Apple CEO Tim Cook’s daily routine starts with emails at 4 a.m.

Apple CEO Tim Cook.Getty

• Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up every morning before 4 a.m. and reads emails from Apple users for an hour. 
• Then he goes to the gym and works out for an hour. 

It helps to get up before dawn if you run the world’s most valuable company.

Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in an interview with Axios’s Ina Fried and Mike Allen that he gets up before 4 a.m. on a daily basis. 

But what he does next might surprise you — he reads email from Apple users and “external people” for an hour, he said.

Then he goes to the gym and gets a workout in, which he says helps reduce stress. 

“I rise a bit before four, I like to take the first hour and go through user comments and things like that, and sort of focus on the external people that are so important to us. Then I go to the gym and work out for an hour because it keeps my stress at bay,” Cook said in the interview, which also touched on tech addiction, regulation, and augmented reality. 

By the time Cook’s morning routine is done, California is waking up, and Cook is ready to start his day — which reportedly includes over 700 to 800 emails he gets per day. He’s said he reads “the majority” of those messages and it’s been reported that Cook emails employees “at all hours.”

Cook reportedly likes to catch seven hours of sleep per night, so that means he’d typically have to go to bed by 8:45 p.m. to get enough shut-eye. 

Check out more details about the Apple CEO’s morning routine here or head on over to Axios to read more from its interview with Cook on HBO.