Here's the morning routine of a CEO who wakes up at 4:45 a.m.

Courtesy of Anthony Hsieh

Successful people tend to wake up early and start their days with a set routine that may include exercise, meditation, emails, and big glasses of water.

Anthony Hsieh, CEO and chairman of nonbank consumer mortgage lender loanDepot, starts his mornings by waking up well before dawn.

He writes on LinkedIn that he's often asked for his morning routine. He told his 11,000-plus followers that his day begins well before dawn:

"445am wake

"Read, emails, news, misc work. General quiet time to think about the day until 6am.

"6am-640am morning run.

"640am wake kids and out the door by 725am with school drop off. In office by 815am."

"Even when I travel, the first 1-2 hours of the day is still needed for me to warm up and set up my thoughts for the day. Maybe I'm like an old car that just takes time to properly warm up. I need a Tesla body and brain, just go."

Believe it or not, Hsieh's pre-5 a.m. wake-up isn't the earliest on the books. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, for instance, has said she starts her day at 4 a.m., and Apple CEO Tim Cook beats that by another 15 minutes, waking up at 3:45 a.m.