“What 13 Highly Successful People Like Warren Buffett and Donald Trump Read Every Morning”?

I’ll be damned. Most of the most successful entrepreneurs in the USA don’t follow my advice. Judging from this article on Entrepreneur.com, most of the big shots spend the first hour or two of their days reading news and checking email.

I guess when you’re a billionaire you can do anything you want. But they’d be happier and more productive if they reserved that precious part of the day for something that actually matters – like working on a project that their grandkids would be proud of. (“Grandpa was amazing. He used to read five newspapers every morning.” “Grandma was a stud. She sorted through 150 emails every day before nine o’clock!”)

Unless your career depends on being up to date on the news, trying to stay “on top of” what’s happening is largely a waste of time. (I know you don’t agree. When you are my age, you’ll understand.) And email? 80% of it is other people asking you to do their business.

I’ve been saying this for 20 years: The two things you should NOT do first thing in the morning are reading the news and answering emails. What you should do is devote that crucial part of the day to advancing an important-but-not-urgent goal.

One thing, though, that the big shots do (according to the Entrepreneur.com article) that I’ve recommended is wake up early. Most of them are at work by six am. Early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise.