Steve Jobs's Daily Routine

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, came back in 1997 to rescue it, and led it to the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone. When he returned, his daily routine was 14 hours at work, from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

That version comes from Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs (2011), and most of the routines for him online have no source at all. Later the day changed: lunch with Jony Ive, afternoons in the design studio, dinner with his family, then late calls and email. The week had fixed points too, an executive meeting at 9:00 AM on Mondays and a 3-hour marketing meeting on Wednesdays, and he liked to hold meetings on walks.

Adopt it for a turnaround season, when one thing matters more than anything else. It also suits people who want proof that long, focused days can be built around a few fixed points.

You get long, focused days with the week's big meetings fixed in place, and a habit he described at Stanford in 2005: asking each morning whether you'd want to do today's plans if it were your last day. Try that question tomorrow morning. Sleep and the meal times are our estimates.