What the Most Successful People do Before Breakfast
By Laura Vanderkam
- You can spend 3-4 hours a day on mindless tasks such as checking email, scrolling through FB, or just sitting there.
- Your highest value jobs are nurturing your family, nurturing your career, and nurturing yourself (prayer, hobbies, exercise).
- Before eating breakfast, some of the most successful people have already accomplished things.
- Successful people have things they want to tackle, and early mornings are the most controlled time they have.
- Mornings are one of the most available and controllable time. If you wait until the end of the day to do the most important things (pray, be with your family, exercise, etc.), it will probably never happen.
- We all have 168 hours in the week, but we don’t always have control of the hours like we do at other times.
- Tasks that require the most will power are easiest to do when the day is young.
- People who brush their teeth in the morning don’t stand there thinking about the discomfort of the bristles in their mouth, they do it because it’s a routine. And placing morning routines in your life will allow you to get more done.
- You can eat, do laundry, watch TV, and other such things, but you don’t really need discipline to do those things, you’ll do them anyways.
- A study shows that people who exercise in the morning are more likely to keep with the routine as opposed to those who exercise at other times of the day.
- Track your time. To accomplish more, it helps to know what you are currently doing.
- Picture the perfect morning for you. Is it breakfast, meditation, exercise, gardening, new ideas, taking a class, painting, or something else? Picture in your mind what it will look like for you, and work towards making it happen.
- Think through the logistics. Give yourself 15 minutes to shower and you’ll take 15 minutes — figure the logistics.
- Map out the plan. If you don’t turn off the light and go to sleep, you won’t be able to get up on time. Try reading, writing, or doing what you need to do to wind down and get some rest.
- Make a habit. When something becomes a habit, it is hard to break.