Most of my co-workers liked to ease into their workday. They stopped and chatted on their way to their office. Once there, they put down their stuff, turned around, and headed to the break room for coffee. When they finally drifted back, they checked a few news sites (why do that at home when you could do it at work?), glanced at their email—in athletic terms, they warmed up for 20 or 30 minutes.

I don’t work that way, at least not effectively. My elapsed time from bed to desk is usually about 10 minutes: make the bed, brush my teeth, grab a protein bar and a glass of water, sit down, start working.

That’s not because I’m Mr. Productivity. That’s because whenever I do dawdle, whenever I do let myself settle into work, I rarely manage to work very hard the rest of the day.

Hit the ground

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