Business Insider

Tue, September 8, 2026 at 2:52 PM EDT

(L to R) Sima Sistani, former CEO of WeightWatchers, Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens AG, and Audie Cornish, anchor of CNN's Sunday Morning with Audie Cornish. Kate Medley for BI; Siemens; CNN

Ever wonder how successful leaders across industries get it all done? Business Insider's "Power Hours" series explores that question by diving into the daily routines of top executives, founders, creatives, athletes, and celebrities — from aerospace and transportation to venture capital and the creator economy.

We've profiled leaders like Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's CEO, who starts his day before dawn and avoids unnecessary meetings, and David Risher, the CEO of Lyft, who winds down with matcha in the afternoons and takes undercover driving shifts to inform his work.

Each story offers an inside look at how these high performers meticulously structure their waking hours to achieve their personal and professional goals. Besides giving us a window into their workdays, the featured leaders discuss exercise, rest, and tips for staying sharp, conserving energy, boosting productivity, and more.

Read stories from the series here and bookmark this page for the latest additions.

If you're a leader in your industry and you have a fascinating routine to share, reach out to editor Lauryn Haas at lhaas@businessinsider.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider.

Joseph Arangio

Mon, September 7, 2026 at 7:17 AM EDT

Rich Roll, the ultra-endurance athlete, bestselling author, and host of the Rich Roll Podcast, is back to training after spinal fusion surgery—and he’s using an unlikely tool to keep his comeback moving: a 4 a.m. photo from his home gym.

Roll says waking before sunrise isn’t the lesson. The point is creating a ritual that makes skipping harder. “By sharing photos and videos of that experience on the daily, it basically just creates a degree of public accountability,” Roll said on his podcast, “that makes it more likely that I’m not going to flake out.”

The 4 A.M. Workout Is Really an Accountability Trick

Roll underwent a 360-degree spinal fusion on May 8, 2025. He later described severe pain, using a walker and gaining about 40 pounds during recovery. By April 2026, Roll said he had lost 37 pounds in roughly 100 days while rebuilding with physical therapy, resistance training and Zone 2 cycling.

His morning ritual grew out of that rebuild. Roll committed to exercising every morning and photographing the LED clock in his home gym. Each photo had to look different from the previous day’s.

“Nobody cares whether I post these photos or not, but I care,” he said. “It’s been just a little added layer of motivation to make sure that I’m honoring those commitments to myself.”

Rich Roll Says You Don’t Need to Wake Up at 4 A.M.

There’s an important catch for anyone tempted to copy the schedule: Roll isn’t advocating sleep deprivation. He says he typically goes to bed around 8 p.m., gets seven to eight hours of sleep and wakes without an alarm.

Instead, his recommendation is less extreme: start with something repeatable, even if it takes only five minutes.

“We all have five minutes,” Roll said. “In fact, I would argue that we all have probably hours in our day that we’re misallocating.”

His mantra is equally simple: “Mood follows action.” Rather than waiting until motivation arrives, Roll argues that doing something first can help generate the momentum to continue.

Elle Hardy

Wed, September 9, 2026 at 5:05 AM EDT

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Keltie Knight, a 44-year-old, Emmy Award-winning Canadian television personality, host, and bestselling author based in Los Angeles. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started my career as a professional dancer, moved to New York at 18, and became a Rockette. I started making YouTube videos, documenting my life backstage and in music videos. When my body started breaking down, I realized I needed to find a new career.

The only other thing I could do well was talk, and I loved show business, so I moved to LA. Someone in television asked me to start making videos for them, and I started in music. I made a show called "Fangirl," where I ran around LA and went backstage with musicians I'd worked with. That's how my career took off.

7 a.m. — Wake up with the sun if I'm not already working

I like to wake up with the sun, or even sleep in a little. I worked really hard to have this schedule. For many years, I'd wake up at 3:45 a.m., be in the car by 4 a.m., and be on set by 4:15 a.m.

Knight commuting. E!

On a show day, I'm in the car at 7 a.m. with 19 bags. We get to the trailer, and I'm reading last-minute emails and going over script changes. Someone's painting my hair, someone's putting a Spanx on me, someone's painting my face, someone's steaming a dress, and every five seconds, a different director or producer is coming in to say we have to do this or that.

Then we go down early for a rehearsal, and it's the most insane 12 hours of my life. That's why I do so much preparation beforehand — the day of, there really isn't time to look at a script. I take the responsibility of representing E! very seriously.

8 a.m. — energy drink and a Pilates class

My day always starts with a Celsius Kiwi Guava Energy Drink.

I'm a big Pilates girl, so I try to take a reformer class in the morning, if it's not a show day. I'll often see a Hollywood publicist in my class, and it's the best networking event I'll attend that week.

9:30 a.m. — emails, reading, and liquids

After I work out, I usually sit in my home office doing emails. There's so much minutiae to this job — I have to keep completely up to date with the news through publications such as "The Hollywood Reporter" and manage my relationships with publicists and production companies.

If I see a celebrity doing something new, I like to contact them or their publicist to offer my congratulations. I saw Sharon Stone got a new movie deal, so recently, I texted her, saying, "Oh my God, I'm so excited for you! When are you shooting?"

Knight on a red carpet. E!

People assume my work is very glamorous and easy because the fun part is walking down the red carpet in a gown. What people don't see are days like today, when I'm in sweatpants all day researching and taking notes — I watch every single thing, read every article, and listen to every podcast. I need to know everything about these celebrities.

I'm often at my desk for 10-12 hours per day, living on Celsius, iced matcha, proper English tea, a Clif Bar, air, and incense. I'm the worst example of health. I like to drink most of my meals during the day.

11 a.m.— phone call with my co-host

I can't live without my 45-minute daily call with Justin Sylvester, my co-host. He's one of my best friends. On set, things will go wrong. I'm going to screw up, my dress breaks, or one of us isn't feeling well. Having a person alongside me I can look to, know what he's thinking, and know he can cover me — that keeps me calm.

People are going to trip, you're going to say the wrong thing, and that's what makes it great. If it were perfect, it would be so boring. I'm saying that as someone who fell on the Grammys carpet, and who lost a four-carat diamond from my engagement ring at the 2024 Golden Globes.

12 p.m. — an Emmy dress fitting

When it's awards season, I have a lot of fittings for my dresses. We work with a couple of stylists, Bory Tan and Roberto Cardenas.

When I first started on red carpets, I really wanted to keep up with the Joneses — if Charlize Theron was in Gucci, I wanted to be in Gucci. Since last year, I’ve been trying to use my powers for good.

Last season, I had a drag queen design and make a bunch of my red-carpet dresses from scratch. We sketched them together, and I never felt more beautiful.

For this year's Emmys, Bory found an up-and-coming designer, and we're building something from scratch again. Renting a dress just to seem cool in Gucci isn't meaningful, but wearing an up-and-coming designer on E! for four hours on the red carpet can change someone's career.

1 p.m.— podcasting

I have a podcast called " Lady Gang" — we've been on for 10 years, and we often record two episodes in a day. I'm usually recording in the afternoon, around 1 p.m.

2 p.m.— food, sometimes

I'll often finish recording and realize I haven't eaten anything all day. I'll run upstairs and eat a banana and a yogurt, then I'll get another call and have to hop on.

For me, my work is my passion, and everything else — Pilates, nutrition, laundry, making sure my insurance is paid on my house — comes after. It's made me incredibly successful, but I get laser-focused and put looking after myself second.

2:30 p.m. — Emmys homework

When I'm not recording the show, I spend a lot of time watching shows to stay up to date before the Emmys. I have a highlighted spreadsheet to keep up with it all, and make note cards, which I go back and read as part of my research.

Knight's notecards. E!

I really care about the celebrities I interview. I'm invested in their lives and their success. Someone like Dakota Fanning, whom I've been interviewing since she was a baby — watching her get an Emmy nomination was wonderful.

I think people assume entertainment journalists are out to take celebrities down. The truth is, we're such an important part of these stars' road to success, and I care so deeply that they have a great time at the Emmys and a great time with me.

4 p.m.— the other parts of my life

I'm an investor and advisor for Alta, an AI closet app, inspired by Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. I work with my New York team on that constantly, write a lot of their emails, and do brand meetings.

I also recently wrote a book, "The F*ck Them Theory: Self-Help for People Who Are Done Being the Bigger Person," which is out this November. I'm planning my own book tour for that on top of everything else.

7 p.m. — DoorDash dinner

My husband, Chris Knight, and I always have dinner together — so, I'm embarrassed to say, my first real meal of the day is often dinner. Even worse, neither of us has the time to cook, so we use DoorDash. We do have one nice tradition, Pizza Friday, when we order a Domino's pizza to the house.

I learned a long time ago in therapy that I was trying to be everything, and I really burned myself out. My therapist told me, "Anything you can't do or don't have time to do, pay someone else to do." I know that's an insane privilege, but the truth is, the extra $20 it costs me is worth it in time, because now I have more time to work on my businesses and my life.

There are thousands of entertainment journalists who want to host live from E! during award season, and maybe four people have ever had this job. I take that very seriously, so everything else has to come second. I'm like Travis Kelce in football season — I'm not thinking about Taylor Swift right now.

8 p.m.— 18-step skincare routine and a good book

I have so much to watch that sitting down in front of the television at night isn't how I relax. The Emmys' recognition of reality TV means I can at least watch shows like 'Summer House' without guilt.

I'm a big skincare junkie, so I do a nightly 18-step skincare routine — face, hands, everything — it's my way to wind down. I'm loving Dr. Diamond's retinol right now.

I love to read, and before I go to sleep, I always read something unrelated to work. I love escaping into other worlds through books like "The Midnight Library" and "The Husband."

For my 40th birthday, my husband got me a complete set of all 56 first edition Nancy Drews, and they smell incredible.

10 p.m.— sleep

Ideally, I'm in bed starting to read at 8:15 p.m., but that's not always possible. I'm childless by choice, so I'm an early-bed, early-rise person.

I need a lot of sleep, and unless I can't put a book down, it's lights out at 10 p.m.

Read the original article on Business Insider.

Monica Torres

Mon, September 7, 2026 at 7:00 AM EDT

Here’s how Dolly Parton met her husband of almost 60 years.

Vacations are a much-needed balm to weary souls. A few days of sun, friends and rest can help banish the stress of urgent requests, crabby colleagues and unreasonable deadlines.

But you don’t want your post-vacation high to become a post-vacation crash when you see the pile of work that awaits you. To keep your restorative mood intact, you want to make the transition back to work as smooth as possible.

1. They admit they can’t respond to everyone at once.

“One of the most important things that I do before I go on vacation to keep me from being overwhelmed after is I put up an autoresponder that is a little bit more detailed than ‘Hey, I’m out of the office from this day to this day.’

Instead, I have a really detailed out-of-office message that lets people know when I will be unavailable, whether I will be checking email intermittently or if I am not going to be available at all. And then, based on who you are, I let you know when to expect a response.

I find that creating that autoresponder with all of those details helps set expectations from when people can expect to hear from you. Then you don’t return to five messages from the same person wondering why they haven’t heard from you yet. The sooner that you recognize that you can’t respond to everyone at once, the easier it’s going to be to prioritize based on importance and urgency.”
— Anna Dearmon Kornick, time management coach and host of the “ It’s About Time _ podcast_

5. They remind themselves it’s OK to have a slow start.

“I give myself a pep talk. I tell myself I just returned from vacation. It took me several days to unwind and relax; similarly, it’s going to take several days for me to get back to my regular routine. This helps me keep my vacation and work in perspective. I then work on tasks one at a time.”

Read the original article on HuffPost.