Small tweaks can add up to big changes.
If
you always keep wondering what the successful people do, why they are where
they are right now, how do they spend their day, then this book will give you quick
burst of motivation for the hard work of personal change. This book summary is about
an absolutely amazing book written by bestselling author Laura Vanderkam- “What the
most successful people do before breakfast”. After publishing the equally
popular books like 168 Hours and All the money in the world, the author
came up with this book. And, it's a great book. It’s life changing.
I
will quote a line that's been written at the back cover of the book-
In a world of constant connectivity, the day can quickly get away from you as other people's priorities invade- sometimes even those of the people you share a home with.
It's
actually true. You see time is a
non-renewable resource. We all have 168 hours in a week. We all want to be
successful, but changing how we spend the entire 168 hours we all have each
week, seems daunting. We can actually achieve the unachievable if we'll try to
be productive in the finite time that we have. We just keep ourselves busy in
mindless tasks. This thing we need to change. You see, crafting new habits is never easy. But at the same time we should
know that small tweaks can add up to big changes. We should make dedicated
efforts for changing ourselves for good.
Managing your mornings
The
author in this book inspires you to rethink your morning routine and jump-start
your day. If you use your mornings wisely, you can build habits that will lead
to a happier, more productive life. Before the rest of the world is eating
breakfast, the most successful people have already scored daily victories that
are advancing them toward the lives they want. 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.
Nurturing ourselves, our career and relationships
We
shouldn't wait until the day ends for the meaningful tasks that we want to do,
be it exercise or spiritual practices like meditation, prayer or studying
scriptures for nurturing ourselves or
writing a journal or book for nurturing
our career. Rather we should begin our day doing them for we have really good
burst of productivity in the morning. Later in the day our head is a little
more cluttered, we get distracted more easily. Then, mornings can also be used
for nurturing relationships. Why wait
for dinner? We are more crabby at dinner than we are at breakfast. Family
breakfasts, when treated as relaxed fun affairs, are a great substitute for the
evening meal. This time is great for nurturing your relationship with your
spouse, kids.
Self-control failures occur late in the day
Tasks
that require self-discipline are simply easier to do while the day is young. Major
self-control failures and other bad decisions occur late in the day. The
majority of impulsive crimes if you see, are committed after 11 pm- lapses in
drug use, alcohol abuse, sexual misbehaviour, gambling excesses, and the like. Initially,
we need high amount of willpower to discipline ourselves, but once things
become habitual, they operate as automatic processes, which consume less
willpower. For instance, brushing your teeth- every morning we don’t argue with
ourselves about whether we want to brush, whether it’s worth the effort of
getting to the sink. It’s simply a morning ritual. Right?
Laying the foundation for happiness, health and wealth
Successful
people turn high-value tasks into morning rituals, conserving their energy for
later battles- annoying colleagues, traffic, and other willpower sappers. Through
these daily habits, we make slow steady progress- laying the foundation for
happiness, health and wealth. We can
build the lives we want in the time we’ve got. Even a few minutes of
strategizing before the rest of the world wakes up can make a day seem full of
possibility.
Managing your weekends
Paradox of weekends
The
author also helps you to rethink your weekends. The emphasis is on
understanding the paradox of weekends. You have to set an appointment to go off
the grid as surely as to go on it, means you will have to work out a plan even
to go off-work. That is the paradox here. Successful people know that weekends
deserve even more care than you bestow on your working days. Every week, you
are granted another chance to spend your time becoming happier, more creative
and whole.
We
all have trouble using our weekends well. Isn’t it? As soon as we figure out what
we want to do, we find the weekends slipping through our fingers. These days
disappear into chores, errands, inefficient email-checking, unconsciously chosen
television marathons, or a death march of children’s activities that suck the
energy out of chauffeuring adults. You see, time is far from infinite. So, we
must plan our weekends in advance so that they can actually prove to be
restorative weekends for us in true sense, and we can rejuvenate ourselves and
start refreshed on Monday. Doing nothing on weekends can be more exhausting
than doing something.
Structure your weekends
Then,
she elaborates on how we can structure our weekends by choosing labors of different sort and embracing
anticipation. When I say labors of different sort, it’s actually a concept
of sports- that is cross-training or active rest wherein we indulge ourselves
in another activity in order to take a break from the normal routine activities.
This is a very effective way to unwind ourselves.
Then
comes Embracing anticipation. What is
it all about? Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert talks about this phenomenon
in his book, Stumbling on Happiness. The greatest achievement of the human
brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the
realm of the real. This time travel into the future, otherwise known as anticipation-
accounts for a big chunk of the happiness gleaned from any event. The experiencing
self seldom encounters pure bliss, but the anticipating self, for sure
experiences happiness in its entirety. So, we should plan really enjoyable
things in the precious weekends, that too ahead of time. By doing this, we
magnify the pleasure.
Plan a few anchor events
We
are not supposed to prepare a minute by minute plan, nor a spread-sheet full of
details, but just a few anchor events sketched in ahead of time. If we wait until
Saturday morning to make our plans for the weekend, we will spend a chunk of our
Saturday working on such plans, rather than anticipating our fun. Some examples
of awesome weekends have been mentioned in the book.
Also,
in the later part of Sunday evening, we can carve out few minutes for weekly
review and planning for the next 168 hours starting Monday onwards. If you wake
up on Monday morning without a plan, you can easily lose the day as you figure
it out. You burn up willpower deciding, rather than diving in before your focus
is lost.
Managing your work
Finally,
she challenges you to make the most of your time at the office. We can focus on
matching our to-do list to our natural body clock and thus we can maximize our
productivity and accomplish more in less time. According to the author, the
secret to astonishing productivity lies in a handful of daily disciplines which
have been very beautifully articulated in the book-
Spread wisdom.
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