The key ideas

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast

Laura Vanderkam, 2012

While some people rush around answering messages, others fit in a run, work on their own book and a talk with their kids before breakfast. Laura Vanderkam asked busy people how they use their mornings and found a simple logic: this is time that still belongs to you. A short book about taking your mornings back step by step, with no heroics and no four a.m. alarms.

Who it is for

For anyone whose mornings fly by in a rush and who never quite gets around to the things that matter to them.

Before the rest of the world is eating breakfast, the most successful people have already scored daily victories that advance them toward the lives they want.

What the book is about

Five a.m. Steve Reinemund, the former head of PepsiCo, is already up. He runs about six kilometers, finds time to read or pray, and has breakfast with his kids. Only then does he go off to run one of America's largest companies.

Your morning probably looks different: the alarm, the rush, messages, the commute. You get around to your own things “sometime later,” and then the day is taken over by other people's.

The journalist Laura Vanderkam, who has spent years asking people how they spend their time, asked: what do people who get more done do before breakfast? Her short book rests on interviews and popular studies; these are the author's observations, not rigorous science. But the question it asks is a sharp one: can you take your mornings back?

Idea 1. The morning that doesn't belong to anyone yet

Why do successful people have time for a run, while others don't even have time for a quiet cup of coffee?

As Vanderkam observes, it often comes down to who's in charge of the clock. During the day, the schedule is dictated by the boss, clients, kids, email and urgent calls. Early in the morning, while the world is still asleep, many people have more control over their time.

That's why, in the author's view, the best morning rituals are things nobody demands and that could easily be put off. A run, a book, work on your own project, a calm talk with the people you love. These are exactly the things that often drop out of the day first.

All day you want to call your mom, but in the evening you have no energy left, and the call gets pushed to tomorrow again.

Things that matter but that nobody demands can lose out to urgent ones for years. The morning gives them a chance to be first in line.

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About the author

Laura Vanderkam is an American journalist and the author of books on time management, including “168 Hours.” A Princeton graduate, she has written for major American publications and hosts the podcast “Before Breakfast.” She is a mother of five.

All books by this author: Laura Vanderkam

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast Quiz

Terms from the book

  • Willpower
  • Ego depletion
  • Time tracking: Writing down what your time goes to, usually over a week. For Vanderkam, it's the first step toward reshaping your mornings.
  • Morning ritual: A regular activity a person does in the morning almost automatically. The author's expression, not a scientific term.
  • 168 hours: The number of hours in a week. Vanderkam's framework and the title of her earlier book: look at time in weeks, not days.

All terms

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