7 Things Martha Stewart Does That Proves She’s More Disciplined Than All of Us

There are two types of people in this world: people who hit snooze seven times and people who wake up at 4:30 a.m. to apply a gold face mask…and then go back to bed. Guess which one Martha Stewart is?

On The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, hosts Lauryn and Michael Bosstick sit down with the 84-year-old lifestyle icon, and what unfolds is less “celebrity interview” and more accidental masterclass in how to run your life like a Fortune 500 company with impeccable taste.

Whether you’re in your “get it together” era or your “I need a system immediately” era, here are seven Martha-coded upgrades your routine has been begging for.

1. Multi-task your skincare (yes, even in bed)

Stewart’s mornings start before the sun…and they start with a full face of gold.

“I will go into my bathroom and I will put a mask on my face,” she says. “My favorite right now…is a clay gold mask. I love that gold mask. I slather that all over my face and on my chest.”

Then, instead of waiting around for it to dry, she climbs right back into bed, “usually with a towel on my pillow and a towel over my chest, and I read the paper. That’s when I get all the reading done.”

Her alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m., she showers, washes the mask off, applies her serum, and is at the gym by 6:30 a.m. A full skincare cycle and a little mental stimulation before most of us have even located our phone in the sheets. Take notes.

2. Look alive before you step outside

“I mix serum with my sunblock, which is elastin. It’s like an elastin sunblock but it’s tinted,” Stewart says, describing a step she does before heading out the door. “I mean, why go out looking like a slob, you know, or dirty?” She continues, “I now have a reputation that has to be upheld. I can’t be a slob.”

Some mornings you leave the house looking like you fought the pillow and lost. Other mornings you take two extra minutes, look alive, and suddenly you’re walking into leg day like a functioning member of society instead of a ghost with a water bottle.

3. Give your week a rhythm instead of random motivation

Stewart’s fitness routine would humble most 30-year-olds. “Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are usually weightlifting with Sean,” she says. “He’s this very, very nice man with grown children and he has a very clean, pristine gym in my town and I go there at 6:30 in the morning. You have to be there on time.” 

The workouts? “We do weights. We do some TRX stuff, you know, with one of those straps, squats and stuff. Balance boards.” On alternating days: “I go to Pilates Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. There’s a little studio in my town called the Bedford Pilates Studio and a private teacher, Janice, and we do everything.” 

4. Learn one life skill that makes you feel wildly capable

When asked how she keeps her nails cute while running a full farm, Stewart doesn’t hesitate. “I don’t. My manicure, look, it’s chipped. All chipped. I snowplow my roads.”

Not metaphorically. Literally. 

She drives a “little Polaris off-road vehicle” with a plow on the front that “goes up and down and this way and that way. It pivots.” Michael admits that seeing it in person shifted something in his brain. “When I go visit her…she’s literally everywhere plowing and I’m sitting here like, should I be knowing that skillset? I feel like I should have that skillset.”

Some of us can barely assemble IKEA without emotional support. Stewart is out here casually clearing her own roads like this is information we were all supposed to learn somewhere along the way. 

5. Stop calling it boredom—it’s a lack of imagination

“Boredom is not in my book,” Stewart says. “It’s definitely a discipline. And I get very upset if I ever hear anybody say they’re bored because boredom is useless and there’s no reason to be bored. There’s always something to do. Always.”

Not “sometimes.” Not “if you try.” Always. And if you genuinely can’t think of anything? “It could even just be to go to sleep if you’re bored, but there’s always something good to do or something to learn or something to see.”

Which is kind of crazy when you think about how much time we spend refreshing the same three apps and calling it “nothing to do.” She’s not saying you need to start a business or learn Italian by Tuesday. She’s just saying boredom is usually a lack of imagination, not a lack of options.

6. Systematize the mayhem before it systematizes you

Stewart’s version of a Sunday reset isn’t lighting a candle and opening a planner. It’s walking the property and mentally cataloging everything that needs attention. “During the weekend I’ve been taking verbal notes. I dictate all the notes of what has to be done on the property,” she says.

Then Sunday night, it all gets typed up and distributed to the housekeepers, drivers, and groundskeepers. She calls it the “week of to-do” memo, explaining that she’s the only one who’s going to notice things like when the Kulpa trees need pruning. “Who else is going to notice that?”

Most of us don’t have staff, but the idea translates instantly. The running list in your notes app. The random reminders you leave yourself at 11:47 p.m. The tiny things you notice before they spiral into chaos. Life runs smoother when someone is paying attention, and more often than not, that someone is you.

7. Keep a bucket list that’s a little delulu (in the best way)

When asked what’s still unchecked on her mile-long bucket list, Stewart’s answer wasn’t a beach vacation. “I want to go fly eagles in Mongolia,” she says, citing the documentary Eagle Huntress as her inspiration. 

The film follows “a beautiful young girl, she’s probably 14 years old in Mongolia, who is given an eagle by her father who is a very fine bird hunter, and she raises it and trains it,” Stewart explains. “And I want to be that girl.” 

This tracks, considering she’s already a bird whisperer on her own farm. She shared that she once found a red-tailed hawk tangled in vines, got off her horse, and carefully cut it free. “I took it out into the field and set it down and it just looked up at me and flew away,” she says. “And he follows me. That same bird follows me when I’m on my horseback.” 

The best thing about a bucket list is that it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you. Fill it with the bold, the random, the slightly unhinged. You get one shot—you can play it safe, or you can go live your best eagle life.

For more of Stewart’s life upgrades, catch the full conversation on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

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