A Day in the Life of Sheryl Sandberg, Who Uses an Old-School Notebook, Likes 'Bad TV' and Goes to Bed Before 10 Here's a look into the productive daily schedule of Facebook's COO.
By Aine Cain
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Since joining Facebook in 2008, COO Sheryl Sandberg has widely been credited with helping the company soar.
The former Googler also already written two books -- Lean In and Option B -- on her experiences balancing her high-powered job with her personal life, along with the insight she's gleaned along the way.
Here's a look into the productive daily schedule of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Paul Sakuma | AP ImagesShe gets to work at 7 a.m.
Sandberg is an early riser who plans her morning around dropping her two children off at school. She often arrives at work around 7 a.m., according to Fast Company.
Kevork Djansezian | Getty ImagesShe uses a spiral notebook.
While she may work at a tech company, Sandberg keeps track of her day with a "decidedly un-digital spiral-bound notebook," according to Fortune's Miguel Helft.
Alison Yin | AP ImagesShe writes out her to-do lists.
The notebook is where she keeps various to-do lists. "Once every item on a page is checked, she rips the page off and moves to the next," writes Helft.
Richard Drew | AP ImagesMost of her day is spent in meetings.
Most of Sandberg's day is filled up with meetings. When she joined Facebook, she brought along a new routine of "check-ins" to the company.
Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesShe asks people to share their 'emotional state' before meetings.
At the start of every leadership meeting, participants can go around the table and discuss their "emotional and professional state," according to Bloomberg.
Drew Angerer | Getty ImagesHer meetings are efficient.
In a Quora post, Sandberg credited Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with helping the entire company to conduct more efficient meetings: "We try to be clear about our goal when we sit down for a meeting -- are we in the room to make a decision or to have a discussion?"
Laura Cavanaugh | Getty ImagesShe's always watching how people are using social media.
As she said in a 2015 Quora post, even when she's surfing the web "rather than finishing up my work for the night," she's still taking note of how people use social media in general.
Allison Shelley | Getty ImagesWork has helped her get through hardships.
The Facebook COO revealed that her work has been a comfort since the sudden death of her husband Dave Goldberg in 2015: "Facebook is helping me get through what has been the hardest year of my life."
Kevork Djansezian | Getty ImagesShe leaves work at 5:30 p.m.
No matter how busy the Facebook COO is, she still makes certain to leave work by 5:30 p.m. sharp.
Kevork Djansezian | Getty ImagesShe's close with her children.
Before her husband's death, the family would eat dinner together every evening and "share the best and worst moments of our day," she wrote in the New York Times. It's a tradition that Sandberg continues today with her children.
Allison Joyce | Stringer | Getty ImagesShe loves to read.
After work, Sandberg finds the time to dive into some good books. The published author has been a voracious reader since childhood.
Mike Segar | ReutersShe has specific reading strategies.
"After I finish a book, I'll often look to see how many page corners are turned down as one gauge of how much I liked it," she told the New York Times.
Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesShe indulges in 'bad TV.'
She also unwinds by catching a few episodes of "bad TV."
Paul Morigi | Getty ImagesShe turns off her phone before bed.
Sandberg admits that she didn't get enough sleep earlier in her career, according to the blog Fatigue Science. Nowadays, she has adopted the habit of turning off her phone before bed.
Evan Agostini | AP ImagesShe believes sleep is important.
Today, Sandberg tends to turn in early. She even supported Arianna Huffington's sleep hygiene campaign, calling for business leaders to encourage their employees to get more shut-eye.
Charlie Rose | PBSShe goes to bed early.
In a 2015 Quora post, she wrote that she was speaking on the phone one evening with Zuckerberg, and told him she would be going to bed at 9:30 p.m. He became worried that she was feeling sick. "I explained that with two young children, 9:30 p.m. was often my normal bed time," Sandberg wrote.
