Book review- What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam

(These are my reading notes, the highlights!)

Section 1- mornings 
"Hopeful Hours"  (think about how these words can accurately describe the potential of morning time)

-Productivity and positive decision-making happen in the morning. Most failures of self-discipline happen at night. (Diets, vices, crimes)

-Mornings are highly eligible for wasted time, when we see them as full of chaos. If we prepared ourselves before we start taking care of the kids or work, we already have several small victories for the day, advancing us toward the lives we want.

-We all have 168 hours a week, but not all hours are equally suited to all tasks. Longest stretches of concentration happened earlier in the day.

-Will power is a muscle. Things that used to require a lot of self-discipline become habits and rituals and no longer require effort or consideration, we just make them happen. Like toothbrushing.
-I am thinking about and applying what I read in this book to my own life, particularly analyzing whether my email/phone use is occuring at optimal times, or at times that I wouId be most capable of accomplishing something important in my day.  I noticed on my first morning of trying this that I enjoyed starting my morning with this book, exercising, or another good book or project, and not checking my phone first.  It was both a subtle and dramatic shift.  When I did open my email I felt like I was putting other people‘s needs before my own and cluttering my mind before establishing a good foundation for today. Those tasks on email that could have waited an hour and been no worse off interrupted the flow of my reading and progress thinking about this topic and other things.  Great lesson!

-One author/researcher mentioned the usefulness of making his morning ritual something for which he is excited to get out of bed- and makes a list of four things he is grateful for.  It starts the day in a happy mindset.
-Another beautiful idea from him is to put his gratitude into action and write a quick note of appreciation to an actual, specific person: a friend, colleague, mentor, spouse, etc. “This puts him in a loving, connected frame of mind.“  On a spiritual level, one could thank G-d for specific things each morning and gain spiritual connection.  A person could also do this in the format of a journal but that doesn't help with connection, just introspection.

-The book discusses the power of making something happen – knowing that you have to work at it for a couple weeks.  Start gradually, charge your progress and then it will start to stick.  Then will be at the point that if you skip it, it feels like you are really missing something essential.

-As mentioned above, in just four or five days of rethinking my early morning routine, I feel that these "hopeful hours" are too important to my sense of accomplishment and mission to spend on semi conscious activities. I want to start my day with a cascade of successes.

-Visualize your perfect morning – or perfect anything, and take steps to reach it! Don’t settle for mediocre.

Section 2, with the most successful people do you on the weekend –
-Did you ever think that there are 60 hours between Friday evening and Monday morning? Even if 24 of them are sleeping, that leaves 36 to accomplish relaxation, important things, and recreational activities.

-We have about 1000 weekends with each child before they are an adult.

-“Successful people know that weekends deserve even more care than you bestow on your working days. Every weekend is another chance to enrich your life.  How do you achieve rejuvenation? How do you arrange your weekend hours to create, over time, a full life?“
-Planning and anticipation is key. If you wait till last minute to come up with something to do, it won’t be as meaningful and you won’t have the distinct pleasure of anticipating it for so long. If you plan a couple big special things for the major time periods of the weekend, you can still be spontaneous about lots of smaller parts of the weekend

-Make a list of 100 dream activities. Try to tackle a couple every weekend and also plan some mission-driven activities, like volunteer work, that’s your time for it. 

-Don’t let chores “fill the time available“ because that time is greater on the weekend. The weekend has special qualities not to be wasted on too many chores.

-Next the author praises the Orthodox Jewish observance of the Sabbath!  Time away from the car, phone, computer, and your job.  Now it's time for other important things in life. It’s like cross training is to athletic performance.

Section 3- the secret of astonishing productivity
-No matter what your vocation, what you accomplish is the function of how you spend your hours.
-Many people have a tendency to “fritter away the time in front of us as if it were infinite.’

-Even if you don’t feel complete control over your time, you can “look at your calendar and see the possibilities inherent in minutes rather than seeing them as sand sifting through an hourglass.”

-Overestimating hours worked per week is common – and if you do it, you diminish the hours you’re not actually working.

-Marking how you spend your time in hours and minutes for a couple days can be really helpful to seeing what your daily productivity actually is. Mindfulness can help you make choices.

-Time is not a renewable resource – it is limited.

Planning
-Careful planning distinguishes good from not so good in many professions.

-Separately plan the week, the day, the month, maybe even a year

-Self-care has a good financial return 

-people work better when they think/know that their boss/company care about them

The Discipline of Practice
“Repetition sets you  free – it automates things, so your mind can think of bigger things“(Lemov)

Baby David update, 15-17 months (next time I'll really have to call him a toddler...)

What a busy time it's been with David!  He has been walking and running all over the place.  He's a serious handful.  Looking back on the last update at 13 months, one major change is that for many months he stopped waving, while starting and continuing to walk/run at about 14 months.  He finally has resumed waving at about 16 months and does the cute funny hand-wag and "buh bye!" and "huwwo."

He still gets super excited whenever the phone rings and yells "DADA! DADDY!"  He loves being with Daddy so much.  Daddy takes him and the girls to the park and the store a lot, and David always does very well with Daddy.  He puts up less of a challenge than he does with Mommy.  With Mommy, he will try to climb out of the shopping cart; with Daddy, he sits very well.

David likes to watch for birds from the windows (and call out "buh!") and chase them if he can, outside.  He loves to see dogs when we are outside, which is often, because he LOVES being "ahhhside."  He could stay outside endlessly!  It's fitting that his baby-talk for outside was one of his first real words!!! That and hummus.  He says "humma" or "hummy."  Let this be a record that he is an outdoorsy baby who likes hummus, like his family!

David (or "Lub Dub" or "Dubby" for nicknames) loves his sisters so much.  Sometimes while driving to pick them up from school he starts calling out "Deedee! Neni!"  One of the sweetest things he does is go to them for comfort- if Mommy isn't nearby, or if I scold him for excessive screeching/screaming, pulling hair, etc.  Adira is able to watch him quite effectively either inside or outside, for short times.  Nesi is really good at bringing him from his bed to Mommy in the morning to nurse (and requires exclusive rights to this job!)

He is beyond cute.  He has his top two and bottom two front teeth and sometimes gives a big cheesy grin.  He is very ticklish and loves having his feet kissed.  Nes loves to "blob" him which is making a big loud noise with her mouth on his tummy.  He sits with the big girls sometimes when they watch a video with Daddy- usually not paying attention to the screen, but sitting nicely.

David likes to eat these main foods: tomato sauce with baby cereal, applesauce and cinnamon, avocado, banana, mandarin oranges (he peels them himself), frozen fruit-cream, hummus, veggie straws, and baked goods.  He loves drinking water and frequently grabs the faucet and leans in to drink extra.  He nurses 4-5 times a day.  He is still taking two excellent naps a day (YAY for Mommy!) and usually doesn't wake up at night.  But when he does, Daddy takes pity on him and freely delivers him to nurse and then returns him to his crib.  After all, he is so busy growing, he needs the fuel!

David overall looks a lot like Adira as a toddler.  His hair is mostly curly.  He refuses to wear a sunhat, but he likes to take other people's kippas.  He loves going to music class and down slides (he figured out all by himself how to go down on his tummy.)  He dances when he hears music by running in place/stomping his feet alternately.  You can't hold this boy back, he is on the go!  We love David SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!  Sweetest little guy we know.  Thank you Hashem for the beautiful, amazing child!