"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
Annie Dillard
Many, maybe most, of us hand the first hour of the day straight to our phones. We scroll the news, check email, scan social to see how many likes the last post got, watch funny dog videos on TikTok. Sharma's whole argument is that we're giving away the most valuable hour we've got.
The centerpiece of the book is something he calls the 20/20/20 formula, a simple way to spend that first hour. Twenty minutes to move and break a sweat, twenty minutes to sit quietly and plan, twenty minutes to read or learn something. The timing of the hour isn't the magic. It's the actual sixty minutes of moving, planning, and learning that creates the lasting effect. It's the time when you set the day's terms before someone else sets them for you. You take the reins and act before you react.
I saw a version of this for years on the practice fields. When I was playing sports in high school and college, it wasn't always the most talented who pulled ahead. It was the ones who showed up early and did the dull, repetitive stuff when nobody was watching. Lifting weights, extra stretching, warmup drills, throwing, catching. On any given weekday it didn't look like much. But by game time that extra effort had a huge payoff. It decided who started on a competitive team and who sat on the bench, sometimes not getting in at all. And by the end of the season, it was the difference between going home quietly disappointed in a mediocre year (if you're honest about it), and earning real recognition, maybe even a scholarship offer.
The "Victory Hour" creates momentum, and momentum creates opportunities.
One thing to try today
Take the first small step. Tomorrow morning, before you touch your phone, carve out just 30 quiet minutes. Stretch, think, and learn something. Just thirty. Notice how the rest of the day goes. You can build up to the full hour later.
What's the first thing you reach for in the morning? Be honest, and hit reply to tell me.
I'll go first: for years it was watching market news on TV before my feet hit the floor. Now it's coffee and sixty guarded minutes of moving, planning, and learning something new. It makes a huge difference in my productivity, and I love it!
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Talk tomorrow,
Mike
Practical wisdom for the life you're building