Tim Cook's daily routine: The schedule of the Apple CEO who wakes up at 3:45 a.m. and reads hundreds of customer emails a day
- Apple CEO Tim Cook's day starts at 3:45 a.m. and is full of hours-long meetings.
- Cook is an intensely private person, but has given some insights into his daily routine.
It takes a lot to run the world's largest company — including a very early wake-up call.
Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up before dawn and begins his by reading hundreds of feedback emails from customers, before heading to the gym. Once he's at the office, he works long hours and leads notoriously lengthy meetings.
Cook is a famously private person, but over the years he's shared glimpses into his daily schedule.
Here's a look inside the typical day-to-day routine of Apple's CEO:
Cook typically wakes up at 3:45 a.m.
"Got some extra rest for today's event. Slept in 'til 4:30," Cook joked about his early alarm.
At that early hour, he has the freedom to spend his time as he sees fit, he's said.
"I can control the morning better than the evening and through the day. Things happen through the day that kind of blow you off course," he told The Australian Financial Review in 2021. "The morning is yours. Or should I say, the early morning is yours."
Once he's up, he spends about an hour reading through his emails.
Cook gets 700 or 800 emails a day, and he reads "the majority of those," he told ABC News in 2014, including customer feedback.
"I cannot read all of them, no. I'd not admit to doing that," he told the Australian Financial Review. "But I read an extraordinary number of them. It keeps my hands on the pulse of what customers are feeling and thinking and doing."
Employees, too, have experienced Cook's early morning emails.
"Tim wakes up really early and is very well capable of expecting you to reply back before the sun comes up," one person with knowledge of the matter told Insider in 2014.
The Apple CEO hits the gym around 5 a.m. several days a week.
Cook doesn't work out on Apple's campus, opting instead for a gym where he's less likely to run into his employees, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2014.
"I go to the gym and work out for an hour because it keeps my stress at bay," he told Axios in 2018.
After his workout, Cook heads to Starbucks.
There, he'll read through more emails before heading to the office, according to a 2012 Time article.
It's not clear whether or not Cook regularly eats breakfast, but he dug into scrambled egg whites, sugar-free cereal, unsweetened almond milk, and bacon during an interview with New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin in 2017.
Once he's at work, Cook hosts marathon meetings.
Cook's weekly operations meetings can last five or six hours, per the Journal's 2014 article, and he's known to relentlessly question employees.
"'Talk about your numbers. Put your spreadsheet up,' he'd say as he nursed a Mountain Dew," the Journal reported.
Mike Janes, the former head of Apple's online store, told CNN Money in 2008 about one afternoon meeting with Cook.
"A number of us had tickets to see the Mets that night," Janes said. "After hours, he was still drilling us with question after question, while we were watching the clock like kids in school. I still have this vision of Tim saying, 'Okay, next page,' as he opened yet another energy bar. Needless to say, we missed the Mets game."
He also has no problem sitting in silence until he gets a suitable answer.
"In meetings he's known for long, uncomfortable pauses, when all you hear is the sound of his tearing the wrapper of the energy bars he constantly eats," according to CNN Money.
As a result, employees have learned to be prepared, cramming for the meetings as if they were tests, per the Journal.
For lunch, he keeps it pretty simple at the Apple cafeteria.
Besides the energy bars he snacks on throughout the day, he sticks to meals like chicken and rice for lunch, the Journal reported in 2014.
Cook is known to eat his lunch in the cafeteria with employees, unlike his predecessor Steve Jobs, who would typically eat with design chief Jonathan Ive.
Cook works long days at the office.
When he was COO, he was known for being one of the first people in the office and one of the last people to leave.
After-hours, Cook's life is pretty much a mystery.
We don't know much about how Cook spends his weekends and evenings, though he's outdoorsy and enjoys rock climbing and cycling.
His favorite vacation spots include Yosemite and Zion national parks, the Journal reported.
He has also vacationed at the Canyon Ranch resort in Arizona, where guests spotted him keeping to himself, often dining alone and reading on his iPad, according to Fortune's 2012 profile of Cook.
Áine Cain contributed to an earlier version of this story.
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