Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington built her media empire off the back of 18-hour work days. At one point, collapsing from sheer exhaustion. But even now that she’s a multimillionaire, 75 years old, and running a wellness startup, she still insists there’s no such thing as balance—and there’s only one boundary she sticks to.
“I don’t like the word balance, because there is no balance,” Huffington tells Fortune. “There are days when work dominates everything, days when you may have a sick child or something happening at home that becomes a priority for me.”
While most people her age are retired, kicking up their feet on the beach and enjoying the fruits of their labour, Huffington is still grinding. After selling Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million in 2011, she’s now on her second act: running her next venture, her wellness startup Thrive Global. And it means long days, no real clock off time, and a never-ending to-do list.
“For you, or me, or most people with interesting jobs, there is never a time when you have a natural ending to the day,” she says—and she’s made peace with that. Work bleeds into evenings. Things get left for the morning. But there is one moment that signals the end of her day, every day, without fail.
“I have a very clear boundary, which is not always the same time but I consider this the end of my working day—and I mark that by taking my phone and charging it outside my bedroom,” Huffington says.
“And that’s really important, because our phone is the repository of every problem and every project and every source of stress. So, if I’m going to prepare myself for sleep, I need to separate myself from it.”
The morning routine Arianna Huffington swears by—and takes less than a minute
At Thrive Global, putting your phone to bed is what she calls one of many “micro steps”—small, repeatable rituals that don’t require a life overhaul but compound over time.
The company has even designed little charging stations shaped like phone beds, complete with a blanket, to make the habit stick. And she says the visual reminder is particularly important for children and teenagers watching and learning what success looks like from their parents. “Teach them phone hygiene,” Huffington says. “The phone doesn’t sleep with you.”
It’s a message resonating among other leaders, too. She recently bumped shoulders with an exec at Ralph Lauren—a brand Thrive has worked with for five years—who told her the daily practice has made the biggest difference. Huffington didn’t name the person in question, but Roseann Lynch is the company’s chief people officer. (Fortune reached out to Ralph Lauren for comment.)
“I was doing this event with the CHRO at Ralph Lauren, and she said that this is her most important micro step now,” Huffington adds.
And of course, keeping your phone in another room overnight solves a second problem: the morning scroll. Most people reach for their phone before they’ve said a word to another human, inhaled a coffee, or had a single thought of their own—straight into emails, news, or a dopamine spiral on social media. Huffington says even reclaiming just a minute before you pick it up makes a difference.
“Another important micro step is when you wake up, take 60 seconds before you go to your phone, take some conscious breaths, remember what your intentions are for the day, what you’re grateful for,” Huffington adds. “Just 60 seconds to prepare yourself for your day before you go to your phone.”
