There’s a lot of mystique around the CEO’s morning routine; each business leader has their own habit to start the day off right, whether that’s cold plunges or 5 a.m. runs before work. But many top executives start their days just like everyone else: shutting off their alarms and rolling over to check their phones.
Even CEOs leading billion-dollar companies peruse through apps first thing in the morning. LyftCEO David Risher starts his day off by checking the ŌURA app to see how he slept—the same routine of the smart ring company’s chief executive, Tom Hale. And Jordan Goldstein, the co-CEO of global architecture firm Gensler, runs through all his messaging platforms to check which matters are pressing and which can wait for a response.
Executives at all sorts of companies—including Salesforce, Visa, Amazon, Zillow, and American Express—can’t resist the pull of their phones in the morning. Many seem to be tuning into the same types of apps before making their morning coffee: LinkedIn, Slack, Mail, the Weather app, news sources, and a litany of wellness platforms optimizing their health. This daily habit helps set them up for success heading into the day, whether it’s staying up to date on current events or strategizing the workday ahead while getting ready.
Weather app
C-suite leaders are preparing not only for the storms in business, but also for the ones brewing outside. At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference this September, Salesforce’s senior vice president of enterprise IT strategy Shibani Ahuja told Fortune the first app she checks in the morning is the weather. Ahuja said it shows her “How’s my hair gonna behave” for the day ahead.
Just like job-hunters and professionals checking in on their networking circles, Visa’s chief marketing officer Frank Cooper III can’t get enough of LinkedIn. Although the executive tries to stay unplugged from the internet first thing in the morning, he can’t help but open up the career app daily.
“I try not to check my phone when I wake up, but I’m addicted to LinkedIn, actually,” Cooper III told Fortune.
Wellness apps
It should come as no surprise that the CEO of $11 billion business ŌURA, Hale, checks his bodily metrics on the app as soon as he wakes up everyday. Lyft chief executive Risher also tunes into his ŌURA results after getting ready to find out how he slept, before kick-starting his work day at 6:30 a.m. And similar to the two CEOs, Amazon pharmacy vice president John Love also likes to be plugged in on how his shut-eye went; he told Fortune the first thing he checks each morning is his phone’s sleep app.
Slack/Messages
Slack has become the go-to messaging app for thousands of businesses—and business leaders are eager to catch up with their teams each morning. Chess.com’s cofounder and chief chess officer Danny Renach always checks Slack right after waking up, just like Greycroft cofounder and managing partner Dana Settle.
There are a litany of other messaging apps, like Whatsapp and Messenger, that executives keep up with too. Gensler’s co-CEO Goldstein carves out some early-morning time to check the notes sent out to him on other platforms, filtering out urgent inquiries from the matters that can wait until breakfast comes.
“I actually do a quick run through all the instant messages,” Goldstein told Fortune at Brainstorm Tech. “So every instant message app that I’m using, I literally pull up one after the other and check and just see what communications have come in and what I should respond to, versus what can wait for an hour or two.”
News
Alongside what’s going on inside their businesses, leaders like to stay clued into what’s going on in the world. American Express’s chief information officer Radhakrishnan Ravi thumbs through the New York Times app every morning for his daily dose of news. And executives are even embracing new technology to keep them updated on global happenings; Zillow’s vice president of AI Nicholas Stevens told Fortune he checks “some form of news,” or a “very technical AI news source,” right after waking up.
Although many workers detest checking their inboxes—often flooded with mundane inquiries and spam emails—some executives go straight to their unreads each morning. Varonis Field chief technology officer Brian Vecci told Fortune the very first app he checks is Outlook. And for Amazon Pharmacy general manager and vice president Tanvi Patel, going through emails can be a powerful way to start the day and think ahead.
“Usually the Mail app to see if there’s anything I need to be thinking about while I get ready,” Patel told Fortune at the conference.
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