Casey Neistat’s daily routine, as he told Tim Ferriss on The Tim Ferriss Show in October 2015, started with a 4:30 AM alarm and a finished edit, a vlog live at exactly 8 AM, then an 8-to-12-mile run or the gym. He worked in his office from about 9:30 AM, tried to leave by 6:30 PM and edited again until about 1 AM.

Key takeaways

  • In episode #116 of The Tim Ferriss Show (27 October 2015), Casey Neistat said his alarm went off at 4:30 AM seven days a week and he finished the previous night’s edit by 6:30 or 7 AM.
  • From 7 to 7:45 AM he uploaded, made the thumbnail and color-corrected; the daily vlog went live at exactly 8 AM, and right after it he ran 8 to 12 miles or went to the gym.
  • He was in his office about 9:30 AM, left around 6:30 PM to bathe his baby and spend an hour and a half with his wife, then edited until about 1 AM and slept three to four hours, often on the couch.
  • In a YouTube video posted 4 June 2026, titled “yeah, 730 days no exceptions,” he marked two years of running every day without a miss.
  • The lesson for your body clock: copy the fixed anchors (one alarm time, movement at the same hour, a hard stop for family), not the short nights; the CDC says adults need 7 or more hours of sleep.

What was Casey Neistat’s daily routine?

Casey Neistat’s best-documented day is the one he described at the height of his daily vlog: up at 4:30 AM, a video live at 8 AM, a long run, a full office day and a second edit late into the night. He gave the whole schedule to Tim Ferriss in a podcast episode published on 27 October 2015, seven months after he began posting a vlog every day in March 2015, on his 34th birthday (Tubefilter). He lived in New York City, across the street from his office, so his commute took minutes. The times below come from that interview; where he gave none, we mark the time as estimated.

Time on My BodyClock What is documented
4:30 AM Alarm and the morning edit
Alarm at 4:30 AM, seven days a week; finished the edit from the night before, usually done between 6:30 and 7 AM (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
7 AM Upload and thumbnail
From 7 to 7:45 AM: processing, uploading, designing and color-correcting the thumbnail (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
8 AM Vlog goes live
Posted at exactly 8 AM, seven days a week (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
8 AM to about 9:15 AM; end
estimated		 Workout
Right after 8 AM: a run of 8 to 12 miles, or the gym (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
9:15 AM
estimated		 The short commute
Lived across the street from his office, a pretty narrow commute (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
9:30 AM Office
In the office about 9:30 AM and worked there all day (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
12:30 PM
estimated		 Lunch
Said he was not a big breakfast eater and ate when he got hungry; no meal times given (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
1 PM
estimated		 Back to the office
Worked in the office all day (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
6:30 PM Home
Tried to get out by 6:30 PM and race home (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
6:45 PM
estimated		 Bath time
Gave the baby a bath (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
7:30 PM
estimated		 Time with his wife
An hour and a half with his wife; she went to bed at 9 PM (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
9 PM The night edit
Sat down to edit until about 1 AM (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)
1 AM Sleep
Slept, usually on the couch, until 4:30 AM, three to four hours (The Tim Ferriss Show, 2015)

He added that on weekends he sometimes spent less time in the office, but that the shape held every day. Tim Ferriss called it brutal; Neistat agreed it was tough.

How did Casey Neistat make a vlog every day?

He split the edit around his sleep: most of each vlog was cut late at night, then finished in the first two hours after a 4:30 AM alarm so it could go live at 8 AM. In the same interview he said the 7 to 7:45 AM slot went to the unglamorous last mile: processing, uploading, designing the thumbnail, color correction and writing the post. He admitted the deadline was hard to keep: the Sunday before the interview he skipped the dawn edit, the post did not go up until 1 PM, and his viewers protested on Twitter.

The daily vlog ran from March 2015 until he ended it in November 2016, after more than 500 episodes, as Jason Kottke noted on kottke.org on 22 November 2016. He said the vlog was no longer challenging him creatively, and on 28 November 2016 CNN announced it was acquiring Beme, the video app he had co-founded with Matt Hackett (Variety). The 4:30 AM day, in other words, belonged to a specific project with a fixed daily deadline.

That is a pattern worth noticing. The 8 AM release time never moved, so everything else in the morning was built backward from it. Our guide to Tim Ferriss’s Daily Routine shows the host’s own, very different morning.

Does Casey Neistat still run every day?

As of June 2026, yes. In a video on his YouTube channel posted on 4 June 2026, titled “yeah, 730 days no exceptions,” he marked two years, 730 consecutive days, without missing a run.

His explanation is about decisions, not fitness. In the video he argues that doing a hard thing every day is easier than doing it most days, because a daily rule removes the morning debate about whether to do it at all, and the answer is always yes.

The 2015 interview already put running in the same slot every morning: straight after the 8 AM upload. For more on picking that slot, read our guide to the best time to exercise.

What can you take from Casey Neistat’s day for your own body clock?

Take the anchors, not the hours. Three parts of his documented day line up with how the body clock works:

  1. One alarm time, seven days a week. A wake time that doesn’t move on weekends is the core of our guide on how to fix your sleep schedule. His was 4:30 AM every day.
  2. Movement at a fixed hour, outdoors when you can. His run came right after 8 AM. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, according to the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences, so a morning run outside does double duty.
  3. A hard stop for family. Leaving the office by 6:30 PM for bath time and an hour and a half with his wife gave the evening a fixed shape.

What not to copy: the three to four hours of sleep. The CDC says adults aged 18 to 60 need 7 or more hours a night. Neistat himself told Ferriss he had never been a fan of sleep and called the schedule tough. NIGMS also notes that light from electronic devices at night can confuse biological clocks, and his night edit kept him at a screen until about 1 AM. If you love the 4:30 AM start, the healthy version moves bedtime to about 9:30 PM rather than cutting the night short.

Your day on My BodyClock

The day above on My BodyClock is Casey Neistat’s documented 2015 vlogging day in New York City, block by block, with every estimated time marked. It opens with the 4:30 AM alarm and a Work block to finish the edit, then the upload and the 8 AM release. A Move block holds the run, a Flow block the short commute, and two long Work blocks the office day around an estimated lunch. At 6:30 PM the Love blocks begin: bath time, then an hour and a half with his wife. The night edit runs from 9 PM to about 1 AM, and Sleep fills the short three and a half hours until the alarm.

To build a version that keeps his anchors and adds a full night, find your Body Clock Type with the Owaves quiz, then plan a fixed wake time, a morning run and a hard family stop in Owaves: My BodyClock on the App Store. On Android? Join the Android waitlist. For another early riser who protects the morning, see Haruki Murakami’s Daily Routine.

As the time indicator sweeps the day, each block’s Photo Note takes the center — the same way the day plays out on My BodyClock in Owaves.

FAQ

What time does Casey Neistat wake up?

In his 2015 interview on The Tim Ferriss Show, during his daily vlog, Casey Neistat said his alarm went off at 4:30 AM seven days a week. He used the first hours to finish the previous night’s edit.

How much did Casey Neistat sleep?

He told Tim Ferriss he edited until about 1 AM and slept, usually on the couch, until 4:30 AM, three to four hours. The CDC says adults need 7 or more hours, so that part of his schedule is not a model.

How far does Casey Neistat run?

In 2015 he said his post-upload workout was usually a run of 8 to 12 miles, or the gym. In a June 2026 video he marked 730 straight days of running.

When did Casey Neistat post his vlog?

At exactly 8 AM, seven days a week, he told Tim Ferriss in 2015. He began the daily vlog in March 2015 and ended it in November 2016.

Sources

  1. Tim Ferriss. “How Renegade Filmmaker Casey Neistat Breaks Rules, Reinvents Himself, and Gets Thanked For It (#116)” (episode page). The Tim Ferriss Show, 27 October 2015. https://tim.blog/2015/10/27/casey-neistat/
  2. Tim Ferriss. “The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Casey Neistat (#116).” tim.blog, 2018. https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/116-casey-neistat.pdf
  3. Casey Neistat. “yeah, 730 days no exceptions.” YouTube (CaseyNeistat), 4 June 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBtnKCG3QAE
  4. Jason Kottke. “Casey Neistat ends his vlog.” kottke.org, 22 November 2016. https://kottke.org/16/11/casey-neistat-ends-his-vlog
  5. Todd Spangler. “CNN Acquires Social-Video Startup Beme, Co-Founded by YouTube Star Casey Neistat.” Variety, 28 November 2016. https://variety.com/2016/digital/news/cnn-casey-neistat-beme-acquisition-1201927533/
  6. Tubefilter. “20 years of YouTube: In 2015, Casey Neistat revolutionized the vlog without removing his shades.” Tubefilter, 9 July 2025. https://www.tubefilter.com/2025/07/09/20-years-of-youtube-2015-casey-neistat-first-vlog/
  7. National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH). “Circadian Rhythms.” https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/circadian-rhythms
  8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “About Sleep.” https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about/index.html

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