morning

   Today I spent some time browsing through that wonder of the modern age: the audiobook section of the Calgary Public Library ebook collection. I love ebooks. I love audiobooks. The library is making books more accessible to me? I can download audiobooks directly to my phone?!?!?! YES PLEASE. Maybe you are thinking to yourself "this again? Ugh, stop harping on it." All I have to say in response to that is: if you've got book problems I feel bad for you, son. I've got 99 problems but free access to a plethora of quality audiobooks ain't one.

   What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast / Laura Vanderkam isn't an audiobook so much as it is a hour-long mine of information and inspiration. Who here wants to be effective and productive? Who wants to spend their time well? I'd wager most of us do. I know I do. Basically, the gist of the...thing? audio program? book? instruction manual? who cares? is that mornings are valuable and you/I/we can use them better! Pretty straightforward. Pretty great. Vanderkam makes a productive morning schedule seem simple and accessible, and those are two things I like.

   Here's how to have a productive morning: wake up early, and get stuff done. THAT'S IT. If you listen to it, which I recommend you do (I have already "returned" it to the CPL, so that you can go borrow it. I reckon you have an hour of time at some point, probably today, to listen to it. Audiobooks are good for: driving, filing, tidying, putting away laundry, grocery shopping, etc) you will find that Vanderkam just wants you to have the time to do the things you love, the things that are important but not urgent, and the things you won't have the willpower to do later. She gives ideas and pointers and leeway.

   Such was the inspiration that I've made a plan to make my mornings fuller and more productive (as well as more enjoyable! Yessssss) AND a part of that plan is to keep a record of my mornings in a new blog, which I am calling (oh-so creatively) The Morning Project. If you want to read it, YOU CAN. Fair warning: it's pretty much a list of what I did before getting to work and that's it. I have a strange and insatiable interest in people's routines, especially morning routines and getting-ready routines, so I would probably be alllll over this baby if someone else was writing it, and so I am putting it on the world wide web, for your reading pleasure.

   Take-aways from this post: get What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast into your ear-hearts. You'll want to make your mornings into fabulous "are you a CEO" mornings.