Answering emails, taking phone calls, and sitting in meetings have a way of
taking over your schedule and rarely lead to making major improvements in your
life. For your own happiness and to protect the time necessary to focus on the deep
work, the first few hours of your day must be grabbed by you, for you. Fight for it.
If you work on two things you consider important, you are making progress on
projects that matter—and are winning the long game.
Waking up early and planning out your day has huge benefits. Just ask Mari:By jumpstarting his mornings with early wakeups (no snooze!), checklists, and
rituals, he has been able to take control, set his priorities straight and find time to
start working on a new book. I followed up a few weeks later, asking Mari how the
morning ritual was going:
That’s amazing, Mari, day #54 of being a boss. Tony did the same and found
his “way back into the gym every morning at 5a!”:
I know it’s hard to get up that early and get right into a workout, but when you
5- 4- 3- 2- 1 to find the activation energy to beat those feelings of resistance, you