Rather than adhering to a tightly scripted daily schedule, Antonoff’s workdays are best described as “organic”—shaped less by the clock than by the flow of the month.
“I really think about my routine less in terms of what the morning to night is, and really what the rhythm is over the course of a month,” she told Fortune.
On a typical day, that means starting work around 8:30 a.m.—a leisurely pace by some CEO standards. From there, her schedule is dictated largely by her first meeting of the day.
“Every day for me is very different,” she said. “I have probably a lot of meetings, but I try to also get time to read and reflect and communicate with people on my team.”
Antonoff calls it a “1950s family structure in reverse.”
“Our children are now officially adults, but [my husband] did all the childcare and all the cooking and cleaning and all of that stuff, and I do the making of money and paying the taxes and that kind of stuff,” she added.
She encourages families—particularly working parents—to access what actually works for them, rather than defaulting to tradition.
“Giving yourself permission to depart from tradition can be incredibly freeing,” she said. “I feel incredibly lucky to have a career that supports our unusual arrangement, and an amazing husband who takes care of our family and me (and doesn’t make me do dishes).”
Not having an overly regimented work schedule doesn’t mean Antonoff isn’t putting in the time at work—if anything, it’s the opposite.
“I don’t have work-life [balance]—they’re not separate to me,” she said, adding that she describes herself not as an introvert or extrovert—but rather a “workavert,” meaning she is energized by the work grind.
Even when she’s off the clock, she finds ways to feed her curiosity about business, whether that means hearing about an interesting company or unpacking a problem raised by a family friend.
Antonoff isn’t alone. A number of high-profile business leaders have openly embraced work-centric lives.
“If you are leading an extraordinary life, to think that extraordinary effort wouldn’t be coupled to that somehow is crazy,” Grede told The Diary of a CEO podcast.
Instead, she takes an active approach in dividing out her days to ensure she can effectively juggle responsibilities at home and in the office.
