Oh, I absolutely agree! I'm definitely an early morning sort of person, and when you're a self-employed, self-directed programmer, that feeling in the day of 'getting going', digging into a good chunk of work with free hours stretching ahead of you, that can't really be beaten.

So I do get up earlier, and start work earlier than most, but I don't start the day with news sites, or emails, or twitter or anything like that. At best, it distracts from getting the work-day going, and at worst, it introduces an awful lot of negativity. Took me a while to figure out, perhaps it's more obvious to others, but a truly 'quiet' first few hours in a day is very beneficial to me.