Jack Dorsey likes to meditate every morning.
Joe Raedle
Twitter and Block cofounder Jack Dorsey balanced running both companies with a rigorous routine.Dorsey’s routine included waking up early, meditating, exercising, and fasting.Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2021, but continues to run Block.
What does it take to run two companies at once? Twitter and Block cofounder Jack Dorsey once balanced the responsibilities of running both companies with an early morning wake-up and a lot of meditation.
Dorsey said in a Product Hunt Live Chat in 2015 that he typically had 18-hour days — waking up around 5 a.m. and ending the day at 11 p.m.
“I look to build a lot of consistent routine,” Dorsey said in 2015. “Same thing every day.”
During his time as CEO of Twitter and Square, Dorsey said in the 2015 live chat that he started his day with 30 minutes of meditation and would follow it up with a series of seven-minute workouts.
Dorsey tweeted out a workout routine from The New York Times in 2013, the training circuit only requires a chair and a wall and includes anything from jumping jacks to planks and wall sits.
In 2019, Dorsey said in a podcast interview with Ben Greenfield that he meditated for about an hour each morning and had started waking up at 6:15 a.m. instead.
“I’ll say that my routine today is completely different than my routine three years ago but I feel like I have a lot of it dialed in based on what I’m currently experiencing in terms of stress and just what I have to do every day,” he told Greenfield.
After a morning cup of coffee, Dorsey would make the five mile trek to Twitter’s office in San Francisco — by foot, according to a recent book on Twitter, “Battle for the Bird.”
“He’d strap on a pair of running sandals, grab his phone, and make the five-mile walk through the streets of San Francisco to Twitter’s downtown headquarters — rain or shine,” Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner wrote in his book, adding that the tech executive would listen to podcasts or audiobooks during the more than hour-long walk.
Dorsey was also known for his “wake me up” cocktail, according to Wagner. The drink included lemon juice and Himalayan salt, the book said. Some Twitter staff even tried the cocktail out during the company’s retreat in 2018, according to the book.
Typically, Dorsey would split his day between the two companies, spending his mornings at Twitter and his afternoons and nights working at Square, his fintech company, according to Wagner.
In 2012, Dorsey told Fast Company he’d divide his weeks into themes in order to manage running both companies.
It went something like this:
Monday — Management
Tuesday — Product, engineering, and design
Wednesday — Marketing, growth, and communications
Thursday — Partnership and developers
Friday — Company and culture
Saturday — Day off
Sunday — Strategy
“It works in 24-hour blocks. On days beginning with ‘T,’ I start at Twitter in the morning, then go to Square in the afternoon,” he told Fast Company.
Dorsey also incorporates fasting into his schedule. In the 2019 podcast, the billionaire said he only eats one meal per day and has fasted all weekend, adding that the first time he tried the practice he felt as if he was hallucinating.
“It was a weird state to be in. But as I did it the next two times, it just became so apparent to me how much of our days are centered around meals and how — the experience I had was when I was fasting for much longer, how time really slowed down,” he said.
He later told Wired in 2020 that he eats seven meals a week, but he only eats dinner, which he consumes around 6:30 p.m.
Dorsey also told the publication he opts for a sauna and ice bath every day.
Dorsey was Twitter’s CEO from 2007 to 2008 and 2015 to 2021. He cofounded Square in 2009 and continues to run the company, which has since changed its name to Block.
A spokesperson for Block did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.