At 4:35 AM, while most of the world is still asleep, Jamie Dimon is already reading. The JPMorgan Chase CEO – who runs the world’s largest bank across more than 100 countries – has no interest in ice baths, supplements, performance trackers or any other fad.
Dimon, who runs the world’s largest bank across more than 100 countries, starts his day very early and with a newspaper in hand. Five of them, in fact. His mornings are built around one core conviction: that staying genuinely, broadly informed is the most important thing a leader of his scale can do before the rest of the world wakes up.
Up at 4:35 AM – and straight to the papers
According to an interview Dimon gave to the Wall Street Journal, he begins his day at precisely 4:35 AM – well before sunrise – for a reading marathon that can stretch for several hours. The sequence is deliberate and fixed.
“I wake up usually at 4:35 am. I read five papers you’ll be happy to hear in a very specific form,” he said. As per the Wall Street Journal interview, he starts with The New York Post and follows it with the Washington Post – “I flip through the Post because everyone else does it. I read the front page of The Washington Post – any story they find very interesting, and the business section – which is very narrow, and the editorials – some very smart people at the editorials there”
The New York Times follows, which he reads front section to end – “whether I like what they’re saying or not” – before moving to The Wall Street Journal, focusing on the front section and the Exchange section.
The Financial Times closes the rotation, and Dimon is specific about why it comes last. Speaking on the Coffee with The Greats podcast, he explained: “The reason I do FT last is because all the other ones are very much skewed to the US. And you know, we operate in 100 countries, so the FT gives you a better view, like The Economist.”
Why he refuses to read only what he wants to
Beyond the papers, Dimon also reads internal emails and political briefings including Axios and Politico. But it is his attitude toward how he reads – not just what he reads – that is worth noting.
In a conversation with the Coffee with The Greats podcast, Dimon flagged a specific risk he actively guards against. “You tend to push to only what you want to read,” he said of reading online – and so he deliberately makes himself read stories he would not naturally gravitate toward.
The goal, as he put it, is to go beyond his natural habitat. For a man overseeing decisions that affect millions of people across the globe, self-imposed information bubbles are a luxury he cannot afford.
Exercise – but not at the expense of the papers
At around 7 AM, Dimon typically carves out 45 minutes for exercise. According to his interview on the Coffee with The Greats podcast, his routine is flexible – “that could be aerobic, light weights, stretching, less running” – suggesting someone who exercises consistently but without the rigidity of a performance athlete. The reading always comes first.
No breakfast, just coffee
Food, it turns out, is not part of Dimon’s early morning at all. As per the Coffee with The Greats podcast, he does not usually eat before work. “I’m just not hungry in the morning,” he said.
A cup of coffee is all he takes before heading in. When hunger does arrive, it is gradual – perhaps a hard-boiled egg around 10 AM. “By 12, I’m starving. I eat at 12,” he said. No elaborate breakfast ritual, no protein shake, no carefully timed nutrition window. Just coffee, newspapers, and a clear head.
For the man running the world’s largest bank, the recipe for success turns out to be remarkably straightforward – and almost defiantly old-school.