
Adding mindfulness to your morning routine
The internet told me that doubling down on a consistent morning routine is the key to a productive and impactful day. I’ve got a solid routine when it comes to my Daily and Weekly Reviews with Things, but I wanted to add a more consistent “mindful” component.
I stumbled on a fantastic post by Matt Valentine called 7 Morning Rituals That Will Change Your Life. I’ve baked a few of his suggestions into my morning routine (focusing on journaling, meditation & being creative) and I am digging the clear-headed results so far.
In this article, I’ll share a super simple way to create a mindful morning routine using a recurring todo in Things and an X Callback URL in Bear (+ a bonus Siri Shortcut). I’ve included URLs below to help you set this up on your end.
Mindful morning in action
This quick video demonstrates how I use Things3 & Bear to facilitate my Mindful Morning routine.
I have an Area called 🚀 Launch @ the top of my Things’ lists where I keep todos that help me get my day started right. I’ve added a recurring todo called “🧘♂️ Mindful Morning” into my Launch Area.
When I click the URL in the notes section of the todo, a note is created in Bear with a title = “Mindful Morning”, a tag = “reflect” and text for the different things I want to journal on.
From there, I work my way down my mindful checklist: I start by journaling a bit, I meditate for a few minutes (I’m new to meditation so I’m starting small!), then dive into some creative work (writing or drawing) and I always try to sneak a workout in.
Here’s how to quickly set this up:
- New Bear Note URL: Long press this URL and click “Copy” to save it to your clipboard.
- New Things Todo URL: Click this URL to create a Mindful Morning todo in Things3 (the previous link should be pasted into the todo’s note). If you haven’t enabled URLs in Things3, you’ll get a pop up message with instructions.
- Update the Todo: You can make it recurring, add or remove checklist items, add tags & move it to the appropriate Area or Project.
- Additional Resources: Here are the official X Callback URL Protocol docs for Things3 & Bear. These docs explain all the different ways you can create, modify and find notes & todos in Things3 & Bear.
- Bonus Siri Shortcut: Here’s a Mindful Morning Siri Shortcut (Click Get Shortcut, go into the Shortcut’s settings and record a Siri Phrase … so anytime you tell Siri “Mindful Morning,” it’ll automatically create a Bear note with the same mindful journal template as above).

What’s your morning routine?
In this article, I wanted to share a quick X Callback (& Siri Shortcut) use case for Things3 & Bear that’ll help you establish a Mindful Morning routine. Feel free to copy and tweak the URLs I shared to get them to fit your flow.
I’d love to hear about your Morning Routine … and how you use X Callback and Siri Shortcuts with Things3 & Bear. Please share your examples in the comments below!
I struggle with solidifying my morning routine. Excited to try this!
Hi Jill, keep me posted as you play with some of these ideas. Best of luck!
I really like this sound of this!
Could it potentially work with OneDay, which I use for journalling, rather than Bear
Hi Simon! I was just playing with this yesterday actually!
Try this link for a quick DayOne Siri Shortcut:
dayone://post?entry=Journal&tags=reflect
Would be interested in seeing how you choose tasks to work on for the day and that routine as well. Great post!
Hi Scott, glad you enjoyed the article!
This article I pasted below captures how I approach prioritizing and attacking the day. I hope it’s helpful, let me know if you have any questions!
https://productivewithapurpose.com/2019/05/21/the-fu-master-productivity-checklist-using-things3/
This is a really good idea! I just set mine up and completed Mindful Morning #1.
Great material on this site –> I hope you publish more!
That’s great Jon, glad you’re finding it helpful! Don’t be afraid to try different things, remove things that aren’t adding value, etc. Be agile until you find what works for you. Thanks again!