Daily meditation
10-20 minutes of formal practice, most days
Breath focus, a body scan, or a guided app session, usually 10 to 20 minutes, at a fixed point in the day. It is done for its cumulative effect rather than for how any single session feels. Reported benefits center on reactivity: a longer gap between something annoying happening and you responding to it. Consistency matters far more than duration.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Bill GatesDoes it
Microsoft co-founder · Gates Notes reading lists
Two or three sessions a week of about ten minutes, sitting in a comfortable chair, sometimes alongside Melinda. He once dismissed meditation as woo-woo and now describes it as exercise for the mind, nothing to do with faith, that helps his focus and gives him distance from his thoughts.
Source: Gates Notes: Why I'm into meditation - Chris HemsworthDoes it
Actor · Limitless and Centr
Never the meditating type by his own account, he came round through Centr and Limitless and now frames it as training: lifting builds muscle, meditation builds a stronger mind. He narrates the app's Learn to Meditate series.
Source: Centr: Train your mind with Chris Hemsworth's favorite meditations“The more I’ve tried it, the more I think of it as training: you lift weights to build muscle, you meditate to build a stronger mind.”
Centr: Train your mind with Chris Hemsworth's favorite meditations (opens in a new tab) · 18 Apr 2023 - Chris WilliamsonDoes it
Host · Modern Wisdom
Unguided meditation on Insight Timer is part of the morning routine.
Source: Ben Greenfield Life podcast transcript - Cristiano RonaldoDoes it
Footballer · Portugal captain and five-time Ballon d'Or winner
Told France Football in 2019 that he had tried 15 to 20 minutes of meditation, found it worked, and now meditates almost every day. It calms him and brings a lot of serenity, he says, and he describes being in his own bubble during it.
Source: The Independent: Cristiano Ronaldo reveals the key to his longevity and the importance of meditation“It calms and brings me a lot of serenity. I meditate almost every day, working especially on breathing. In those moments, I’m in my bubble.”
The Independent: Cristiano Ronaldo reveals the key to his longevity and the importance of meditation (opens in a new tab) · 29 Oct 2019 - David SparksDoes it
Apple productivity writer · MacSparky
Meditation gets its own block on the calendar, one of only two he lets run shorter than an hour. He schedules it next to starting up because these are the things he wants to be sure he makes time for.
Source: MacSparky: Hyper-Scheduling Without Making Yourself Crazy - Greg McKeownDoes it
Author · Essentialism
Says plainly that he meditates, without putting a frequency on it. Prayer and classic reading sit alongside it.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #355 transcript - Hugh JackmanDoes it
Actor · Wolverine and The Greatest Showman
Twice a day for decades, from age 23. A few years before the interview he dropped the sense of duty and now sits every morning without fail, adding a second session around lunchtime whenever he is on a film set or in a theater run. Restless legs make late-afternoon sitting uncomfortable, so the second one comes earlier.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript“Everyone takes a shower every day, and we don't complain about it. We do it out of discipline. There will always be an excuse not to meditate.”
O, The Oprah Magazine: Oprah Interviews Hugh Jackman (opens in a new tab) · 15 Jun 2006 - Jennifer AnistonDoes it
Actor · Friends and The Morning Show
About 20 minutes every morning. She calls it the one wellness ritual she cannot live without. It makes the day easier to digest, she says, and on days she skips it the static gets to her faster.
Source: WWD: Jennifer Aniston on How She Reinvented Her Workout Routine With Functional Fitness“Meditating, every morning for about 20 minutes, … It just allows your day to be more digestible.”
WWD: Jennifer Aniston on How She Reinvented Her Workout Routine With Functional Fitness (opens in a new tab) · 1 May 2024 - LeBron JamesDoes it
Basketball player · NBA all-time leading scorer
Deep breaths, eyes closed, centering himself and listening to his inner self: that is how he described the meditation that he said kept him sane inside the 2020 NBA bubble. Cameras have caught him doing the same thing on the bench late in games.
Source: Silver Screen and Roll: Why LeBron James meditates during games, explained - Lex FridmanDoes it
AI researcher · Lex Fridman Podcast
Mortality is what he says he meditates on every day, inside a fixed daily routine.
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast: Charan Ranganath transcript - Mark HymanDoes it
Physician · The Dr. Hyman Show · author of Young Forever
Meditates once or twice a day and adds breathwork, from simple deep breathing to longer practices. Time in wilderness and a weekly gathering with old friends are the rest of his stress plan.
Source: The Doctor's Farmacy: My Personal Longevity Routine - Matthew WalkerDoes it
Sleep scientist · author of Why We Sleep
Skeptical about meditation once, he now sits for ten minutes before bed every night, and points people whose problem is a racing mind at lights-out towards the same.
Source: The Matt Walker Podcast: sleep and CBD - Naval RavikantDoes it
Angel investor · AngelList and the Naval podcast
Sixty minutes, first thing, every day for at least sixty days, letting the mind do whatever it wants and forcing nothing. He says he had about two and a half years of it behind him at that point and had missed roughly a dozen days. It is the single most important thing he does, in his words, though he adds that he cannot explain what happens in there.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing Anxiety“And you sit for 60 minutes every day and you do it for at least 60 days. And you do it first thing in the morning. … And I’ve been doing this for about two and a half years now. And I’ve probably missed about a dozen days total.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing Anxiety (opens in a new tab) · 15 Oct 2020 - Novak DjokovicDoes it
Tennis player · Record 24 Grand Slam singles titles
Meditates daily, he told reporters in 2018, and what he loses through it is fear, anxiety and stress. He leaned on the practice through a long spell away from the tour.
Source: Gulf News: Djoko meditates to lose fear and stress“I lose fear. I lose anxiety. I lose stress. I guess, in the end of the day, that’s what you’re looking for.”
Gulf News: Djoko meditates to lose fear and stress (opens in a new tab) · 5 Nov 2018 - Rich RollDoes it
Ultra-endurance athlete · The Rich Roll Podcast
Twenty minutes of meditation, fixed into the morning routine with journaling and a gratitude list.
Source: The Rich Roll Podcast: morning routine AMA - Shane ParrishDoes it
Writer · Farnam Street and The Knowledge Project
Meditation sits in his evening, not his morning. It settles his mind after a busy day and helps him sleep, he says.
Source: My Morning Routine interview - Tim FerrissDoes it
Author · The Tim Ferriss Show
More than 80% of the high performers he has interviewed keep some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice, he reports, and he sits most mornings.
Source: tim.blog: Tools of Titans - Dave AspreyRecommends
Biohacker · Bulletproof Coffee
Calls regular meditation essential for high performance and notes that most of the people he interviewed for Game Changers credited it as a top hack. His own angle is feedback: HRV sensors, headbands like Muse, and the five-day neurofeedback intensive he sells as 40 Years of Zen.
Source: Dave Asprey blog: How To Meditate Better With Biohacking - Arnold SchwarzeneggerDiscusses
Bodybuilding champion, actor, former governor · Arnold's Pump Club
Film, bodybuilding, a documentary shoot and a property deal all landed at once when he took up Transcendental Meditation in the 1970s. 20 minutes, morning and night. That ran for about a year, until he decided he had what he needed from it. He does not meditate formally now, but says the habit of taking one challenge at a time stuck, and that lifting and chess do the same job for him today.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #60 transcript: Arnold Schwarzenegger“I did 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night and I would say within 14 days, 3 weeks, I got to the point where I could really disconnect my mind and stay and find a few seconds of this connection and rejuvenate the mind and learn how to focus more and to calm down. I saw the effect right away. I was much more calm about all of the challenges that were facing me. I continued doing that for a year.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #60 transcript: Arnold Schwarzenegger (opens in a new tab) - Dwayne JohnsonDiscusses
Actor and former WWE champion · The Rock
Variety reported in 2017 that he meditates during his quiet early hours, though he did not describe a practice. On Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour he named meditation, alongside hiking, biking and yoga, as one of the anchors he suggests people find for themselves; the gym is his.
Source: WW: Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour with Dwayne Johnson, full transcript - Steven BartlettDiscusses
Entrepreneur · The Diary of a CEO
Trying to meditate and struggling with it, on his own account, while the show covers attention and stress with guests.
Source: Tatler Asia: Steven Bartlett's big bet beyond 'The Diary of a CEO'
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under stress or focus.
- HabitFREE, no cost
Deliberate solitude
Regular time with your own thoughts and no other inputs
On record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 9 do it, 3 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Daily prayer
A fixed time for prayer each morning, before the phone and before the day starts
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 4 do it - HabitFREE, no cost
Personal mantra
A quote kept where you will see it before you perform, taped up or written on your gear
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 4 do it - HabitFREE, no cost
Quitting social media
Deleting the accounts rather than trying to use them less
On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 1 has discussed it - HabitFREE, no cost
Chess
Short games used as a mental reset between blocks of demanding work
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - Habit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Jigsaw puzzles
Thousand-piece puzzles as a screen-free way to switch the mind off
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Habit entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.