What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings-and Life

How scheduling leisure like appointments unlocks rest and peak performance

Laura Vanderkam

2012

8 Key Insights

About This Book

Stop letting precious weekend hours slip away and transform your free time into a launchpad for energy, creativity, and happiness. By adopting simple yet counterintuitive strategies—like treating downtime as an appointment, harnessing the science of anticipation, and compressing chores into focused sprints—you’ll learn to carve out structured moments of joy and restoration. Packed with vivid real-life examples, from high-powered executives to busy parents, this guide shows you how to build rituals that recharge your mind and body, so you can hit Monday refreshed, focused, and ready to excel in every part of your life.

About the Author

Laura Vanderkam is a leading time-management expert and author of multiple bestsellers on productivity and life balance. Her insights have appeared in The New York Times, Fortune, and Harvard Business Review. She blends rigorous research with engaging storytelling to show professionals how to make every hour count, and she lives her own advice—juggling writing deadlines, family activities, and marathon training with structured weekends.

Biggest Takeaway

Apply proven techniques to reclaim 36 waking weekend hours: plan anchor events that boost happiness, embrace active rest to prevent burnout, and eliminate decision fatigue by pre-scheduling leisure. Expect deeper relaxation, stronger relationships, and more creativity at work. You’ll end each weekend with clear purpose, banish Sunday-night dread, and start Mondays energized, productive, and in control of your time.

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