- Whoop CEO Will Ahmed shares his daily routine from waking up at 6 a.m. to going to sleep at 10 p.m.
- Ahmed said he believes in work-life harmony, which allows for flexible focus on work and personal time.
- His routine includes workouts with his trainer, meditation, meetings, squash, and time with his son.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Will Ahmed, the 35-year-old founder and CEO of Whoop, based in Boston. It's been edited for length and clarity.
I'm the founder and CEO of Whoop, a wearable technology that optimizes human performance and health.
My foray into the health and wellness space started when I was a college athlete. I was interested in athletic performance and what you could measure about the body to train optimally. That evolved into an interest in recovery and sleep.
The more time I spent with athletes, entrepreneurs, and people who worked a lot, the more I started to see all the things that Whoop was measuring and how relevant they were to humans at large, not just athletes.
I think a better way to describe work-life balance is work-life harmony. To me, "balance" implies that if you spend an hour here, you have to spend an hour there. Harmony acknowledges the fact that at some points, you might just be 90% work and 10% everything else. At other times, you might get that time back and be really focused on your family or your personal life. I think that's okay.
It's hard to be career-focused and not, at times, have your professional life outweigh everything that you do — and I don't think people should feel guilty for that.
I wake up around 6 a.m. and head to a workout
I go straight to a workout with my trainer, who's great and who I've been working with for a while. My workouts tend to vary, but it's mostly strength training. I'll do that three days a week for about 60 minutes.
I will go for runs. I do Barry's Bootcamp from time to time, which I like a lot. My wife will occasionally get me to go to an SLT class, which is like a form of Pilates.
I wouldn't say I'm particularly good at that, but it's a good thing to do. In general, men should train more like women, and women should train more like men. So, I'm trying to get more into stretching and high-rep workouts, like Pilates.
I take a steam shower and cold plunge
After my workout, I take a steam shower and cold plunge. It depends on the day, but I usually do 10 minutes in the steam room and three to five minutes in the cold plunge.
I eat a big breakfast
My breakfast includes lots of eggs, bacon, avocado, and fruit. If I'm working out, I'll have between six to eight eggs, but if I'm not, it's a more measured amount.
I meditate every morning for 10 to 20 minutes
I've been practicing meditation for about 11 years. I started with Transcendental Meditation, where you repeat a mantra over and over. Now, it mostly involves closing my eyes, breathing, and thinking. Some days, I'll do it first thing, right when I wake up. Other days, I'll do a little after working out.
I get to the office around 9 a.m. and hit the ground running
I like to start the morning with my chief of staff to get oriented for the day, see what different meetings I have, what external people I need to speak to, and what questions need to get resolved immediately.
I'm in meetings for most of the day
I have product and engineering meetings to see the latest technology or innovation that we're doing. I'll have one-on-ones with various members of my management team. I'll also have meetings with specific teams, like, the accessories and apparel team or the AI team.
I recently got a walking desk that I like using. I'm trying to walk more, so I'll go outside and take a meeting while I'm walking if I can. Or, if I have a couple of external calls in a row, I might go outside and walk around while I do the calls.
I eat lunch at 1 p.m.
My lunch tends to be pretty high-protein, like a salad with a lot of protein, or maybe I'll have a Mediterranean dish, like kebabs, rice, and salad. I drink about two coffees a day, but I try not to drink coffee after 1 or 2 p.m. because it starts to affect your sleep.
I don't snack and all the calories I consume are primarily from food. The main things I drink are water and coffee. I drink alcohol, but it's not common.
My diet most resembles a Mediterranean diet. I eat a lot of vegetables, meat, and eggs. Depending on how much I'm training or how much cardio I'm doing, I'll have more or less carbohydrates. I'm not a no-carb person, but I would say my diet skews a bit toward a Paleo diet.
I head home at 6 p.m. or 8 p.m.
If I duck out of the office around 6 or 6:15 p.m., I can get home to see my now 6-month-old son and get him tucked into bed. Depending on the day, I'll make that window. If not, I usually head home around 8 p.m.
After putting my son to bed, I'll have dinner with my wife. We'll cook half the time and order in the other half. Then in the few hours before bed, I'll probably do work or read emails. Occasionally, I'll do calls later at night if it's something pressing.
I start my wind-down routine after dinner
I put on blue-light-blocking glasses after dinner, and they help me wind down. Blue light typically stimulates your eyes and, therefore, stimulates your mind and tells you to stay awake. Whether it's your computer screen, your phone, or a television set, all of those things produce blue light. So, if you're still going to be exposed to blue light, a good thing to do is to wear the glasses.
I go to bed around 10 or 10:30 p.m.
I often take a shower before going to bed. I find a warm shower helps with going to bed. Plus, I like to be clean in general. I make sure my bedroom is really dark, quiet, and has good air quality. I also keep the temperature between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
My weekends consist of squash, golf, and walks with my son
I work a lot of weekends, but I try to play squash a couple of times a week, either on the weekends or early in the morning. I also like playing golf in the summer.
Lately, my weekends involve going for long walks with my little son. So that's that's been new and awesome.
