The Motivating Morning Routines of 4 Successful Sharks

We asked the judges on 'Shark Tank' to share how they prep for the day even before that first sip of coffee.

Entrepreneur Staff

Editor in Chief of Green Entrepreneur

October 5, 2017 2 min read

Even if you’re not a “morning person,” you should consider adopting a morning routine before you start the grind of your workday. A routine sets the tone for the day because you’re beginning each morning getting something accomplished. Morning routines also help you save mental energy by limiting the number of decisions you need to make before breakfast.

Morning routines are all the rage with super successful entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Tim Ferriss and many of the Shark Tank judges. Some of them shared their routines with Entrepreneur.

Kevin O’Leary

Image credit: Rene Johnston | Getty Images

"Before I go to sleep, I write down three things that I have to get done the next morning before I take a call, write a text or an email or talk to anyone else except my family. And they can be random things, like 'call your daughter at school and ask about whether she’s done this or that' or 'close a deal.' What I found was once you get those three things done, the rest of your day becomes amazingly productive."

Barbara Corcoran

Image credit: Rodin Eckenroth | Getty Images

"I get up, brush my teeth, feed my little puppy, get my daughter out to school and then I work out for an hour. If I have a little bit of time, I go out and I weed my garden. That’s instead of a shrink, because it gets rid of all my problems."

Daymond John

Image credit: Jason LaVeris | Getty Images

"In my next book, Rise and Grind, I studied 20 people who are wildly successful to know what they do in the first and last 90 minutes of their day. Some of the things I learned, I still do today.

"For example, I always read my goals when I wake up in the morning. I used to work out in the evening because I wanted to decompress, but after talking to people from my book I started to work out every single morning. I’ve become hungrier and more driven. I even discovered that working out in the morning shortened my work week because it made me more productive."