Own the Day, Own Your Life
Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex By AUBREY MARCUS
Book Summary
Aubrey Marcus, CEO of ONNIT a supplements company is on a mission to help as many people realize their potential through mind and body hacks he’s learned on his journey. He covers a lot of ground in his latest, Own The Day, Own Your Life book but here are the top five big ideas:
Big Idea #1 - Create Your Morning Cocktail
What do you do when you first wake up? I reach for my phone and crawl straight to the coffee maker. These are the two cardinal sins when starting your day but we will focus on the latter.
While we sleep, we lose as much as a pound of water from all of the sweating and breathing. Water acts as the oil for our body’s engine and we need to replenish it if we were to truly own our day.
Aubrey’s shares his morning cocktail to not only get back the water the body needs but also nutrients such as potassium, zinc and calcium. Ingredients include:
12 ounces filtered water
3 grams sea salt
1 /4 lemon, squeezed
Simple as that. Drink up and own your morning!
Big Idea #2 - Avoid Sugar
Bread, doughnuts, cereal and juice. What do they all have in common? Carbs with refined sugar that raise the sugar level in our bloodstreams. When these levels are high enough they can be poisonous to our cells which is why our body releases the hormone insulin to keep your blood sugar levels in check. When insulin gets into our bloodstream it makes us lethargic and irritable. Over the long term, this could lead to sucky health problems like diabetes. let’s stop and skip the sugar. Let’s own our diet.
Big Idea #3 - Learn During Your Dead Time
With life being so busy it may seem daunting to go out of your way to learn something new. Instead, think of ways to learn during ‘dead time’. One example is during your commute. Instead of music, opt for a podcast or audiobook to gain perspective into a subject you have been longing to tap into.
Big Idea #4 - Create An Ideal Environment
How does this picture make you feel?
Nice right? Visual queues are powerful as they create associations to feelings. Association is powerful and that’s why Aubrey wants you to really OWN your workspace. Associate it with productivity. This could be as subtle as spraying it with a scent of something; he recommends lemon as it’s the most natural and neutral scent. Now whenever you hunker down and smell lemon in your work space, your mind gets into productivity mode.
Big Idea #5 - Maintain 35 Cycles Of Sleep Per Week
Now we come full circle. You woke up with a morning cocktail, owned your day and now head for bed. Retiring to a restful sleep requires you to let go of the mental strain. To do this, unload your brain by listing your top three priorities for the following day.
In addition, Aubrey emphasizes how we should maintain a regular sleep cadence to maximize the big ideas above. He recommends sleeping 35 cycles a week where one cycle is equal to 1.5 hours. This averages to 7.5 hours a night (35 cycles x 1.5 hours/cycle then divide by 7 days) to own your sleep.