A day in the life of Jeff Bezos, the second richest person in the world

He wakes up every morning naturally, without the aid of an alarm clock.

Bezos makes sure to get enough rest — he sleeps for eight hours every night. The former CEO told CNBC in 2021 that while he could sleep less and be more productive, the quality of his decisions would be lower, which isn't worth it to him. 

"I prioritize it," he said at a dinner hosted by the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. "I think better. I have more energy. My mood is better."

Bedtime is 9:30 p.m., according to his fiancée. 

Jeff Bezos like to "putter" around in the morning.

"I like to putter in the morning," Bezos told a gathering of Economic Club of Washington, DC, Axios reported "So I like to read the newspaper. I like to have coffee."

 

Bezos and Sánchez have a no-phone rule in the mornings

Sánchez told People she and Bezos have a "magic moment" before the kids wake up, where it's just the two of them talking in the morning. She said during this time, the two don't use their phones and it's "one of the rules."

"He definitely made that rule," Sánchez told People. "It wasn't me. But the mornings are just us for as long as we can."

Bezos and Sanchez also like to start off their morning with journaling, although Sánchez said in a Vogue interview in November that the two weren't quite there yet.

"We'll do it, like, three days a week," she told Vogue.

Whoever wakes up first makes the coffee, Sánchez said.

While the billionaire Amazon founder drinks his morning coffee in a self-heating Ember mug, Sánchez says she uses a mug Bezos got her from Amazon that says, "woke up sexy as hell again."

Bezos reportedly never schedules early-morning meetings, in order to spend quality time with his family.

Bezos has said he likes a slow morning to spend time with his family. 

Sánchez told Vogue Bezos calls out, "don't learn anything I wouldn't learn." The line has become a staple in their everyday routine and her daughter now finishes it for him.

Once the kids leave, Sánchez and Bezos get to work

Sánchez told People that once the morning rush is over and the kids drive to school, her and Bezos get to work.

"After the kids leave, it's just me and Jeff and the dogs," she said, People reported.

 

Bezos also reads the newspaper and chats with his fiancé before heading to the gym for cardio and weightlifting, he said.

"Most days, [going to the gym is] not that hard for me, but some days it's really hard and I do it anyway," he said.

The billionaire said he goes to the gym almost every day.

Bezos said in a Lex Fridman podcast on a good day he does 30 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weightlifting or resistance training of some kind.

"I have a trainer who you know I love who pushes me," Bezos said in the podcast. "Which is really helpful."

But Sánchez said they don't do the same exercises.

"He's on a whole different level than I am," Sánchez said in the Vogue interview. "He is a monster in the gym."

 

But he does like to get his more intensive meetings rolling before noon. "I do my high-IQ meetings before lunch," he told the Economic Club of Washington, DC.

"Like anything that's going to be really mentally challenging, that's a 10 o'clock meeting," Bezos said back in 2018, according to Axios.

Bezos usually keeps his afternoons clear of high-intensity meetings.

If something that necessitates a "high-IQ meeting" pops up later in the day, Bezos typically puts it off until the next day.

"By 5 p.m., I'm like, 'I can't think about that today. Let's try this again tomorrow at 10 a.m,'" he told the Economic Club of Washington, DC in 2018.

 

When it comes to meals, Bezos has a taste for unusual dishes.

He was photographed eating an iguana once.

And, during a meeting with Woot founder Matt Rutledge, he ordered octopus with potatoes, bacon, green garlic yogurt, and eggs for breakfast.

"When I look at the menu, you're the thing I don't understand, the thing I've never had," Bezos said. "I must have the breakfast octopus."

 

Bezos and Sánchez like to cook. Sanchez said Bezos makes churros in his deep fryer, a recipe passed down from his Cuban grandfather.

"Abuelo made churros whenever we were with him," Bezos said.

 

 

Bezos also has a fondness for food trucks.

In 2014, he told Henry Blodget, who was then Business Insider's editor-in-chief, about a phenomenally popular truck outside of Amazon's headquarters. "It's out of control, actually," he said.

Bezos said he's never worked harder than he has since he left Amazon.

His day revolves around reading documents and having meetings in person or over Zoom, he told Lex Fridman in a podcast.

Architecture and technology meetings almost every day about different subsystems inside the vehicle and engines.

"My favorite part of it is the technology," Bezos said.

His least favorite part is building the organization, he said. 

Bezos does "little thinking retreats."

The billionaire said he's very good at focusing but he doesn't keep to a strict schedule.

He told Lex Fridman he believes in wandering and his "messy" meetings often go overtime.

 

Family movie nights are a Saturday night tradition in the Bezos household, according to his fiancee.

"Of course, Jeff's favorite movie was Oppenheimer, and I love Barbie," she told Vogue. "And there you have us summed up in two movies."

Sánchez told People it takes a "little bit of time" to decide what to watch but the two "love" their TV time. They recently watched Baby Reindeer, Fallout, Presumed Innocent, and Severance, People reported.

 

Amazon now runs several popular original series, like "The Man in the High Castle" and "Transparent," but the former Amazon CEO is a Trekkie.

Bezos even made a surprise cameo in the 2016 film "Star Trek Beyond."

Other than watching "Star Trek," Bezos has another space-related hobby: gliding about in a submarine looking for old NASA rockets.

He's brought his kids along for the adventure.

"As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions. Your job is not to make thousands of decisions every day," he said, according to Axios.

"Is that really worth it if the quality of those decisions might be lower because you're tired or grouchy?" Bezos asked the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.