Will Rising Early Increase My Productivity: Part II

I don't think I've experienced an evening quite like the one I had last night in a long, long time. Since I completed my two main evening tasks in the morning, my evening was less regimented than the one I posted on Monday. During the time I normally work out, right after coming home from the day job, I read two chapters of Alan Farley's "The Master Swing Trader." This is an extremely dense book, and it's been on my "things to do" list since January. After eating dinner, playing and completing some learning activities with my daughter and watching "Friday Night Lights" (which is a great show about Texas high school football), I went into my office and decided to get organized. My motivation was Steve Pavlina's column on creating the optimal workspace. While categorizing all of my files and getting rid of the junk, I listened to the audio book of John Grisham's Innocent Man, which is the true story of a coveted baseball prospect who's life spiriled out of control and was wrongfully convicted of murder and sent to death row. Not to get to political on you guys, but anybody who believes in the death penalty should read this book. I'm all for "eye for an eye", but not at the risk of even one innocent man being killed. But I digress . . .

After a couple of hours in my office, I headed to the kitchen for a nightcap, which on weekdays consists of chocolate milk and a brownie. At about 10 am, I went to bed with the book I had worked on in the morning, "The 7 habits of Highly Effective People." A half an hour and about 45 pages later, I was out like a lightbulb. This was probably the earliest I had fallen asleep in I don't know how long. It feels weird going to bed without having my stock analysis ready, but I know I will be more efficient in the morning.

Efficiency results for day 1
What I normally accomplish as a night owl:
Work and Trading
Workout (aerobic and weights)
Stock Analysis (completed in almost half the time it normally takes)
Learning activities with daughter
Watched TV

Additional Stuff I normally could not accomplish as a night owl:
Read 135 pages of "The 7 Habits of Effective People"
Read 2 chapters of Alan Farley's "The Master Swing Trader"
Organize my office
Listen to audio CD of John Grisham's Innocent Man

My first day of rising early was easily the most fruitful day I've had all year. I can't believe how much I was able to get though. While day two was much of the same, sadly I'm going to have to put early rising on hold for about 10 days. I am leaving for vacaton tomorrow, and there is no way in hell I'll be getting up at 4 am on my vacation!

I will continue to chronicle my early rises when I get back. I'll have my laptop and access to wifi with me while on vacation, so I still plan to trade and post to the blog.

Today's Trade Update:
I sold half of my 400 share position in AKAM today at $49.45 for a $220 gain (+2.2%). I still own 200 shares.

I am watching semis, gold, oil, steel, internet, software and retail sectors closely. Stocks of interest include GROW, AKAM, AAPL, TIE, GG, SBUX, TIF, STLD, CHAP, VAL, XLE, XOM, HAL and YHOO.