brian
chesky

brian’s day.

• 8:30 am
  A late start

  his day “starts pretty late, because I go to bed pretty late.”

  sleep
• First thing
  20 minutes of fasted cardio

  the StairMaster or a hill walk with his dog, on an empty stomach. “There’s a lot of hills where I live, so I try to do that for like 20 minutes in the morning.”

  fitness
• 9:00 am
  Light breakfast, black coffee

  a shower and a light breakfast, with one or two cups of black coffee, no milk or sugar.

  nutritionenergy

• 10:00 am
  No meetings before 10, none back to back

  “I generally don’t like to have back-to-back meetings. I like to have some free time to roam around and to be able to do some head-down work.”

  focus
• All day
  Texts, not email

  “The way to communicate with me is almost entirely by text message.” Emails get “as few words as possible.”

  focus
• Daily
  Notes to himself

  “I keep a daily journal and a digital note app, like Apple Notes, and every day I write notes to myself,” mostly in bullet points.

  focus
• A few times a week
  Transcendental meditation

  meant to be 20 minutes twice a day. “I’m lucky if I do it like a handful of times a week.”

  focus

• 7:30–8 pm
  Weights with a trainer, then cardio

  weights four times a week with a personal trainer, a former Mr. Universe, then half an hour of cardio. Arms go with shoulders: two biceps and two triceps exercises, “typically a compound free weight movement and a machine movement.”

  fitness

• From 10 pm
  Deep work late

  he told the WSJ his creativity peaks around 10pm and lasts until bedtime. Some nights it’s friends, reading, drawing or TV instead.

  focus
• 1:30–2:30 am
  At least seven hours

  “A non-negotiable is I want to try to get at least seven hours of sleep… the extra hour you save by not sleeping probably makes every hour the next day a little less productive.”

  sleep