Jeff Bezos doesn’t let his responsibilities — executive chairman of Amazon, owner of Blue Origin, being a billionaire investor — get in the way of his slow morning routine.
The 60-year-old starts each day like many people: shuffling his feet and scrolling on his smartphone, he recently told the “Lex Fridman Podcast.”
This seemed to shock Fridman, who had just called Bezos “one of the most productive humans in the world.”
“I’m not as productive as you would think,” Bezos responded, in an episode first released in December 2023. “First of all, I get up in the morning and I putt. I have a coffee …and just move slowly.
Bezos also reads the newspaper and chats with his fiancée before heading to the gym for cardio and weightlifting. He said: “Most of the time, (going to the gym is) not that difficult for me, but some days it’s really difficult and I do it anyway,” he said. he declares.
The morning routine coincides with Bezos’ philosophy of wandering or doing things aimlessly. It’s a principle that follows him into the office, where he says he encourages mind-wandering sessions to brainstorm and dissect new ideas without letting time constraints stifle creativity.
His time for his morning routine comes from waking up early. Bezos did not specify what time he usually gets up, but said at an event in 2018: “I go to bed early, I get up early.”
The benefits of a chill morning
Bezos isn’t the only billionaire with an unrushed morning routine. Mark Cuban wakes up between 6:30 and 7 a.m. each morning and checks his email for about an hour before getting out of bed, he told “What Now?” by comedian Trevor Noah. podcast in January.
Then he eats breakfast, works out, and checks his email again. “Rinse and repeat,” Cuban said.
Slow morning routines may seem lazy or slow on the surface, but they can actually lead to increased energy, creativity and focus, Geir Berthelsen, founder of the World Institute of Slowness, told the Wall Street Journal in 2019.
Spend at least 20 minutes each morning doing nothing, Berthelsen recommends: You can simply lie awake in bed after your alarm goes off, for example. Other experts suggest doing activities that require calm, such as meditation or breathing.
“Business leaders need to take time to forget about time, and that helps them get creative when they get to work,” Berthelsen said. “That’s the point of doing this before you enter the workplace.”
Filling your morning with too many tasks or interruptions is “probably the biggest drain on productivity,” he added.
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