DISQUS

Great list, I wish I could live like that...
I would also add:
- listen to your favorite song (in the morning)
- call someone you haven't called for long time

Great collection, I'll need to add some to my collection at How to Wake Up Early blog :)

Your article confirms one great rules I've read somewhere and following it in my life:

Before you start doing something, you need to quit doing something else.

More things we stop doing, more time we get for important things.

The problem with big sidebars is not only that they're cluttered, but they slow down your page load time! As reports show, most people close the page if it doesn't display data in 5-7 seconds... So think twice before adding anything to your sidebars...

Don't remember where I've read it, but here is another interesting quote that this book confirms:

80% of new businesses fail in their first five years, but a far more interesting statistic is that nearly all of the businesses that succeeded did not do so in the original way they had intended.

//Sleeping Dude

One more thing that I've learned from this book is that being first to market is vital for success. Take Hotmail story for example. By being first they've got huge subscribers base which was worth hell more than their service itself. Your idea may not be perfect and implementation may not be ideal, but time to market is what often matters most.

//Sleeping Dude

In situations like this, if I have a very important question that I need answered, I always send it in a separate email, containing only this one question. That gives me more confidence I'll get the answer :)
Should be carefuly with this advice though - you do not want to be considered as a spammer :)

That's exactly the reason I don't want to blog just about random stuff that will go to archive in 2 weeks. I've selected for my blog the subject and type of content that will serve people for years to come. Well, maybe in this form it's not exactly what we used to consider a "blog", but who cares how you call it as long as it's useful for others.
Actually, "random stuff blogging" is absolutely fine with me too, as long as you have your community of people reading this stuff and get into discussion with them. Writing for the sick of building volume of content is for search engines, not for people. Now comes the tricky part - how to build the community without writing a lot... To me the answer is always the same - quality content is the king.

As Tony Robbins wrote, every person on the planet is driven by 2 forces - the need to avoid pain and the desire to gain pleasure. First thing is FEAR that you wrote about. Second is rewards we put ahead of ourselves.
Thanks for the post!

I'm thinking about compiling all how to rise early techniques from my website into a single page for the purpose of your project so you could refer it. Let me know if you want my content to be included, or just tag me and I'll know what to do next ;)

"taking over GMail" is ummm... a bit overrated

I like your approach. The more you distract yourself during the break from what you were doing before the break - the more effective rest for you mind you will get.

If you keep sitting at your computer and just run the browser to read news stories - it's 20%-effective break.

If you turned away from computer to talk to your friend but keep sitting at your desk - it's 40% break.

If you stand up to go and make a cup of coffee that would be 60% effective break.

To get 100% effective break - go out, take a breath of fresh air, stretch your limbs, don't think about work. Only then your break will really count.

Great stuff Andy, you may stay assured we'll support you in building the community.