Get Up Early
President Marion G. Romney shared with us this powerful advice given to him by President Harold B. Lee when President Romney was first called as a general authority:
"If you are to be successful as a General Authority," Elder Lee counseled, "you must be in tune with the Spirit. You must receive personal revelation. When you are assigned to help reorganize a stake, you will need the benefit of the Spirit in order to know whom the Lord has chosen to become the new stake president. You must receive inspiration. My friend, I will give you one piece of advice: Go to bed early and get up early. If you do, your body and mind will become rested and then in the quiet of those early morning hours, you will receive more flashes of inspiration and insight than at any other time of the day."
From that day on, I put that counsel into practice, and I know it works. Whenever I have a serious problem, or some assignment of a creative nature with which I hope to receive the influence of the Spirit, I always receive more assistance in the early morning hours than at any other time of the day. Following that counsel has helped me a great deal through the years.
(Joe J. Christensen, To Grow in Spirit [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983], pp. 27-28.)