Sara Blakely’s daily routine, in her own words to The Cut in 2018, starts, when her schedule allows, with yoga at home at 6:30 AM, a thick berry-and-greens smoothie and green tea, then the school run. She lives about five minutes from Spanx in Atlanta but sometimes drives up to an hour first to think, and ends every night with a short, warm bath.
Key takeaways
- Sara Blakely told The Cut in June 2018 that she tries to do yoga at her house at 6:30 AM, then gets her four children ready and takes them to school.
- She lives about five minutes from the Spanx offices in Atlanta but sometimes drives for up to an hour before going in, because the car is where her mind wanders.
- She sorts her week into themes: Monday is a think day with a cleared calendar, Wednesday is meeting day and Thursday goes to the product and creative teams (The Cut, 2018).
- She has never had a cup of coffee; her morning fix is green tea with local honey and homemade cashew milk, next to the same smoothie every day.
- A 2019 meta-analysis in Sleep Medicine Reviews (17 studies) linked a warm bath or shower of 40–42.5 °C, 1–2 hours before bed, with falling asleep faster. Blakely bathes every night.
What is Sara Blakely’s daily routine?
Sara Blakely’s routine, as she has described it, is a school-day rhythm: yoga, a smoothie, the school run, a long thinking drive, a full day at Spanx, home between 4 and 6 PM, family evening and a nightly bath. The only clock times she has given are the 6:30 AM yoga and the 4 to 6 PM window for leaving work; every other time below is marked as our estimate.
| Time on My BodyClock | What is documented |
|---|---|
| 6 AM estimated |
Waking No wake time given; four children under 8 meant no typical morning (The Cut, 2018) |
| 6:30 AM; length estimated |
Yoga Yoga at her house at 6:30 AM, depending on the work schedule (The Cut, 2018) |
| 7:15 AM estimated |
Breakfast The same smoothie every morning, green tea with local honey, no coffee (The Cut, 2018) |
| 7:45 AM estimated |
School run Gets the kids ready and takes them to school; writes Instagram posts in the carpool line (The Cut, 2018) |
| 8:30 AM estimated |
The thinking drive Lives about five minutes away but drives for up to an hour before going in (The Cut, 2018; The Balance Project, 2015) |
| 9:30 AM to 4 PM estimated |
Office Goes into the office every day; most time in the fitting room with the design team (The Cut, 2018) |
| 12:30 PM estimated |
Lunch Not documented |
| 4 PM, within her stated window | Leaving work Leaves between 4 PM and 6 PM and often picks her children up (The Cut, 2018) |
| 6:30 PM estimated |
Family evening Family dinner at home as often as possible (Jesse Itzler, Business Insider, 2025) |
| 9:30 PM estimated |
Bath A warm bath every night for five or ten minutes, with a candle and lavender Epsom salts (The Cut, 2018) |
| 10 PM estimated |
Wind-down A bath, then a whole wind-down routine before bed, her husband says (Business Insider, 2025) |
| 10:45 PM to 6 AM estimated |
Sleep About 7 hours a night, not always in one stretch (The Balance Project, 2015) |
The day above is the routine she described in 2018, when her children were young and she ran Spanx day to day. By 2025 her husband, Jesse Itzler, told Business Insider that he was the one doing breakfast and the school run during the school year, so the mornings have shifted since.
Why does Sara Blakely take a “fake commute”?
Because the car is where her best ideas come. Blakely told The Cut in 2018:
My best thinking time is in the car.
She explained the arithmetic in the same interview:
I live about five minutes from Spanx but I will drive around sometimes for up to an hour before I go into the office.
She has called it the time of day she has identified for her mind to wander, and said the name Spanx itself came to her in her car. In an earlier Balance Project interview with Susie Orman Schnall in 2015, asked for her biggest vices, she named this one first: creating fake commutes so she can stay in the car longer to think. She jots ideas down and has kept shelves of notebooks since starting Spanx, she told The Cut.
The lesson isn’t the car. It is a protected, unstructured block, with nothing to read or answer, at a time when your mind wanders well. For many people that is a walk outside in the morning, which adds daylight: light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, according to the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
What does Sara Blakely eat and drink in the morning?
A smoothie and green tea, and never coffee. Blakely told The Cut that she eats the same breakfast every morning: a thick smoothie of frozen wild blueberries, a few dark cherries, kale, dates, cinnamon, spinach, cilantro, fresh mint, lemon, chia and walnuts that she eats like ice cream. She drinks green tea with honey from a local beekeeper in Georgia and homemade cashew milk, and said she has never had a cup of coffee in her life.
Green tea still has some caffeine, and she describes it as her morning drink; keeping caffeine to the morning leaves the hours before bed clear. Our caffeine cutoff guide explains how to time the last cup.
How does Sara Blakely plan her week?
She gives each weekday a theme. In 2018 she told The Cut that Monday is her think day, with the calendar cleared unless something urgent comes up; Wednesday is meeting day with her direct reports; Thursday goes to the product and creative teams; and Tuesday and Friday flex as things come up. Her reason:
I found that it helps the quality of my thinking so much to bucket my day.
On a normal day, she said, most of her time went to the fitting room with the design team, trying products on, plus time with brand, creative and sales. In 2015 she told the Balance Project the same: she buckets her time by theme so she doesn’t feel scattered. For another chief executive’s calendar, see Indra Nooyi’s Daily Routine.
How does Sara Blakely end her day?
With her children, then a short, hot bath. For about a year before the 2018 interview, she said she had been leaving the office between 4 PM and 6 PM and often picking her children up from school.
The bath is the fixed point of the night. She told The Cut:
I take a bath every single night. I’ve done it my entire life.
She usually lights a candle, sits in the water for five or ten minutes until she is very warm, and adds drugstore lavender Epsom salts; she said it calms her body and keeps her warm in bed. In his 2025 Business Insider routine, Jesse Itzler called himself the opposite of his wife, who takes a bath and then goes through a whole wind-down routine before bed.
Research gives the habit some support. A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis by Haghayegh and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin (17 studies, 13 pooled) linked a warm shower or bath of 40–42.5 °C with better self-rated sleep, and, when taken 1–2 hours before bed for as little as 10 minutes, with falling asleep sooner. The authors’ explanation: warm skin helps the body shed heat, and a falling core temperature is part of the lead-in to sleep. Her bath time on My BodyClock, about an hour before sleep, is our estimate.
How much does Sara Blakely sleep?
About seven hours, by her own estimate. Asked in the 2015 Balance Project interview how many hours she sleeps on weeknights, she said not much at a stretch, but about seven in total. With yoga at 6:30 AM, that points to a bedtime around 10:45 PM on My BodyClock, an estimate. A regular wake time is the anchor of our guide on how to fix your sleep schedule.
What can you take from Sara Blakely’s day for your own body clock?
Three parts of her day are about timing:
- Move early. Yoga at 6:30 AM gives the day a regular starting point. Done near a window or outside, it also brings early light.
- Book thinking time. Her drive is a daily block with no inbox. Put a 30–60 minute walk or quiet session in the morning, when it can’t be crowded out.
- Warm up, then cool down. A warm bath or shower 1–2 hours before bed is linked with falling asleep sooner. Pair it with an earlier dinner; our guide to the best time to eat dinner explains why.
Your day on My BodyClock
The day above on My BodyClock is a school day for Sara Blakely in Atlanta in the late 2010s, with every estimated time marked. It opens with yoga at 6:30 AM and her smoothie, then the school run and about an hour of driving to think before she reaches the office. The workday runs to 4 PM, the start of the window she gave for leaving, followed by school pickup, family time and a family dinner. The evening brings a candlelit bath at about 9:30 PM, a wind-down and sleep from about 10:45 PM to 6 AM. The wake-up, the drive and the afternoon pickup are Flow, so all 24 hours are planned.
To build a day like it, find your Body Clock Type with the Owaves quiz, then add your own movement, thinking and wind-down blocks in Owaves: My BodyClock on the App Store. On Android? Join the Android waitlist.
FAQ
What time does Sara Blakely wake up?
She hasn’t given a wake time. She told The Cut in 2018 that she tries to do yoga at her house at 6:30 AM, so on My BodyClock we estimate she is up at about 6 AM. With four young children, she said, there is no typical morning.
What is Sara Blakely’s fake commute?
She lives about five minutes from the Spanx offices in Atlanta but sometimes drives for up to an hour before going in, because the car is where her mind wanders and her best ideas come. She told The Cut that the name Spanx came to her in the car.
Does Sara Blakely drink coffee?
No. She told The Cut she has never had a cup of coffee. Her morning drink is green tea with local honey and homemade cashew milk, alongside a thick fruit and greens smoothie.
What is Sara Blakely’s night routine?
She takes a bath every night, usually five or ten minutes with a lit candle and lavender Epsom salts, which she says calms her and keeps her warm in bed. Her husband, Jesse Itzler, has described a full wind-down routine after it.
Sources
- Kristen Bateman. “How I Get It Done: Sara Blakely of Spanx.” The Cut (New York Magazine), 26 June 2018. https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/how-i-get-it-done-sara-blakely-of-spanx.html
- Susie Orman Schnall. “The Balance Project, No. 112: Sara Blakely, Founder of SPANX.” Interview series, susieschnall.com, 9 October 2015. https://susieschnall.com/the-balance-project-no-112-sara-blakely-founder-of-spanx/
- Agnes Applegate. “I own many businesses and have 4 kids. I don’t drink coffee, eat only fruit before noon, and end the day with chocolate.” (as told by Jesse Itzler). Business Insider, via Yahoo, 26 August 2025. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/ive-sold-business-warren-buffett-090701179.html
- David Greene and Guy Raz. “New NPR Podcast ‘How I Built This’ Begins With Spanx” (transcript). NPR, Morning Edition, 15 September 2016. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/494043657
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH). “Circadian Rhythms.” https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/circadian-rhythms
- Haghayegh S, Khoshnevis S, Smolensky MH, Diller KR, Castriotta RJ. “Before-bedtime passive body heating by warm shower or bath to improve sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis.” Sleep Medicine Reviews 46:124–135, August 2019. DOI 10.1016/j.smrv.2019.04.008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2019.04.008
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