CNBC.COM
For some, being a morning person might mean waking up at 6 a.m., but for 84-year-old Martha Stewart, her day starts at 4 a.m. Why so early, you might ask? The media mogul, author, and chef wants to be up before her staff arrives at 7 a.m.
"For everybody who really wants to get a lot done in a day. I live on a farm. Everybody comes to work at seven, so you can't be in bed. You have to be up and you have to show them that you're as lively as they are at 7 a.m., so that's what I do," Stewart said on the podcast, Lipstick on the Rim, hosted by Molly Sims and her best friend Emese Gormley.
During the interview, Stewart detailed what her morning routine looks like, which includes reading the newspaper and playing brain teaser games.
"I read the entire New York Times. I do all the puzzles. I do Letterboxd. I do Titles. I do all of those silly games but it's good for your brain. It's just good," Stewart says.
After finishing up, Stewart adds that she will either go to the gym or do Pilates before returning home and having her daily green juice, which she makes from vegetables grown in her own garden.
This isn't the first time Stewart has spoken about her love of doing puzzles as part of her morning routine.
In a 2022 article for her namesake brand, Stewart said that in addition to staying active and having a balanced diet, she likes to challenge her brain every day.
"The first thing I do in the morning is a crossword puzzle to make sure I can still remember words," she said. "I'm very busy and I just want to keep that vitality going."
Stewart's morning routine aligns with research from Marc Milstein, PhD, a brain health expert and author of "The Age-Proof Brain."
In 2022, Milstein wrote for CNBC Make It that research has shown that the people longevity researchers call "SuperAgers" who are in their 80s and beyond, have set themselves apart from people with weak memory skills by continuing to learn something new every day.
"No matter what it is, learning new things keeps your brain young. So if you discovered something you didn't know before from reading this article, you're already helping your brain age at a slower pace," Milstein wrote.
One might assume that because Stewart gets up so early in the day, she might go to bed early, but on the Lipstick on the Rim podcast, Stewart said it depends because she still drives into New York for work a lot.
"It depends what I've done. I drive into New York almost every day. I mean, I travel a lot too. So I'm doing all this stuff," she says.
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