Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.- Jim Rohn
1. Steve Jobs spoke about his morning routine, and revealed the motivational tactic that he used to start each and every day.
"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?
And whenever the answer has been No for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
2. Barack Obama wakes up at 6:45 every day to work out, read several newspapers, and always makes the time to have breakfast with his family. He starts his work day at exactly 8:50 every day (it's not clear why), and although he often works until 10pm, he always stops to have dinner with his family. To him, meal time with others is important.
3. Beethoven began every morning by counting out precisely 60 beans of coffee for his morning cuppa.
A musical understudy of Beethoven also clocked Beethovens washing routine, reporting it as a little odd. He wrote: Washing and bathing were among the most pressing necessities of Beethovens life. [He would] pour large pitchers of water over his hands, bellowing up and down the scale or sometimes humming loudly to himself. Then he would stride around his room with rolling eyes, jot something down, then resume his pouring of water and loud singing.
4. Margaret Thatcher wasn't super keen on sleep. She woke up every day at 5am and began her morning by listening to "Farming Today" a BBC Radio program about food, farming, and the countryside.
5. Mark Zuckerburg wears the exact same grey T-shirt every day so he can (Continued)
Continue reading on the next page!
avoid having to make decisions. He often stays awake until 6am, talking to Facebook employees.
6. Syliva Plath and Ted Hughes moved to Spain shortly after their marriage. When asked about their daily routine, they said:
"We wake up at seven in the morning, with a cool breeze blowing in the grape leaves outside our window. I get up, take the two litres of milk left daily on our doorstep in a can and heat it for my caf-con-leche and Teds brandy-milk. Then we go early to market. Ted and I write, he at the big oak table, I at the typewriter table by the window in the dining room (our writing rooms) from 8:30 till 12. Then I make lunch and we go to the beach for two hours for a siesta and swim when the crowds are all gone home and have it completely to ourselves. Then two more hours of writing from 4 to 6, when I make supper. From 8 to 10 we study languages. Then, if there is time, we walk through the moonlit almond groves toward the still purple mountains where we can see the Mediterranean sparkling silver far below."
7. Michael Jordan stops working every day at noon to go pick up his sons, bring them home, and cook them homemade lunch.
8. Winston Churchill woke up every morning at 7:30 but insisted on staying in bed until 11, where he would eat his breakfast, read newspapers, and dictate his thoughts to his secretaries. Upon getting out of bed, he would take a walk, then settle into his work with his favorite work drink whiskey and soda. He always took a 2 hour break in the afternoon to play cards or backgammon with his wife, followed by a nap, a bath, dinner with friends, and an hour of reading before bed.
9. Joan Didion made sure to take the hour before dinner every day to sip a stiff drink and reflect the day's work. She insisted on being alone for this hour every day.
10. Marilyn Monroe started each day with a very bizarre breakfast:
Ive been told that my eating habits are absolutely bizarre, but I dont think so. Before I take my morning shower, I start warming a cup of milk on the hot plate I keep in my hotel room. When its hot, I break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and (Continued)
Continue reading on the next page!
When its hot, I break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them while Im dressing. I supplement this with a multi-vitamin pill, and I doubt if any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry.
11. Arnold Schwarzenegger starts every morning off with a breakfast of oatmeal with berries and bananas.
12. Arianna Huffington starts every morning with a drink of hot water with lemon. Two years after launching the Huffington Post, she collapsed from exhaustion. Since then, she has banned all electronic devices from her bedroom, and tries to get at least eight hours of sleep every night.
13. Beyonce most recently talked about her struggle to slow down and smell the roses. She has a Sunday routine that ensures she gets to do that.
On Sundays, she kicks things off with prayer and meditation. Then she spends two hours cuddling with her husband and daughter, Blue Ivy, and has brunch with the family. She has a beer in the afternoon, naps, and pizza for dinner. Beyonce's doing things right!
14. David Karp, (Founder of Tumblr) is only 25 years old, but has set some pretty strict limits on his work day. For starters, David doesn't allow himself to check his email before he reaches the office around 9:30 am. He said, 'Reading e-mails at home never feels good or productive. If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.'
15. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, starts every morning by reading and answering customer complaints, first thing. He says it helps him to (Continued)
Continue reading on the next page!
focus on customer service and anchors him to reality.
16. By 11.30am every day Oprah has already filmed two shows. She breaks to sip on a green juice made of spinach, parsley, a little bit of apple juice, celery, and cucumbers in a blender. Shes also revealed that around this time she calls relatives in Africa before everybody goes to bed over there. Then she resumes filming for her show until 2pm, hitting the gym again before spending some time with her partner Stedman in the evening.
17. Novelist William Styron slept every day until noon. When he woke, he would always stay in bed for another hour to read and think.
18. Jennifer Aniston starts every day at 4:30am (is that even considered morning? I thought that was still night). She drinks hot water with lemon, washes her face, and meditates. Her breakfast? A protein shake containing collagen peptide to give her that youthful glow.
19. Jane Austen kept a very rigid structure to her day to get her writing done. Austen composed a lot of her greatest works at home (in her Hampshire family sitting room, to be exact) and often got up at around eight, before her sisters, so she could play the piano. She would then help with the family breakfast at nine, before finally sitting down to write an hour later. Luckily, Janes household duties were taken on by her saintly sister so she could continue writing. Its reported that if visitors showed up, however, Jane would hide her sheets of paper and join in with the sewing so as not to look unladylike in front of company.
20. Anna Wintour (Editor-in-chief at Vogue) starts her day at 5:45 with an hour long tennis match. Every. Single. Day.
21. Queen Elizabeth, the longest serving British monarch in history, with 63 years on the throne starts her day in the most British way possible, with (Continued)
Continue reading on the next page!
Twinings English breakfast tea in a bone china cup and saucer, served with milk, no sugar and Marie cookies brought into her room by a maid.
After a bath, she joins her husband, Prince Phillip, for cereal apparently cornflakes which is kept in tupperware containers (no, seriously).
22. Susan Sontag always had a special place in her heart for the people in her life. While she worked Monday to Thursday, Fridays were dedicated solely to answering her letters.
23. Charles Dickens rose every day at sunrise, eating by 8am, and writing in his study from 9am until 2pm: this routine was repeated every day according to records kept by his son. Dickens hated being distracted, writing for hours, often in a trance.
On a good day, Charles Dickens could write up to two thousand words, but other days he reportedly suffered from writers block and simply stared out of the window for hours in frustration.
24. Audrey Hepburn ate two eggs and a slice of whole wheat toast first thing every morning. She never skipped breakfast, even when she was detoxing something she did each month to maintain her figure.
25. P.G. Wodehouse, author and humorist, started his day by heading directly to the back porch for a workout. Then, he always made the same breakfast of toast, coffee cake, and tea, which he ate while reading a "breakfast book" some sort of entertaining mystery or adventure novel. When it came time to write, Wodehouse would start by (Continued)
Continue reading on the next page!
sitting in his armchair, write a few paragraphs in pencil, then move to the typewriter to type out the rest.
26. There's not much to be said about Eminem's daily routine, other than while he's snoozing. Eminem can only sleep in a completely dark bedroom. In hotel rooms, he makes the staff black out all of the windows completely.
27. Elon Musk used to drink up to eight cans of Diet Coke, on top of his usual two cups of coffee, each and every day. Now, he has cut out caffeine completely. However, he's still known as a night owl.
29. Simon Cowell makes sure that he climbs trees everyday. Simon Cowell climbs trees every day. According to the rumors, it's somewhat of a ritual for him.
30. Stephen King has said that he sits down and has a single slice of cheesecake before he starts writing - every single day.
