I Adopted 8 CEOs’ Habits for a Month – This Is How My Life Changed

Psychologists have found that the way you act, or behave, influences the way you think and feel far more than the average person would expect. That’s why I believe positive actions can have a greater impact than positive thoughts, and when you combine the two you feel unstoppable. I bring this up because, for the longest time, I would act negatively: going to sleep when the sun rose, barely eating, procrastinating everything, etc. It wasn’t until I saw my emotional and mental stability deteriorate when I thought “hey, maybe I need to switch things up.”

And I so did.

For one whole month I adopted habits shared by CEOs and overall efficient people. The idea was to turn my life around through my behavior, to change my negative mentality via routinely positive actions. So, guided by the routines of eight different CEOs, I established a morning and a night-time ritual… and it pretty much turned my life around.

Waking Up Early

Nearly every single CEO I found woke up hours before I did. In fact, some of them woke up when I would be falling asleep. This inspired the first step in my morning routine: waking up at 6 AM. I had to reset my sleep schedule by pulling an all-nighter the very first day, and kept myself busy until it was time to start my night routine at 7 PM.

Once I started getting out of bed at 6 AM, I found waking up early to be directly correlated to how productive my days were. I had time to do other things like reading, and I stopped being late to work and college. I was already being more efficient than I used to be.

Meditating

Immediately after waking up, I’d wash my face or take a quick shower (depending on how tired I felt). Then, I’d put on my robe, sit on my bed, and meditate for 10 minutes. Nadia Boujarwah (cofounder and CEO of Dia&Co) starts her days with the meditation app “Headspace” so I figured I’d download it as well, and it helped a lot, though I only used it for a week (AKA the duration of its free trial).

Yoga & Working Out

Three of the eight CEOs who inspired me to do this experiment included yoga or some form of exercise into their daily routines, so on the tenth day, I got a gym membership and started attending a 7 AM yoga class four times a week. Since I got a gym membership, I figured I should add another habit (courtesy of Bill Gates) and work out for an hour in the afternoon.

Exercising (especially doing vinyasa yoga so early in the morning) helped motivate me for the rest of the day. In fact, the early-morning classes helped my mentality so much, I kept going through winter break.

Eating Breakfast & Organization

Two other things I added to my morning routine were making a to-do list and eating breakfast. The latter might come as a surprise to some, but when you live in a city, rush hour is a real threat to your morning commute, meaning breakfast is the least important meal and coffee is the only viable option. However, because I was waking up two hours earlier than I needed to, I made eating breakfast the last, yet most important, step in my morning routine.

As I ate breakfast (almond butter and banana toast, usually) I would organize my day, writing down no more than ten things I wanted or had to get done, in order of importance rather than “order in which I remember.” This made me focus on the more important tasks at hand, which made it easier to prioritize and time-manage—a habit I still keep.

Starting My Days the Night Before (AKA Doing Chores)

Bill Gates once said he winds down by doing chores (washing dishes, tidying up, taking out the trash) which made sense to me, so I decided this would be the first step in my nightly routine. After cooking and eating dinner, I’d clean up after myself (around 8 or 9 PM) and make sure my space was ready for the next day. This helped wind myself down, and made it so much easier to wake up in the morning, because I simultaneously felt calmer and more excited to tackle on the next day. Having a clean space made everything feel easier.

Lessening Electricity Use

After cleaning my space, it was time to put away all electronics. Arianna Huffington does two things I adopted: she turns off all overhead lights, dims all other lights, and charges all of her electronic devices outside of her bedroom. I’ve tried charging my phone outside of my room before—it really forces you get out of bed in the morning—but it only really works if you have an actual alarm clock nearby (which I don’t) so instead, I would charge my laptop outside of my room and my phone (AKA alarm clock) on the opposite side of my room, which still made me get out of bed in order to turn the alarm off.

Self-Care

Through my research I discovered a key concept shared by most efficient people I read about: they might work extremely hard, some might even wake up at 4 AM (reason why is still unbeknownst to me), but because they work so hard, they take care of themselves.

Different people take care of themselves differently. For me, it was skincare and reading; so, other than doing chores and lessening electricity use in the night time, I made self-care the final (perhaps most important) step towards being a more efficient, centered person.

Every single night, I would shower with the mentality that I was washing away any stress I had brought home. I’d wash my face and start an eight-step Korean skin care routine I’d established (again, this is only my idea of self-care), and as I was waiting for my skin to absorb any oils or serums I had applied, I would try to write down 20 affirmations and 20 things I was grateful for.

The affirmations were great because they helped boost my confidence, and the gratuitous list made me feel—well, grateful to be alive. Once my skin-care routine was done, and I’d written my two lists, I would put on a night gown—I got that rule from Arianna Huffington—get into bed, and read a little. Throughout the course of one month, I read three books on spirituality (no books relating to suspense or the political climate were allowed); once done reading, my eyes would be shut before midnight, and I’d be up again by 6.

One Month Later...

It’s been a month since I finished this experiment, and I no longer wake up at 6 in the morning for no reason (unless I’m going to that 7 AM yoga class), but I do still go to the gym, try to meditate, and eat breakfast every morning; my night routine has stayed pretty much the same, though I don’t follow it as strictly as I used to.

Establishing these tiny rituals didn’t do much to change my income, and I didn’t feel like a successful CEO. However, having this constant mentality where I was working towards being the best version of myself helped the emotional/mental state I was in more than anything I could’ve tried—which was exactly the point of this experiment. Although I’ve had some minor setbacks, I’ve been falling asleep sooner than I used to, I’ve read more books in the last two months than I had in the past year, and I’ve accomplished an overall state of stability that helps me be more efficient than I ever was… which is all I ever really needed, anyway.