I like the sound of this but what does it look like in practice? By "arise early" are we talking like 4 or 5am, or just early enough to get to the office slightly before 9am and be the first one there by a few minutes? By "jump into the most important tasks of the day", would you consider working out to be one of those? It's important in the long run to do consistently, but on a given day it's not usually what I would list as my most important task.
I guess what I'm saying is, I feel like if you put the right spin on almost any series of morning activities you can call it winning the morning. So it's not very prescriptive advice that I can use to be more productive. It's almost a tautology - to be more productive, start your day by being productive.
For a lot of people, being 'productive' to them means burning the midnight oil which is hardly actually productive. If you do things when you are alert it makes them more effective. It also gives you the rest of the day to just breath and not be hard on yourself for getting tired and your performance faltering throughout the day; after all you got all that stuff done earlier. Ever have a weekend when you got everything you needed to do done by noon? The day becomes yours and you feel like a superhuman.
for me it depends on what I'm doing. if its something creative then i find I get better results late at night. if its more technical then early in the morning.
the quote from hemmingway "write drunk, edit sober" comes to mind, if you replace drunk with tired
You can nitpick any idea into oblivion but the gist is: figure out what is the most important thing for you to do in the morning to be productive and do it.
And if going to the gym in the morning makes the rest of your day productive by providing you with lots of energy and a clear head, then yes, going to the gym is the most important and productive for you to do in the AM.
I guess what I'm saying is, I feel like if you put the right spin on almost any series of morning activities you can call it winning the morning. So it's not very prescriptive advice that I can use to be more productive. It's almost a tautology - to be more productive, start your day by being productive.