A Book That Will Change Your Mornings (Book Review)

How does your morning routine look like? What do you do first when you get to the office?

After spending an hour or more in traffic, when you get to work you just want to serve a cup of coffee, socialize a bit with colleagues, before sitting on your desk to check email, social media, to sort of “ease into work mode”, a process that sometimes takes three or more hours.

Do you define yourself as a night person, and that’s your excuse for being slow and unproductive in the morning?

Do you consider habits such as daily exercise, Bible reading, meditation as restrictive and bonding, instead of freeing?

Are your day-to-day chores so overwhelming, that you struggle to do the long term, valuable things that truly matter in your life?

If you can identify with any of the above questions you must read Laura Vanderkam’s eBook, What The Most Succesful People Do Before Breakfast. At $ 4.99, and a short 2 hour read, this book is probably the best investment you will ever make for your schedule, if you implement Laura’s recommendations.

Why mornings?

Successful people have priorities they want to tackle, or things they like to do with their lives, and early mornings are the time when they have the most control of their schedules. In a world of constant connectivity, of managing global organizations, the day can quickly get away from you as other people’s priorities invade— sometimes even those of the people you love dearly and share a home with….

….New research into that old-fashioned concept of willpower is showing that tasks that require self-discipline are simply easier to do while the day is young.

Vanderkam, Laura (2012-06-12). What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings–and Life

Research has shown that will power is like a muscle, it grows stronger when exercised, and when over used in a short period of time it gets fatigued. In a normal day, you probably have to make so many decisions and exercise it so much, that by evening, there’s little will power left to do things that don’t have life and death implications like exercise or even spend time with family. This explains why it is easier to exercise in the morning than in the evening, when our willpower muscle is tired.

On picking what activities to focus on in the morning:

The best morning rituals are activities that don’t have to happen, and certainly don’t have to happen at a specific hour. These are activities that require internal motivation. The payoff isn’t as immediate as the easy pleasure of watching television or answering an email that doesn’t require an immediate response, but there are still payoffs. The best morning rituals are activities that, when practiced regularly, result in long term benefits.

The most successful people use their mornings for these things

• Nurturing their careers – strategizing and focused work
• Nurturing their relationships – giving their families and friends their best
• Nurturing themselves – exercise and spiritual and creative practices

Overall, this book is a must read. However, don’t just read, track your time, and make the necessary changes.

Pros

Cheap. For $ 4.99, it is very well priced

Short and easy read, you don’t have to be a bibliophile to read this

Easy to implement the lessons

Cons

It is only available on Kindle format. This is a disadvantage for us book collectors (or tree killers as some call us 🙂 )

I felt the book was a bit light on the implementation side. I could have done with a bit more content, but it seemed Laura used it as a teaser for her 168 hours course.

My favourite blogger and productivity guru Michael Hyatt has written about this. Are you a morning person? Do you find it easier to be productive in the morning?