Padmasree Warrior
Image: Interpop Events via Flickr CC
Chief executives have consistently reported that success includes an early start, exercise and making time for a personal life. Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior embodies all three of these pillars before eight a.m. According to Business Insider, Warrior rises every day at 4:30 a.m., reads the news, checks her email, gets in a full cardio workout, then switches to mom mode and gets her son ready for the day before she heads to the office. She never starts work later than 8:30. The hard working tech chief also knows how to unwind, with a weekly Saturday “digital detox”, where she spends the day away from all electronic devices and takes time to meditate.
Famed workaholic Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer reports that she only gets about four hours of sleep every night. Mayer has had a reputation at her past job at Google for working over 100 hours a week and doesn’t believe that long work weeks lead to burnout, including ones that start early. She is also a fitness guru. Mayer has participated in marathons with her husband and is pictured in Glamour on her now famous fitness ball.
Start your day early.
Image: Shutterstock
Other CEOs that wake up early for a morning work out include Apple’s Tim Cook, who rises the same time as Padmasree Warrior at 4:30, Vittorio Colao of Vodaphone and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. Meanwhile Jeff Jordon of Andressen Horowitz is awake at the same time, but heads to the office first thing. The founder of LivingSocial, Tim O’Shaughnessy wakes up at 5:30, but stays in bed to check his email. Meanwhile Paul English of the travel site Kayak uses his early morning time to meditate.
Do you start your day like the CEOs of the world? Like a Warrior, a Mayer, a Cook?
