Own The Day, Own Your Life

Own The Day, Own Your Life is a straightforward guide to maximizing your potential by optimizing your health of body and mind with simple tweaks to your daily routine.

I love coffee. It’s my and millions of other people’s go-to drink in the morning. As a writer, it’s even part of my creative routine, maybe my most important ritual. That said, for the past two years or so, I have made it a priority to drink at least one large glass of water first thing after waking up. Headache problems run in my family and this really helps.

Aubrey explains why: We lose about one pound of water each night on average because, well, we don’t drink for seven to eight hours. Of course, we’ll be dehydrated after waking up! Now, imagine you went to the gym the day before, had some booze, or live in a dry climate. It’ll be even worse.

If you don’t rehydrate before having your cup of joe, it hits the bloodstream too fast and makes you anxious instead of helping you focus. That’s why Marcus suggests: water first. If you add a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt, it’ll even taste awesome!

In Asian culture, it’s very common for employers to provide pillows and spaces so that workers can take naps after lunch. This may sound like a great job benefit, but it’s actually also a smart move. According to science, the nap is the best way to get back to being productive after lunch.

Aubrey quotes a British study from 2008, which tested the effect of caffeine vs. naps and even increasing the amount of sleep people got at night. When it came to replenishing people’s cognitive and motoric functions, nothing could beat the nap.

While history’s famous figures have always been split into opponents and defenders of sleep, modern-day entrepreneurship culture used to bash getting enough shut-eye until recent years.

Now, a big counter-movement is happening, with some of the world’s most powerful entrepreneurs, like Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, standing up for getting enough sleep – and that’s a good thing!

When my doctor first told me swimming was the best kind of exercise for my strained knees, I wasn’t too happy. I thought it was the world’s most boring sport. I was also terrible at it. With time and practice, though, I came to love it. One thing I learned was that swimming is one of the most holistic kinds of exercise you can get. According to Aubrey, this is both an important and neglected aspect of our physical health. That’s why his philosophy is called “total health optimization.” Most of us,…