This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ann Crady Weiss, the CEO of Hatch, a sleep and rest company based in the Bay Area. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2005. I started out as a corporate securities lawyer, then moved into business.
My first company was in the parent-baby space: I started a social network called Maya’s Mom in 2006, before Facebook was open to anyone other than college kids and MySpace was all the rage. I sold it to a division of Johnson & Johnson.
My husband, Dave Weiss, whom I met during the acquisition process, and I founded the sleep device company Hatch Baby in 2014 and, in 2020, the smart alarm maker Hatch. We’re all about helping people change their behavior so that they can take better care of themselves.
Here’s what a day in my life in California looks like.
7:15 a.m. — Waking up with a sunrise alarm
My phone is in my room, but it’s not next to my bed. I wake up to a gentle sunrise, the feature on my Hatch Restore that gradually lights up and mimics a natural sun.
Fifteen minutes after that, the sound alarm goes off. If I do need to be woken up at this point, I get woken up by very loud music. Usually, the sunrise does the job. If I’m not out of bed by 7:40 a.m., my 13-year-old son wakes me up.
In the first 30 minutes of my day, I try not to look at my phone. I prefer to let my brain come online slowly. I’ve learned that how I start the day really affects how reactive or intentional I am.
7:45 a.m. — Phone-free breakfast
My husband sleeps in while my son and I go downstairs and walk the dog. I make us Chobani Greek yogurt, topped with granola that my mom makes at home, and add honey and fruit, though no fruit for my son.
We hang out together with the policy of no phones at breakfast. I sometimes sneak my phone to quickly check Slack, but otherwise, we stick to it rigidly. My son heads off to school at 8:20 a.m.
Then, my husband and I spend some time together. I make coffee for us, which is a love language for me. I try to avoid the news first thing; it tends to pull me into other people’s priorities before I’ve set my own.
8:30 a.m. — Working out, or telling myself I will
About three days a week, I work out right when my son leaves, whether it’s a short walk or a session on my Tonal. I’d love to say that I work out five days a week for hours at a time, but I don’t.
On days I don’t work out, I start work right away. Either way, I’m dialed in at my desk on the other side of my bedroom between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m.
9:30 a.m. — Priorities and back-to-back meetings
Each day, I write a Post-It note with the top three things I need to get done.
Our company is fully remote, so my day begins with back-to-back video calls. I try to front-load my day with the most important thinking, and keep meetings to a tight 30 minutes.
I try to block out an hour and a half of focused work time, although unfortunately, I’m not doing a great job of protecting it.
There’s a lot of context switching in my meetings — team check-ins, product reviews, marketing, recruiting — so I try to leave buffer time between meetings to regroup. Otherwise, the day blurs.
12:30 p.m — Quick lunch and reset
I tend to eat at my desk. I often have Trader Joe’s chicken soup dumplings, plus blueberries or a banana, for lunch. My go-to afternoon snack is a square of chocolate, dried mango, or a LaraBar.
If I can, I’ll take a short walk around lunchtime. It’s one of the fastest ways for me to reset mentally.
3 p.m. — Meetings and curveballs
Afternoons are usually more of the same. However, barely a day goes by without something disrupting my schedule.
Recently, we’ve been working on an important launch that adds contactless sleep tracking to our device. We’re working with a new manufacturer, and the chip they needed didn’t arrive on time. We had to drop everything to figure out how to get all the components we needed to make it happen.
5 p.m. — Hello and hugs
My son comes home from school, and my husband, who is now retired from the business, usually spends time with him in the afternoons. At 5 p.m., I come downstairs, say hello, and give them both a hug.
I try to wrap my core workday around 6 p.m., but like most CEOs, it’s not a clean stop.
6 p.m. — Family time
I take a break to cook and connect with my family. I’m time-boundary-oriented, but if some flexibility is needed, I don’t stick to rigid rules. My favorite dinners to cook are chicken-veggie stir-fry over white rice, pasta with pesto and steamed broccoli, and salad with grilled chicken.
Ideally, evenings are family time — dinner, driving to or from basketball practice, and hanging out. If the Warriors are playing, we’ll watch an NBA game together.
6:30 p.m. — My best work of the day
If we’re not doing something together as a family, my son has screen time from 7-9 p.m., and I find I can really focus on my work then. That’s the only time in the day when no one is Slacking me or trying to get in touch.
9p.m. — I’m done
At nine, I put my phone away. I find that saying ‘9 o’clock, I’m going to bed’ is really important for my mental health. My Restore signals that for me: a white light comes on.
If I’m not yet in bed reading, it’s my cue to get there. We know from our research that you need time to signal to your body that the day is finished.
My husband, my son, and I all read physical books in our bed, with my son in the middle. I read only fiction. That’s my me time, and my favorite part of the day.
10 p.m. — Going to sleep with an audiobook
My son usually decides he’s tired and heads to his room. When I’m ready to sleep, my Restore plays me an unwind.
Right now, I’m listening to an abridged version of “Little Women” that we created. I usually get 12 minutes in and fall asleep while I’m listening.
Weekends for me are pretty full, in the best way
We have a puppy named Graham. He has more energy than the rest of us combined, so a trip to the dog park is non-negotiable most days. I work out on the weekends with a small group of friends, and it’s one of the things I protect most.
The rest of our time is split between our kids: from talking through early career stuff on the phone with our oldest to cheering on our youngest at basketball. When I do get a quiet stretch, I disappear into a book, ideally something that makes me cry.
My mom is around a lot, and most weekends my whole family is all in the same room at once. Our neighbor will wander over with his daughter because my husband baked a pie and will stay for a slice. It’s the kind of neighborhood where everyone’s doors are open, and the kids grew up together. We’ve been intentional about building this community for years, and I think that’s what makes it rare.
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