Naval Ravikant’s Daily Routine: Optimized for Life-Work Balance & Happiness

Naval Ravikant is a well-known figure in the Silicon Valley startup scene. He was an early investor in big companies like Uber and Twitter and has advised many new entrepreneurs, including those at Postmates. His successful career began with the consumer review site Epinions in 1999. More recently, he founded AngelList, a leading platform for startup funding and job recruitment. Let’s explore Naval Ravikant’s daily routine.

7:30 am: Wake Up Time

Naval Ravikant believes that waking up to an alarm clock is unnatural. He thinks it disrupts the final moments of sleep and peace. Instead, he advocates for waking up naturally by going to bed at a time that allows for waking up without an alarm. One simple method he suggests is to sleep near a window or skylight that lets in natural light, which serves as a gentle alarm clock. He emphasizes that humans have evolved to wake up with the sunrise, making this a pleasant and effective way to start the day.

7:40 am: Naval Ravikant’s Exercise Routine

Naval enjoys a light workout during the day that combines yoga, stretching, breathing, and dumbbells. He aims for 30 to 40 minutes but often manages only 20. Despite trying to avoid distractions, he sometimes takes breaks to check his email. Naval incorporates meditation into his workout by avoiding music and staying aware of his thoughts, making the exercise very meditative for him.

8:30 am: Work

After concluding his workout, Naval hops on the computer, using Slack and email to communicate with his team. He reviews between 100 and 200 emails each morning using keyboard commands to race through them quickly.

He avoids phone calls whenever possible, as he dislikes them. In the morning, he enjoys a decaf coffee or tea before getting work done. His combined workout and meditation routine paired with waking up naturally is key in helping him have a great start to the day.

Cultivating Happiness

Naval views happiness as a skill that can be cultivated every day. He employs a series of strategies to enhance his happiness, which have gradually become second nature. Here are his key methods:

• Awareness: Naval strives to be mindful in every moment. When he catches himself judging someone, he quickly reframes the thought to find a positive interpretation. This practice, once requiring conscious effort, now happens almost instantly.
• Sunlight: He makes a point to get more sunlight on his skin and to look up and smile regularly.
• Managing Desires: Whenever he desires something, he questions its importance, asking if it’s worth being unhappy over. He finds that most things aren’t.
• Avoiding Caffeine: Quitting caffeine has made him more stable and happier.
• Daily Exercise: He believes that physical well-being contributes to mental peace, so he works out every day.
• Reducing Judgment: Judging others creates a fleeting sense of superiority but leads to loneliness and negativity. Naval minimizes judgment to avoid these feelings.
• Positive Self-Image: By telling his friends he is a happy person, he reinforces this identity and feels compelled to live up to it.
• Smartphone Use: He reduces time spent on his phone, calendar, and alarm clock to reclaim time and happiness.
• Openness: Having fewer secrets enhances his happiness.
• Mood Reset: When in a funk, he uses meditation, music, and exercise to reset his mood and then commits to a new, positive path for the day.
• Hedonic Adaptation: He recognizes that man-made things (like cars and money) provide less lasting happiness than natural experiences (such as food, sex, and exercise).
• Screen Time: All screen activities are linked to less happiness, while non-screen activities are linked to more happiness.
• Daily Activities: He evaluates how much of his day is spent on things he is genuinely interested in versus things done out of obligation.
• News Consumption: Understanding that the news aims to induce anxiety and anger, he focuses on positive long-term trends in science, economics, education, and conflict resolution to stay optimistic.
• Positive-Sum Games: He avoids zero-sum games like politics and social status, which foster negativity, and instead engages in activities that create positive outcomes for everyone involved.
• Natural Serotonin Boosters: He increases serotonin through sunlight, exercise, positive thinking, and consuming tryptophan-rich foods instead of relying on drugs

To learn more about Naval’s wisdom shared over the years, make sure to read “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson.

Naval’s Daily Meditation Ritual

Quote: “In an age of mental gluttony, meditation is fasting for the mind. Before paying a therapist to listen to you, listen to yourself. Before clearing your inbox, clear your mind.”

• Prepare for meditation by sitting quietly in the morning, with eyes closed and back upright, in any comfortable position that will minimize movement
• Sixty minutes are easier than thirty, as it takes time for the mind to settle down. Sixty consecutive days are needed, just as it takes time for the body to go from unfit to fit.
• Realize that at this moment, you are the only person in the world and there is no one to instruct you, praise you, or judge you.
• Make no effort for or against anything. Whatever happens, happens. Surrender to yourself in the moment. Resist nothing and reject nothing, including the urge to resist and reject.
• Meditation is not going through thoughts but rather letting thoughts go through you. The thought “I am meditating” is also a thought.
• No focus, no mantra, no dharma, no chakras, no Buddhas, no gurus, no gratitude, no scripture, no temple, no music, no gadgets, no apps are required.
• The point of meditation is not to become “a meditator” – in reality, there’s no such thing. If it doesn’t bring lasting and effortless change, drop it, before it becomes another struggle and another chase.
• The ability to be content and at peace, by yourself, is freedom

Daily Diet

Naval Ravikant suggests following the paleo diet, which includes foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have had access to. This means eating grass-fed meat, nuts, and fresh fruit, while avoiding processed or refined foods, grains, legumes, and dairy

Naval Ravikant’s Work Philosophy

Naval Ravikant thinks people claiming to work 80 to 120-hour weeks are often just showing off. He believes it’s impossible to maintain high output and mental clarity for that long because the brain needs rest to function well. Instead, he suggests that the most effective way to work, especially in knowledge-based jobs, is to sprint hard when inspired and then take long breaks to rest and recharge.

Evening Reading

Naval Ravikant reads for one hour each night before bed. He is currently reading

• “The Lessons of History” by Will and Ariel Durant
• “Pre-Suasion” by Robert Cialdini.

His standard wardrobe includes eight black silk-cashmere hoodies from Armani. If you enjoyed reading Naval Ravikant’s daily routine, do sign up for our mailing list to have these routines sent directly to your inbox