Mark Zuckerberg's daily routine as he turns 40, from regular jiu jitsu and MMA sessions to wearing the same outfit to work (2024)

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After waking up about 8 a.m., the Meta CEO immediately checks Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp on his phone, before he even puts in his contacts.

The social-media session typically lasts only a few minutes but can take longer depending on current events, Zuckerberg saidin a Facebook Live Q&A.

"The first thing I do is look at my phone. I look at Facebook to see what's going on in the world," he said. "It's a pretty sad situation, to be honest. I have contacts, and I can't see very well. And before I put my contacts in, I often look to see what is going on Facebook."

Zuckerberg acknowledged that checking his phone first thing in the morning was a bad habit.

"You get like a million messages of stuff that come in, and it's usually not good. People reserve the good stuff to tell me in person," he told Joe Rogan in 2022. "It's almost like you wake up and you're punched in the stomach." He added: "Now I need to go reset myself and be able to be productive and not be stressed out about this."

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Once he's gotten his morning updates, it's time to work out. Zuckerberg used to go for a workout at least three times a week, often running. Now he stays away from running and instead does jiujitsu and MMA.

"I used to run a lot, but the problem with running is you can think a lot," he told Rogan in 2022.

Instead, he started asking himself: "What's a thing that's both super engaging physically but also intellectually, where you can't afford to focus on something else? MMA is the perfect thing because if you stop paying attention for one second, you're going to end up on the bottom."

In June 2023, he said on Lex Fridman's podcast that he did three or four jiu jitsu and MMA sessions weekly, in addition to strength and conditioning work and mobility training.

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It's unclear what Zuckerberg eats for breakfast, but he recently said that as part of his training, he aimed for 4,000 calories a day.

In July 2023, Zuckerberg told McDonald's on Threads that he wanted "20 nuggets, a quarter pounder, large fries, Oreo McFlurry, apple pie, and maybe some cheeseburgers for later?"

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Zuckerberg famously wears the same thing almost every day, with a "work uniform" consisting of jeans, sneakers, and a gray T-shirt.

Zuckerberg sticks with the same outfit to reduce the brainpower spent on making minor decisions.

When asked about his wardrobe in 2014, he told an audience: "I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community."

He has, however, shown off a new twist on his famous t-shirt attire after hours, recently rocking a chain necklace while watching an MMA fight.

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Zuckerberg said in 2015 that he put in 50 to 60 hours a week at Facebook but thought about the social-media platform constantly.

"I spend most of my time thinking about how to connect the world and serve our community better, but a lot of that time isn't in our office or meeting with people or doing what you'd call real work," he told CNN in 2015.

"I take a lot of time just to read and think about things by myself," he added. "If you count the time I'm in the office, it's probably no more than 50 to 60 hours a week. But if you count all the time I'm focused on our mission, that's basically my whole life."

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Zuckerberg has preferences for meetings at work.

"I actually like trying to have a rule," he told Forbes. "For every hour of meeting that I have, the team sends out the pre-reads in advance. I want to have at least an hour to read the materials and think about it. And then I want to have at least an hour to follow up with different people after the meeting."

As for his approach to work, colleagues have likened Zuckerberg's undivided attention to the Eye of Sauron.

Sauron, the chief antagonist in the "Lord of the Rings" series, is shown in some films as a flaming, disembodied eye, interpreted as a metaphor for evil, ever looming over Middle-earth.

"They're like, 'You have this unending amount of energy to go work on something. And if you point that at any given team, you will just burn them,'" Zuckerberg told Tim Ferriss in 2022.

"I just think the engagement that you get of having, like, an immediate feedback loop around thinking about something and then getting to go talk to the people who are working on this is so much better than going and scheduling a meeting that you'll have three weeks later," he said.

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Zuckerberg has various interests outside work.

He's tried to learn Mandarin Chinese, he challenged himself in 2015 to read a new book every two weeks, and he's hit the water on an electric surfboard, meme-worthy amounts of sunscreen included.

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Zuckerberg has also added cattle farming to his list of hobbies as of late.

In January, he said he'd started raising cattle on his Hawaii ranch.

"My goal is to create some of the highest quality beef in the world," he wrote on Instagram. "The cattle are wagyu and angus, and they'll grow up eating macadamia meal and drinking beer that we grow and produce here on the ranch."

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Zuckerberg's daily schedule tends to vary more when he travels. He's been known to hit the road to meet with world leaders.

He's met with figures including Pope Francis in Rome in 2016, French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018, and former US president Donald Trump in 2019.

Zuckerberg also spends time with his family.

He married his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, in 2012. Zuckerberg and Chan share three daughters, Maxima, August, and Aurelia.

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Zuckerberg has a nightly routine with his children.

"Sometimes they will read books together. Sometimes they'll code together," Chan said ofZuckerberg's bedtime routinewith the kids. "Mark has been doing that with August since she turned 3."

Zuckerberg told Fridman in 2022 about a "goodnight things" routine with his daughters.

"I basically go through with Max and Augie: 'What are the things that are most important in life?'" he said.

He points out their health, friends and family, and having something they're looking forward to.

Chan told Forbes that her husband also sang a Jewish prayer, Mi Shebeirach, to his kids and always tucked them in, unless he had a board meeting or was traveling. She added that his work dinners took place after the girls went to sleep.

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Zuckerberg sleeps more than most of his fellow tech CEOs.

"I don't stay up super late at night," he told Forbes, adding that he aimed for eight hours of sleep a night and used an Oura ring to track his rest.

Áine Cain and Taylor Nicole Rogers contributed to an earlier version of this story.