About a week or so ago I finally cracked open (or, rather, clicked open – the Kindle version is only $2.99) What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, an amazingly quick, and useful, book written by Laura Vanderkam. Apparently, she’s written an entire series of books on how people manage their time efficiently.

This book caught my interest because I’m typically a night owl and my PhD journey has consisted of several nights up burning the midnight oil. However, moving forward with my dissertation, and as a professional, I’m thinking I should probably get a handle on this time management thing. Plus, I’m not getting any younger and the midnight oil doesn’t burn as bright as it used to. As I’m always feeling the pressure of a constantly ticking clock, I decided to take a look at this text after I saw one of my e-mentors, Myleik, shared it on Instagram (check out the hashtag #myleikbookshare).

Here are my thoughts on this brief read (really, I read it in one sitting!):

In one sentence this book is about: 

This book explores the benefits of nurturing yourself (goals, desires, relationships) FIRST in the day and, ultimately, first in life.

You should read this if: 

You often find yourself up late and night wondering why you didn’t get any of the things accomplished that you said you would.

Three simple takeaways:

1. Work that is required from others – on the job, as a parent, for your loved ones – most often gets completed regardless. They’re going to make sure you get what THEY need done. You have to make sure you get what YOU need done!
2. Successful people understand that self care is essential to being able to make it the long haul. As my mother would say, “To whom much is given, much is required.” If you want your body/mind/spirit to receive greatness, you must nurture them.
3. Time is precious and we waste a lot of it… A LOT. Especially those precious moments we spend in the bed with our heads under the covers after waking up.

This morning I woke up at 5 a.m. In the hours before arriving at my office at 9 a.m. I made coffee and washed dishes, spent half an hour in devotion, spent half an hour setting research and productivity goals for the day (among which was write this blog post), logged a 3.6-mile run, ate a good breakfast, caught up on the latest tech and health news using Feedly, and showered and got ready for work. Let’s see if I can keep this up!