Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reveals his unusual morning routine

The Amazon CEO tackles the most mentally challenging decisions first every day. Photo / AP

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed fresh insight into his daily morning routine — including several clever hacks even everyday workers can swipe.

Speaking at a conference in Washington DC in the US earlier this year, Bezos shared a detailed account of his average day.

And it turns out his routine is designed to set himself up for success — and make sure he's making the best decisions to ensure he stays at the top of his game.

For starters, Bezos is focused on getting the right amount of sleep each night.

"I go to bed early, I get up early," he said, according to CNBC.

"I get eight hours of sleep, unless I'm travelling in different time zones.

"Sometimes it's impossible but I am very focused on it. For me, I need eight hours of sleep. I think better, I have more energy, my mood is better, all these things."

He went on to explain that a healthy sleep schedule has a direct impact on decision-making capabilities.

"Think about it, as a senior executive, what do you really get paid to do?" Bezos said at The Economic Club of Washington event.

"As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high quality decisions.

"Your job is not to make thousands of decisions every day. (The) quality of those decisions might be lower because you're tired or grouchy or any number of things."

Bezos also revealed he likes to spend his mornings "puttering around" and enjoying some relaxed family time with wife MacKenzie and their four children.

"I like to putter in the mornings," he said.

"I like to read the newspaper, I like to have coffee, I like to have breakfast with my kids before they go to school.

"My puttering time is very important to me."

And perhaps most surprisingly, Bezos admitted to starting his work day relatively late for a high-powered CEO.

He said he also tackled the most complicated and difficult decisions first thing every day.

"I set my first meeting for 10am," he said.

"I like to do my high IQ meetings before lunch — like anything that's going to be really mentally challenging, that's a 10am meeting.

"By 5pm, I'm like, 'I can't think about this today, let's try that again tomorrow at 10am.'"

The 54-year-old entrepreneur has an estimated net worth of $US162 billion ($A221 billion) according to Forbes, mostly thanks to his holdings in Amazon.

He's now the richest person alive, eclipsing Microsoft founder and serial rich-lister Bill Gates by tens of billions of dollars.

He's also the first person in modern history to amass a fortune of over $US100 billion.

He founded Amazon on July 5, 1994.

But despite his astronomical wealth, the Bezos family is notoriously low-key, with Jeff Bezos famously washing the dishes each night while wife MacKenzie drove their four kids to school in a Honda Accord every day until 2013.

It has even been reported that Bezos still has a desk at Amazon made out of a door with four-by-fours for legs as a reminder of his humble beginnings.