Give some thought to your morning routine

When 17 out of 20 CEOs take time out of their lives to respond to a survey about morning routines, that’s worth reading. Jim Citrin over at Yahoo! Finance did just that, and the similarities of the responses he got should give you after you read it a pause for thought. Definitely visit Jim’s article for the juicy and important details.

Here’s the main points of CEO agreement when it comes to morning routines; How do you score?

1. Start early. (I get up between 3–5 am, so +1)
2. Get a jump on email. (I completely disagree, but then I live online instead of being a CEO managing thousands of people, so -1)
3. Exercise every morning. (I look at this as a vote for just how critically important daily exercise is, so +1)
4. Be thoughtful about the source, form, and timing of your news. (A good one! As ossified as the Mainstream Media is, reporters worldwide are out there digging up news you need to know. The trick is not drowning in it. For me, I recently canned the daily newspaper and now get my news via weekday BBC podcasts, tevo-ed CNN Situation Room and Lou Dobbs shows, RSS feeds from 5 media orgs into Tab 2 of my Google Homepage, the Sunday local paper (gotta have my comics) and the Sunday New York Times. So +1. By the way, have you audited your news feeds lately?)
5. Problem-Solve. (In other words, use morning time to tackle and think through the things that matter. I use the rule that my time before 10am is three times more valuable than my time after 3pm. so +1)
6. Make Family Time. (Use that morning time to connect with your family before everyone runs off to do their thing. I do, so +1)
7. Be creative with your morning routine. (Another good insight – those first few hours when you return from the land of slumber are just too valuable to waste! so +6, and a score of 6 out of 7. Not bad!)

Comments

[Matthew Cornell]

Thanks for the pointer, Bob. I *love* #4, and they're all good. I got about the same score as you.

[Jeremy Ross]

The pitiful sliver of time these people devote to family is shameful. I admittedly spend too much time on work, but most of these executives are far beyond overboard. Reminds me of Jack Welch's family story.. very sad.