The Early Bird Gets The Worm  ...or Does He?

Who ever said the phrase "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise!" or "The early bird gets the worm!" must have been a morning person! This person did not know the value of being a late morning person! This morning person never had the opportunity to see the night crawlers (big worms) that come out at night!

What is all of this about? It is about our internal time clocks. These internal clocks that dictates our energy levels and when we are at our best. This study is often referred to as our "biological prime time". Are we morning people or night people? Larks or owls? The good news from this study is that neither type of person is best and neither one has greater advantages. The advantage is to know what type you are and how to manage it!

There are three things that control your biological prime time; Diet, Exercise and Sleep! The more we know about them and the better we become at managing them, the more effective we become! So let's take a look at each one.

DIET

When we say "diet" we are not talking about getting back to your dating weight! What we are talking about is what you eat . . . nutrition! One of the rules we give in our workshop "Working Smarter Not Longer!©" is to: Eat breakfast like royalty, lunch like a commoner, and dinner like a pauper! What does this mean? Simply stated it implies that breakfast should and must be our biggest and most important meal of the day. It is this meal that provides our body with the fuel it needs for the day; no breakfast - low energy, good breakfast - high energy. The higher our energy the more we can accomplish each day.

EXERCISE

Many of us are lucky to find enough time to breathe let alone enough time to exercise. However, a simple exercise plan is essential to good health and high levels of energy. Exercise is crucial to increasing our metabolism. If we change to healthier eating habits and don't increase our metabolism we don't get the full advantage to increasing our energy levels. As a minimum exercise we recommend that we at least walk two (2) miles every other day in less than 30 minutes. Once we get in the habit of walking we find that our metabolism increases and our energy level soars!

SLEEP

According to research, the average male needs 8 hours of sleep each night and the average female needs at least 7 hours of sleep each night. But according to studies, the average adult reports that they only get about 5-6 hours each night. The problem is that we are trying to get more done each day with less sleep. This doesn't work. When we are sleep deprived, we work at a slower pace, are less effective, our quality of work is greatly diminished, our errors and injuries on and off the job dramatically increase. The solution is to get in to the habit of getting the rest we need each day to become more effective. Plus, sleep is more than rest. It is the time the body repairs itself. With less sleep each day our bodies can't operate at its optimum.

A FINAL NOTE

Why is all of this talk about our biological prime time important? When we are well rested and have higher levels of energy we can accomplish more tasks in less time and at a higher level of quality. This is important if you would like to have more time for your family, friends and the things that are important to you. Your work can be rewording and fun without taking all of your waking hours.