How you start your day sets the tone for everything that follows.

BY JASON ATEN, TECH COLUMNIST@JASONATEN

For INC.

Photo: Getty Images

Earlier this month, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, sat down and recorded a podcast with Dua Lipa, who asked him to describe his daily routine. None of it was particularly surprising, but one thing stood out as a habit every leader should consider adding to their morning routine.

“I spend my first hour doing email,” Cook said. “And I’m pretty religious about doing this. I read emails from from a lot of customers, and employees. And the customers are telling me things that they love about us, or things that they want changed about us. Employees are giving me ideas. But it’s a way to stay grounded in terms of what the community is feeling.”

Just to be clear, I’m not advocating that you spend an hour reading your email. I don’t necessarily think Cook is either. In fact, there is plenty of research that suggests that looking at your iPhone screen first thing in the morning isn’t always the healthiest way to start your day.

Then again, for most people, looking at their iPhone screen first thing in the morning means scrolling through the endless timeline of Facebook, Instagram, or X. I think we can all agree that’s not the most healthy input if you want to have a positive outlook on the day.

On the other hand, nothing in Cook’s quote even says anything about his iPhone. He says he spends an hour reading emails. Cook is well-known for using an iPad, or, maybe he reads them using a pre-release version of Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro headset.

It’s also important to note that Cook isn’t reading emails about manufacturing problems at a factory in China–there will be plenty of time later to deal with that sort of thing. Cook is very specific about the purpose of spending an hour looking at email–he’s reading emails from customers and employees–two of his most important stakeholders.

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