On Daily Routines, we profile successful leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, executives and athletes to explore their routines, schedules, habits and day in the life.
For all the incredible achievements Zoe Foster Blake has racked up over the course of her career, she’s remained refreshingly honest about how she sometimes struggles to balance everything. “I don’t,” she answered when asked how she got it all done. “I’m as flustered and forgetful as the next person.
The Australian author, skincare founder, entrepreneur and mother of two has been keeping busy and juggling multiple projects ever since the beginning. From her stints as deputy editor of Mania Magazine and Smash Hits Magazine to beauty director at Cosmopolitan Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar, Blake also managed to launch a beauty website that was later acquired by News Corp in 2015. She’s also written the relationship advice column for Cosmopolitan since 2009 and started her own beauty blog.
As an author, she’s published eleven books, including three non-fiction books (one co-authored with her husband Hamish Blake), four novels and four children’s picture books. In 2016, Network Ten aired an adaptation of her 2014 book, The Wrong Girl, which ran for two seasons. Oh, and to add to all that, Zoe and Hamish are both official ambassadors for Tourism Australia.
I need to see a therapist, because I want to know where it’s coming from. It’s a chronic over-busyness. If I have a void I have to fill it. I actually don’t think it’s healthy; I wish I could just stop sometimes.
Zoë Foster Blake on ‘chronic over-busyness’: ‘I wish I could just stop sometimes’ | The Guardian
Over the years, Zoe Foster Blake has done several interviews, talking about her work-life balance. In an interview with her own skincare brand, Go-To, she provided a snapshot of the most important things she needs for a healthy daily routine, listing Pilates, spin, walks, TM meditation, and getting at least seven hours of sleep per night.
On a typical day, Blake’s morning routine holds a special place in her heart, and plays a big role in how the rest of the day plays out. “I believe in setting the right energy in the house, with good food and the right music,” she said. “Even if someone’s grumpy, or rushing, these things help. And I always take the time to do my skin/face and hair. Even if I am in total slops and writing at my desk all day, the ritual and the self-care is important to me.”
During a 2021 interview, Blake provided an overview of her morning routine during the COVID-19 lockdown:
My morning routine hasn’t changed much at all [in lockdown]. (There is no lunchbox/getting the kids to school on time rush, which is nice.) Between 6.30-7 my kids will wake up and start yelling/playing/fighting/laughing. I have some warm lemon water, then brush my teeth and scrape my tongue. (The order of that counts, lemon after toothpaste is disgsuto.) Next I make the kids porridge (it’s a year-round breakfast for them. I offer many alternatives, but they insist) and put on one of my playlists, usually Mornings With Kids, or A Pleasant Morning. I have a banana-espresso-ice-almond milk thingy so I am not hangry, and usually head off for a walk, back and ready for a 9am start to the day.
Zoë Foster Blake’s Morning Beauty Routine | Go-To Skincare
When it comes to the Blake family diet, she likes to keep it simple, relying on staples like Greek yoghurt, fruit, avocado, smoothies, eggs, fish, chicken, vegetables and oats. They also enjoy using the Thermomix, a multi-purpose kitchen appliance, to cook quick and healthy dinners. A typical daily diet for Zoe Foster Blake looks something like this:
Porridge at around 7:30 with my baby, then toast with avo and a coffee around 10:30, some soup or a wrap or leftovers for lunch, a tub of Bon Appetit and crackers with peanut butter in the afternoon, nuts and crackers or veges with dip at around five, baked fish and sweet potato plus red wine for dinner, then some chocolate (obviously).
Zoë Foster Blake Yoplait Bon Appetit Interview | Female.com.au
But that’s not to say she doesn’t venture outside of healthy staples. In fact, Blake likes to use cheat meals as an incentive when writing her novels. “It’s pretty much what enables me to write my novels: the promise of pastries and coffee when I get to a check point,” she said in an interview with Female. “But everything in moderation. If I eat well and work hard and exercise most of the time, heck yes I am having fish and chips on Friday nights and croissants on Sundays.”
After the family’s had dinner and the kids are off to bed, then it’s down time for the Blakes. “Once the kids are down, my husband and I have dinner together, then we watch our shows, and try (“fail”) to stay off our phones,” she revealed. “I very rarely work at night, for one my brain is pathetic after about 6pm, and two, we are in a complete TV renaissance, and I got shit to watch.”
Photo credit: Zoe Foster Blake
Before you go…
Check out more daily routines from Barack Obama, Joe Rogan, Jeff Bezos, Michelle Obama, Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet and plenty others.
