"What time do CEOs wake up?"

[Dick Whitman]

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."

 

[User 11148]

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.

 

[Azrael]

What time do dairy farmers wake up? Or bakers?

 

[YankeeFan]

LOL.

 

[dog eat dog world]

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

 

[Small Town Guy]

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.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.

 

[Webster]

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.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

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.

 

[YGBFKM]

All those thoughts aren't going to post themselves!

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

All those thoughts aren't going to post themselves!

???

 

[YGBFKM]

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.

 

[Azrael]

So we've discerned two attributes necessary for every world-beating, millions-making CEO: he or she must own both an alarm clock and a telephone.

 

[Greenhorn]

It's a trick question. CEOs never go to sleep because money never sleeps, pal.

 

[poindexter]

Oh for ****'s sake, I get up between 4 and 4:30. BFD. Getting up at 6:20 is ****ing sleeping in for me. Alot of people do. Go jogging around your neighborhood at 5:00am. You'll see plenty of people up.

Their schedule sounds like a donut shop owner or other small business owner. Substitute "emails" for "customer sales at the register".

This deification of CEOs is a crack up.

 

[X-Hack]

4:30 am on gym days. 5:15 on workdays. I'm usually at work by 6:45. I usually don't leave until 5 (even though my workday is "officially" over at 2:30) and then I do a few hours of work at home after my kids get to bed.

I am of course one of those lazy, tenured teachers mailing it in until pension time.

 

[JackReacher]

Roughly 50% or more of the people in my neighborhood are awake when I leave the house at 5:25 a.m. each morning. There's generally a handful of people out walking their dogs or jogging. But that's because, as **** noted above, I live in an area with a TON of people who commute into DC, which I do myself. You either leave early and have a half-decent commute or sleep in and end up murdering someone.

The slug lines at my commuter lot (five or six different lines) are 20-30 deep by 5:45 a.m. I went in late one time and stopped to pick up a couple riders at 7:30 a.m. It was damn near empty.

 

[BTExpress]

4:30 am on gym days. 5:15 on workdays. I'm usually at work by 6:45. I usually don't leave until 5 (even though my workday is "officially" over at 2:30) and then I do a few hours of work at home after my kids get to bed.

I am of course one of those lazy, tenured teachers mailing it in until pension time.

I want to be the CEO who gets to work 180 days a year.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

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.

****.
Anybody with school-age kids and a full time job is prolly up before 5.

 

[JayFarrar]

I think if you were to do a survey of successful people, the No. 1 thing you'd find is the ability of those people to get by without a lot of sleep at night. Like four hours or less.