The morning preparation and evening review

Two short daily routines sit at the heart of Stoic practice: a few minutes in the morning to prepare for the day, and a few minutes at night to look back on it honestly and kindly. Both fit easily into a school or university day.

Marcus Aurelius's morning preparation

• Meditations 2.1 (George Long's translation) opens: "Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial."
• This is not pessimism. He goes on: "All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil."
• He reminds himself: "For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth."
• In Meditations 5.1 he talks himself out of bed: "I am rising to the work of a human being," and asks, "Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?"
• The pattern: expect some friction, decide in advance how you will respond, and remember what your day is for.

Preview the day: Epictetus at the bath

• Enchiridion 4 (Long) advises: "If you are going to bathe, place before yourself what happens in the bath", such as people splashing and pushing.
• Then he suggests saying: "I now intend to bathe, and to maintain my will in a manner conformable to nature."
• Modern version: before a crowded mall, a long family gathering or a group project meeting, picture the likely annoyances and decide how you want to behave.
• When the annoyance arrives, it feels expected rather than like a personal attack.

A three-minute morning routine

• Minute 1: look at your plan. What are the two most important things today?
• Minute 2: predict one likely difficulty (a tough lesson, a tense conversation, tiredness) and choose your response in one sentence.
• Minute 3: pick one virtue to focus on today, for example patience with a sibling or courage to ask a question in class.
• Do it before you open social media, so your own priorities come first.

Seneca's evening review

• In On Anger 3.36, Seneca describes the philosopher Sextius, who asked himself each night what bad habit he had cured that day and in what respect he was better (as quoted by Massimo Pigliucci; the SEP also places Seneca's evening self-examination in this passage).
• Seneca says he does the same: he reviews his whole day, conceals nothing from himself, and does not fear his mistakes, because he can pardon himself and resolve not to repeat them.
• Pigliucci notes that Epictetus also describes an evening review (Discourses 3.10) and that Marcus Aurelius's Meditations can be seen as the result of this kind of practice.
• The aim is honest reflection and peace of mind, not beautiful writing.

Doing the evening review kindly

• Ask three questions: What went well? What would I do differently? What will I try tomorrow?
• Keep it to five minutes, in a notebook or your phone notes. Then stop: the review should help you sleep, not keep you awake.
• Speak to yourself as a fair coach would. Seneca's model is forgiveness plus a plan, not punishment.
• If you already journal (see the Reflection and Journaling lesson in Purpose, Reflection and Service), add these three questions to it rather than starting something new.