In this episode titled "The Early Bird Gets the Worm." Ken explores the second pillar of productivity: being an early mover.

Through historical wisdom, real-life examples of successful entrepreneurs, and scientific studies, we see how early mornings can set you on a path to greater productivity and success.

From Apple's Tim Cook to Virgin Group's Richard Branson, many of the world's top leaders swear by their early start. This episode isn't just theoretical; you'll hear practical tips, from establishing sleep routines to finding compelling reasons to rise early, ensuring you can start making successful changes from the get-go.

Tune in and discover how transforming your mornings could be the key to your next big breakthrough!

Pillar number 2, the early bird gets the worm.

Now, if you're a morning person like me, you know there's nothing quite like

the peace and calm of the early morning hours. You get

up, nobody else is awake. Every everything is

quiet. You might have some of the early actual birds

just starting to wake up, but you can get your cup of coffee

and sit there in silence for a while. It's just

something about a good way to start the

morning and a lot of the most successful

entrepreneurs do just that. They get up early even

much earlier than I do. Early morning hours are some of the best

hours to tackle the most important tasks of the day. Getting up

early allows you to accomplish big

things before most of the rest of the world has even woken up. Then

you've you're already so much farther ahead when you can do that.

It's, instead of mind over matter,

call it mind over mattress. That thinking has been around for quite a

while. Even, Benjamin Franklin came up with a quote. He

said, early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy,

wealthy, and wise. A lot of

very successful entrepreneurs are early risers. You've

got Tim Cook, said he gets up as early as 3:45

AM. That's Apple CEO. You've got CEO of

Kohl's, Michelle Gas, 4:30 AM to go running. You

have, former PepsiCo CEO, Indra I'm not

sure how to say that. She's up at 4 AM in

Indra Nooyi. I'm not sure. Maybe. I

butchered that. Gets up at 4 AM in the office at 7.

Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey up at 5:30. Meditation,

go for a jog. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz up at

4 AM. These people are all uber successful.

And then you have Richard Branson as well. He's the entrepreneur

behind the Virgin Group of Companies. He's up at

5:45 AM. That's not super early, but it is early. It's earlier

than most of the world rises. And

if if you can incorporate that type of thinking,

not just into your mornings, but into

being early to whatever it is you're doing, being

the first mover on whatever venture that you're that

you're getting into, being early into

the party that will get you so much farther ahead in

life. You look at people that are always late. Let's just take

Bitcoin for example. I don't know if you're into Bitcoin or not. I've been

in and out of it and it's, I

enjoy, I enjoy it and I know what it is and and

the power and the capability that Bitcoin has to transform the way that we

do money. But if you were early into Bitcoin

way back years ago, you could

have bought many Bitcoin

for a dollar. Like it was a couple cents per bitcoin. Now

it's up around 70,000 per bitcoin. So say if you had put

a $100 into it 20 years ago, which

it hasn't even been 20 years ago, 15 years ago,

you would be a multi multi multi millionaire right now

if you were early to that. I'm not everything does that. Not

everything is gonna explode like that, but if you can be early

on some of those technologies, you

you'll be so much farther ahead and that's that's just

with anything in life. If you're early, is better than

late. So what does the science say about this?

Maybe. Maybe the old sayings are true. Maybe early

risers actually do live happier, healthier lives and

more productive. Here's what some researchers have to say about

it. In 2014, the Department of Psychology at Binghamton

University completed a study that included 100 undergraduate

students. Their study found that both people who get less

sleep and those who delay sleep are prone to

repetitive negative thinking. So people who

don't sleep as much and people who go to bed later.

RNT or repetitive negative thinking is a transdiagnostic

disorder that can be observed in other disorders such as depression and

anxiety. It's correlated with high levels of worry

and negative thought patterns. Early

risers increase their chance of success

because you don't have as high likelihood of getting

into those negative thought patterns. In 2010, Harvard

Business Review released a study by biologist Christophe

Randler about early risers. 367 university

students participated in this survey. They were asked what times of the day they

were most energetic. They were also asked how willing and able they were to take

action or change a situation to their advantage. He reported,

a higher percentage of the morning people agree with statements that indicate

proactivity such as, I spend time identifying long range goals for

myself and I feel in charge of making things happen. He went on

to say that, My research showed that they tend to get

better grades in school, which get them into better colleges,

which lead to better opportunities. Morning people also

anticipate problems and try to minimize them. They're proactive.

A number of studies have linked this trait, proactivity, with better job

performance, greater career success, and higher wages. Now,

I don't know about you, but that sounds like a good reason to

incorporate the the early to bad, early to rise

or or to be an the early bird gets the worm principle.

That's that's a great way to incorporate that or a good reason to.

Here's 7 things that you can do to help you out in this

area. Number 1, go to bed early. Of course. Number

2, turn off your screens. Those

screens, they have a blue light that suppresses melatonin, which

helps you sleep better. K. Number 3,

create a sleep routine. Try to go to bed at a consistent

hour and wake up at a consistent hour. That helps

you out so much. Number 4 is get some exercise.

I just started doing 75 hard and I've been doing a

lot more exercise than I normally do. Now

I work a very the work that I do is very active

and it's hard work. So it's almost like exercise, but it's not

specifically exercise. In 75 hard, I've been

doing 2 45 minute exercise slash workout

slash stretches per day, and it it's

changed how I feel. Number 5. This is one thing that you can do

if you have a hard time getting out of bed is keeping your alarm

clock at a distance. Like put it across the room.

If you tend to hit the snooze button, put your alarm clock across the

room and you'll want to get up and go turn it off.

Number 6, a splash of cold water on the face like that

will help you wake up. Get some cold water. Wash your face

down. It's just refreshing, rejuvenating. And

number 7, the best one of all, give yourself a reason to

get up. Thinking of a compelling reason to get out of bed in the

morning is possibly the strongest motivator for early

rising. You want to accomplish great things. You want to do things

to better your situation, to better your life, your health, your career, your

family, your relationships, all of those things. That will

get you moving more than anything.

Do good work.