6 Secrets to Success Only Early Birds Know

It’s been proven time and time again that the most successful people tend to be early risers. The person you spy out your window going for an early morning jog while you’re still in your pajamas probably knows some secrets to success.

Is there a correlation between early birds and future success? If so, what secrets are morning people discovering before you’ve had your first cup of coffee? Before we dive into early bird behavior, let’s first look at some of the reasons why some people just naturally find it easier to get out of bed with the first morning light:

Why are some people early risers?

Why exactly do some people dread the rising sun, while others welcome it? First of all, our sleep cycles are regulated by circadian clocks, which is an internal mechanism letting you know when to wake and when to tuck in for the night. Modern technology and artificial lighting has played a bit of havoc with the circadian rhythms, which is just one of the reasons you’re often advised to avoid the bright lights of your computer screen directly before bedtime.

If you just can’t seem to drag yourself out of bed in the morning, don’t feel too bad. It’s possible you’re just a natural night owl. Research has discovered about 10 percent of people are early birds, while about 20 percent are night owls. Called a chronotype, it turns out there might be a reason you keep hitting the snooze button every morning.

What’s the link between early mornings and success?

While studies show evening people can often be more creative -- and sometimes even smarter -- than morning people, there’s one major reason the early bird gets the worm. Why? It might just come down to our modern society. Our working lives just naturally cater to early risers, who are beginning to groove into their day before a night owl’s first cup of coffee has fully kicked in.

The Success Secrets Early Risers Already Know

While about 50 percent of your chronotype is due to genetics, it’s not impossible to change your attitude towards the sunrise. Here are a few reasons to do so:

1. There are less distractions in the morning.

A typical day can get crazy, fast. You have family obligations, friends, your career, your expanding inbox, and a to-do list a mile long. It’s easy for the personal items to fall off your list, like that book you’ve been dying to read, the meditation you want to do, or even the jog you’ve been meaning to take.

These personal items, however, can help you de-stress and carve out some time for yourself. For most people, it’s easier to carve out this personal time in the morning then it is after work. When the rest of the world is quiet it’s easier to find the time and space for some much needed “me” time.

2. Exercise gets your blood pumping.

Exercise has so many health and emotional benefits, yet it can sometimes seem impossible to squeeze into your day. If you start the morning out with some yoga, a run, or even a brisk walk, you’ll be diving into the day refreshed and ready to take on the world. Finding time for exercise in your day can also make you more productive, which means a morning jog might help you get in shape to climb your career ladder.

3. Successful people are already doing it.

Early birds know greeting the day early is the key to success, which is why morning people tend to be so successful. Apple CEO Tim Cook is known for sending emails at 4:30 a.m., while both Richard Branson and Vogue Editor Anna Wintour get up around 5:45 a.m., which is when Wintour plays a round of tennis. Successful people have limited time in their day to accomplish tasks and take personal time, which is why they get an early start.

4. You’ll be more productive.

In 2008, Harvard biologist Christoph Randler discovered morning people were also more proactive. They were more likely than their night owl counterparts to agree with statements like, “I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself.”

Early risers know to keep an eye on the future, and to never stop looking for ways to better themselves and keep their abilities sharpened. A proactive attitude leads to more productivity, since you’re never waiting in the wings for someone to tell you how to tackle a new challenge.

5. You will have time for breakfast.

Everyone says breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but how often do you really have time for a good breakfast? Or any breakfast at all? Early risers have more time in their mornings, which means fewer excuses not to eat a healthy breakfast. A survey from the Harvard School of Public Health recently found skipping out on breakfast may increase coronary heart disease risk, so having the time to schedule in a good breakfast is more important than you might think.

6. You’ll be happier.

Not to knock night owls, but research has actually shown morning people tend to be both happier and healthier. The health component makes a certain amount of sense; as we’ve seen, morning people tend to make time for breakfast, themselves, and exercise.

According to a University of Toronto study, however, morning people also self-report higher levels of happiness. Considering the well-researched link between happiness and work performance, it’s not hard to see why happier early birds often find themselves flying higher than their late-rising counterparts.

Early risers have discovered a few secrets to unlocking success while the rest of us are in bed snoozing. It might be time to change your sleep patterns, stop hitting snooze, and see what greeting the day earlier can do for your career.

What do you do in the mornings? Share in the comments!

Image courtesy of Sheila Sund, Flickr

About Ilya Pozin:

Serial entrepreneur, writer and investor. Founder of Pluto.TV, Open Me, and Ciplex. Writer for Forbes and Inc. Husband 1x, father 2x, entrepreneur 3x. Follow Ilya below to stay up-to-date.

7 Hard Lessons Everyone Needs To Learn About Success

It seems logical that if you go to a great school, you work hard, and you stay positive, you'll become successful.

But the truth is that life is a whole lot more complicated than that.

Taking a well-tread path to success doesn't mean you'll have an amazing career, and even if you're lucky enough to have one, it doesn't guarantee you'll be happy.

On Quora, users addressed the question: "What is the most difficult thing to learn and accept about life?"

We've collected some of the best answers that concern the pursuit of money and status. Here are some hard lessons that everyone needs to learn about success:

1. The universe doesn't care if you succeed or fail.

When you're on top of your game, it can seem like the world is on your side; when you're at your worst, it can seem like the world is out to get you. The truth, says Quora user Tom Wills, is that neither is true. You're responsible for yourself.

2. The biggest obstacle to success is often yourself.

And once you recognize that you're not the center of the universe, Wills adds, you may realize that the main thing holding you back is your own behavior. You're probably guilty of this if you can always find reasons for why you got fired from your job, why your startup fell apart, etc.

The user Manas J. Saloi quoted author J.K. Rowling, who struggled with poverty and personal setbacks before becoming a famous writer and millionaire, on this point: "There is an [expiration] date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you."

3. You're not owed anything.

Wills says that he also realized that nobody owes him anything. In terms of advancing in your career, it's advisable that you do whatever you can to treat people ethically and help out your coworkers. This can build your professional network and give you a good reputation, but it certainly does not guarantee that your good deeds will always be returned.

4. Luck plays a huge role in success.

Catching a big break that leads to landing your dream job, for example, often depends on being in the right place at the right time. All you can do is foster professional relationships and develop your skills to increase your odds of getting lucky.

"People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control," user Aditya Gupta writes.

5. Everything you've worked for can disappear in an instant.

When your career goes well and you make enough money to buy a house and put your kids through college, you should enjoy it. Quora user Ankit Sharmawrites that what you have today isn't necessarily yours forever. That's why it's important to live in the present, and be grateful for your accomplishments.

6. You can do, say, and think all the "right" things and still not succeed.

Getting a degree from an elite university and putting in countless overtime hours does not mean that you will be adequately rewarded for your hard work, says user Jon Mixon. And even if they do lead you to influence and money, he says, you can still be perceived as a failure.

7. You define what "success" means.

A big paycheck and the respect of your coworkers are great things to have, but there's a danger to narrowing your definition of success down to them, argues Mixon, because they mean nothing to your happiness or self-fulfillment if you destroy relationships along the way.

"It is difficult for most people to accept the fact that they are only as happy as they allow themselves to be," says user Gary Stein.

A Remarkably Simple Way to Save Time by Bruce Kasanoff from LinkedIn

If you never have enough time, invest just 90 seconds in this article and you can learn how to free up space in your daily schedule.

My solution is called minus one, and it is based on the observation that each of us does a lot of things that ultimately prove to be unimportant or unnecessary. The problem is that we find it hard to recognize in advance which tasks will fail to be worthwhile,

The goal of minus one is to do less but accomplish the same, or more

To benefit from minus one, you simply eliminate one task at a time from your schedule, then evaluate whether doing so had any negative consequences.

If eliminating the task did not cause a problem, you succeeded in saving time. If it did, just add the task back to your schedule. The risk is low, but the benefit of applying minus one can be great, if you stick to it over time.

No matter how efficient you are, the odds are high that there's fluff in your routine. Even CEOs and world leaders fall victim to activities that prove unbelievably useless to them.

You can minus one almost anything: a task, person, department, company or even entire country.

If every time you go to a meeting about, say, privacy policies, you feel like you just lost two hours of your life, try eliminating privacy meetings from your life.

You might conclude that it is a waste of time to try to sell your product to a particular Fortune 50 company, because - there's no way to say this politely - all they ever do is jerk you around.

You could decide that it is too logistically difficult at this stage to contemplate doing business with a country halfway around the world, especially given cultural and regulatory differences.

Be bold but prudent...

Don't just walk into the office one day and minus a dozen suspicious items from your schedule. That would be a recipe for chaos. Minus one item at a time, and pay attention to see what, if anything, happens.

There are many ways to do this where you are almost certain to avoid any problems. The most magical word in my personal life is "carpooling." By joining forces with the family down the street, over the past few years my wife and I eliminated about two hundred trips to the soccer fields.

For example, find someone at work who attends the same meeting you do - and who has a similar mindset - and see if you can take turns attending the meeting, instead of both going all the time.

Very important - don't label others

When using a tool like minus one, it's easy to slip into an overly judgmental mindset. Your role isn't to decide what is valuable to the world at large. You should not label people, meetings, or organizations as a waste of time in general. You should simply decide whether they are important towards the pursuit of your goals.

As you withdraw from certain activities, be sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of others. What's unimportant to you may be vitally important to them, so be tactful.

Break Your Routine in 2014 (From Linked in)

Bruce Kasanoff

Opportunity Shaper... CEO, Now Possible

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140102030657-36792-break-your-routine-in-2014?trk=mta-lnk

If something in your gut is telling you it's time to break out of your longstanding routine, Ben Heine is the guy to both spark your imagination and demonstrate what's possible with fresh thinking.

The Belgium artist seems to have an endless supply of original ideas, superbly executed. I especially love his Pencil vs Camera series, which is shown above and below. With Ben's permission, I've assembled this mashup of his quotes arranged to illustrate five ways to mix things up this year. The words (except for the headlines) are from Ben's interviews with Flickr, Volkswagen, DeviantArt and other sources.

1.) Perseverance is more important than talent

"I have been drawing passionately since my early childhood. I have worked a lot. I don't believe in innate talent. You have to work with perseverance to become an expert in any discipline."

2.) Big ideas come from little details

“The initial idea (for Pencil vs. Camera) happened randomly while I was writing a letter in 2010. When I held the letter up to put it inside an envelope, I noticed the paper was transparent enough that I could see my television in the background. I suddenly saw two images working together: the words on the paper and the action of the television. It was surreal, and I instantly thought I could do something creative with this.

“The very next day I made Pencil Vs Camera #1. It wasn’t very creative, but it was the beginning of this new concept. Since then, it’s evolved into more and more complex drawings, and it’s always changing into something bigger and better.”

3.) One quality can set your idea above others

"My hand is always clearly visible because I hold the piece of paper that fits into the picture. Intuitively, I felt from the beginning that it was a necessary choice to balance everything. Yet it is not a pretty woman's hand, it breaks a bit the harmony. But it was important to emphasize the contrast between imagination and reality and to show that the final artworks are not simple photomontages. I really hold a piece of paper and the drawing is always handmade. It involves a lot of work.

"I think the fact that my hand is always visible attracts the attention of the viewer, it was not an easy decision at the beginning, because the hand may look too big or may obstruct the whole composition of the picture but it also represents somehow a warm human invitation to the watcher to see and grasp the little story happening on the piece of paper, to escape and hopefully dream a bit."

4.) Compete against yourself, not others

“For me, it’s very important to be innovative and do something different. I’m having fun only because I’m trying to surpass myself daily. I want people to see I’ve given my utmost best in each of my images.

"In the Pencil Vs Camera series for instance, I wanted to demonstrate that it's possible to combine drawing and photography in an imaginative, harmonious and eye-catching way. "

5.) Never stop learning

"At the beginning, I thought it was the opposition between the two disciplines that was the original part of the concept, but I realize more and more that maybe it's more the harmony between the different mediums that makes it interesting and special.

"There are no limits because everything is possible."

____________________________________________________

Five ways for IT pros to shine in 2014

When you take stock of your career achievements and failures, be sure to also look ahead and consider forming these good habits. 

In our ever-changing business environment, how do you stand out amongst your IT peers? Below are tips that I hope will help you get started down the right path. If you form these habits properly, they will transcend the workplace and flow into your personal life as well.

1. Evaluate your present position

In Robert Greene's book The 33 Strategies of War, he explains that "…seeing things as they are…" is a key component in any successful strategy. So, the first step in planning for the upcoming year is to assess yourself honestly and make a change where there is weakness, confusion, and self-doubt.

2. Give solutions, not complaints

There are always problems at work; fortunately, problems come with opportunities. You should focus on the problem rather than the hype and then map out solutions as a result of what you see, taking into account all of the circumstances that caused the issue (be sure to integrate tip #1 into this process). When you present your solutions, you'll be perceived as a problem-solver, and this could open more doors for you in the future.

3. Be strategic with project tasks

You should see every task as being part of a larger project or goal -- in short, look beyond your assignment and at the big picture. As you break down projects into manageable parts, try to foresee what could go wrong at each step. If something arises that was not accounted for, respond accordingly, taking into account the present situation and compensating/eliminating the emotional reaction. By seeing things as they are and not just how they appear, you'll separate yourself from those who panic.

4. Serve others

If you're a manager, you should serve employees who report to you by providing them with the resources they need to succeed. This can range from good communication and trust (the antithesis of micromanagement) to actual tools they use in their work. In doing so, you enable each one of them to successful, which in turn leads to your success.

The same concept applies to working with clients; you should serve them in their expectations, and be honest at each stage of their prospective campaigns. When you support others to whom you are dependent, you also empower them and support yourself in the process.

5. Create opportunities for yourself

Every industry has questions that need answering, so you find ways to answer them -- even if it means creating the project for yourself. This will show others where opportunities lie, and it will create a lasting competitive edge for yourself and the company. Contrary to popular, we are all responsible for what we do and don't do, the latter becoming a regret. You can create opportunities, even where none appear to exist.  

refactor a code example using one of the new Android SDKs

there are multiple ways in any development task to solve the problem, but the refactor below takes advantage of the object animator and results in a more than 50% code saving. Since it's been a few weeks, I'm posting both the original and the refactored MainActivity.java file. 

Code Listing #1: Using the Object Animator

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener{

 private boolean isHere;
 
 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  isHere = true;
  findViewById(R.id.here_button).setOnClickListener(this);
  findViewById(R.id.there_button).setOnClickListener(this);
 }

 @Override
 public void onClick(View v) {
  View cursor = findViewById(R.id.cursor);
  float diff;
  if (v.getId()==R.id.here_button && !isHere) {
   diff = (float) (cursor.getX() - v.getX() - v.getWidth());
   ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(cursor, "translationX", diff, 0).setDuration(1000).start();
   isHere=true;
  } else if (v.getId()==R.id.there_button && isHere) {
   diff = v.getX() - cursor.getX() - cursor.getWidth();
   ObjectAnimator.ofFloat(cursor, "translationX", 0, diff).setDuration(1000).start();
   isHere=false;
  }
 }
 
}

Code Listing #2: Original MainAcitvity.java

MainActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener, AnimationListener {

 private final static int HERE = -1;
 private final static int THERE = 1;
 private TranslateAnimation anim;
 private View cursor;
 private int screenWidth;
 private int centerOfScreen;
 private int dest;
 
 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  screenWidth = (int) (getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getWidth());
  centerOfScreen = (int) (screenWidth *.5);
  cursor = findViewById(R.id.cursor);
  findViewById(R.id.here_button).setOnClickListener(this);
  findViewById(R.id.there_button).setOnClickListener(this);
 }

 @Override
 public void onClick(View v) {
  if (v.getId()==R.id.here_button) {
   animate(HERE);
  } else {
   animate(THERE);
  }
 }
 
 private void animate(int whichWay) {
  if (anim!=null && !anim.hasEnded()) return;
  float target;
  int currentX = cursor.getLeft();
  if (whichWay==HERE ) {
   if (currentX+cursor.getWidth()<=centerOfScreen) return;
   target = (currentX - 
     (findViewById(R.id.here_button).getLeft() + findViewById(R.id.here_button).getWidth()))*-1;
  } else {
   if (currentX>centerOfScreen) return;
   target = findViewById(R.id.there_button).getLeft() - (currentX + cursor.getWidth());
  }
  anim = new TranslateAnimation( TranslateAnimation.ABSOLUTE,0,
         TranslateAnimation.ABSOLUTE,target,
         TranslateAnimation.ABSOLUTE,0.0f,
         TranslateAnimation.ABSOLUTE,0.0f);
  anim.setDuration(500);
  dest = (int) target+cursor.getLeft()+cursor.getWidth();
        anim.setAnimationListener(this);
        cursor.startAnimation(anim);
 }

 @Override
 public void onAnimationEnd(Animation arg0) {
  RelativeLayout.LayoutParams params = 
    new RelativeLayout.LayoutParams(cursor.getWidth(), cursor.getHeight());
  if (dest >= centerOfScreen) {
   params.addRule(RelativeLayout.LEFT_OF, R.id.there_button);
  } else {
   params.addRule(RelativeLayout.RIGHT_OF, R.id.here_button);
  }
  params.addRule(RelativeLayout.CENTER_VERTICAL);
  cursor.setLayoutParams(params);
 }

 @Override
 public void onAnimationRepeat(Animation arg0) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  
 }

 @Override
 public void onAnimationStart(Animation arg0) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  
 }
 
}

10 ways to bulletproof your project execution

By Mary Shacklett in 10 Things, December 10, 2013, 2:19 PM PST

IT is project-driven -- and if a project goes off track or fails to deliver, the consequences can be dire. These strategies will help ensure a positive outcome. 

Some areas, like accounting, proceed in daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual cycles of work. But disciplines like IT are highly project oriented. IT's reputation lives and dies with its projects, which makes it essential to bulletproof your projects with strong checkpoints and practices that ensure their success. Here are 10 strategies that can help.

1: Manage by walking around

There's only so much you'll learn about a project's true health by reviewing project reports and memos. If you are the project manager, make it a point to spend time out in the trenches, visiting with staff. You'll pick up a lot about how a project is really going by reading faces and body language. Visiting with people in person at their workstations also keeps communications channels open.

2: Break projects into phases with checkpoints

It's much easier to manage a project -- especially a complex one -- if you break it into phases that can be incrementally tested and deployed. The project team gets to see some early results, as do end users. In addition, a multi-phase project with periodic checkpoints assures you of review time to confirm that the project remains on course and is on its way to delivering the value it's supposed to.

3: Use prototyping as an early-stage project technique

By engaging end users into early project prototypes so they can kick the tires on the project, you save yourself grief in later project stages. That early involvement reduces the risk of users being unpleasantly surprised because the project didn't turn out as they expected. Prototyping also encourages continuous collaboration between end users and project developers.

4: Identify your critical people as well as the project's critical path

Key project contributors may get sick or take maternity/paternity leave or leave for another job altogether, so it's important to identify early in the project who you can ill afford to lose -- and to have backup provisions in place just in case. Most project managers identify the critical path of project tasks that must absolutely be completed, but they fail to do the same thing with their staff.

5: Secure project backing

No matter how sound your project is, if upper and middle management  -- and your immediate user-beneficiaries -- aren't sold on the project, it is likely to fail. Always secure project commitment before starting any work.

6: Use collaborative project management software

There are still companies that manage projects with spreadsheets. Some even use monolithic project management software that resides on a single workstation that a project administrator painstaking updates on a daily basis. But projects are never sequential in their communications or their workflows, so the software tracking projects shouldn't be, either. Today, projects can to be run in a collaborative environment with a project management solution that runs in the cloud. Each project staff member can update his/her task status in real time, giving visibility of current project work to others who are on the project team.

7: Develop a comprehensive QA and test plan... and don't go live until you're ready

Project managers get nervous when deadline begins to approach. Consequently, quality assurance and thorough check-out of projects may get skipped or cut short. This is a mistake. The last thing you want is a public relations nightmare on the first day a project goes live because end users and customers are calling in with their frustrations. If you're the project manager, a scene like this makes it likely that you'll be called in to someone's office as well -- something you definitely want to avoid!

8: Document

It's a temptation to skimp on documentation when you're working a project and deadlines get tight. Resist temptation. If you include and QA the documentation of project modules, callable routines, etc., you make the project handoff easier for your project maintenance team. More than 60% of the average IT department's time is spent on systems maintenance today. Poorly documented projects are one reason why.

9: Conduct a post-project assessment

Even successful projects come with their share of road bumps along the way. Once the project completes, get the project team together to go over what went well and not so well. Then, take what you learn and apply it to the next project. Your project execution will improve.

10: Celebrate!

Project work is hard and relentless. Once a major phase of a project completes -- or the entire project completes -- take time to celebrate the victory with your staff at lunch or dinner or with an office celebration. People need to celebrate their successes so they can be ready for the next project they're going to succeed at.