive your journal. Return shipping is at your own cost. If you have already written in it, we may deduct the loss in value. Email help@themorningwork.com with your order number and we will tell you how it works. With a pre-order you can also cancel before we ship.
Unlock yourself first.
This is the first edition. We ship in the last week of November or the first week of December, in good time to start on 1 January. Or earlier, if you are ready for it. You write your letter, you lock your apps, and the next morning you start with yourself.
Pre-order the journal