"What time do CEOs wake up?"

Guardian piece that aligns with something we were discussing on another thread a couple weeks ago, i.e. how CEOs get to be CEOs:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/apr/01/what-time-ceos-start-day

The answer: Early.

From the piece's author: "For the most part, it sounds horrible."

 

I remember a Fortune cover story many years ago that sort of followed then-Apple CEO John Sculley through a normal day. He got up at 4 (Pacific) so he could be up and at 'em in time for the market opening. This after an insanely long day of meetings, meetings, meetings and then corporate dinners. They had a picture of him in his sleep pants/T-shirt cuddling up with a mug of coffee and watching CNN. No thankee, says me.

 

What time do dairy farmers wake up? Or bakers?

 

LOL.

 

Poor folks. They should drop a little more cash in that golden parachute and escape that life.

 

I have no doubt their days are insanely busy and that they really don't have that much leisure time, etc. But their wakeup calls are, I don't know, not that impressive.

5 or 5:15
6:20
5:45 or between 6:30 and 7
Early
5 a.m. or earlier
6
6 a.m.

What I'm saying is that of everything that makes them CEOs, I don't see their alarm clock setting playing much of a role. The caption on their main pic, "Up at the crack of dawn -- that's the message from top people." Tens of millions of workers wake up at 5 a.m. or earlier. It's what people do.

 

I agree with you. I get up at 4. Actually, 3:53, because my clock is a little fast. My brother-in-law, a sanitation manager, is up at 3 and out the door at 3:30.

Anyone who commutes into a big city probably is up at 5 or before.

 

The Chairman and CEO of my employer regularly takes phone calls at 5 in the morning and often has meetings in the office past midnight. I don't actually know if he sleeps.

If I exercise in the morning, I'm usually up between 5-5:15, answer e-mails before I hit the stairmaster and I'm out the door for work by 6:30. But I am usually asleep by 10:30-11.

 

My days have radically switched since I got out of newspapers. I've gone from sleeping from 2 or 3 a.m until 11 or noon to waking up at 6 every day and going to bed by 11. It was a lot easier to make this transition than it was going the other way when I first got into newspapers. Aside from the occasional crash around 10 or 11 a.m., I have no trouble staying awake and productive.

 

All those thoughts aren't going to post themselves!

 

???

 

Just good-naturedly mocking your productivity.

I've experienced a similar shift, but I still say up too late for the time I'm now getting up most mornings. Hard to break two decades of sleeping habits.