The 5 a.m. Club

Robin Sharma, a leadership and elite performance consultant, built a morning routine around rising at 5 a.m. and began teaching it to his clients more than twenty years ago. This book sets the routine down in full. He spent four years writing it.

It is a self-help and productivity guide, with a personal-development slant. It aims at three results: higher output, better health and a calmer mind amid the pressure of modern life. It also promises more happiness, more usefulness to others and a stronger sense of being alive.

The book covers how geniuses, business leaders and other people regarded as wise begin their mornings. It gives a formula for waking early feeling focused and energized, and a step-by-step method for guarding the quiet hours around daybreak. Those hours are meant for exercise, self-renewal and personal growth.

A neuroscience-based practice is offered as a way to make early rising easy while most people are still asleep. The time it frees is for thinking, creative work and a peaceful start to the day instead of a rushed one. Readers who want a practical morning system, rather than a memoir or a research survey, will find it here. The tone is motivational and upbeat throughout.