Jessica Cruel, the editor in chief of Allure, says she is managing more than one job at a time.
In an interview, Cruel said her day includes meetings with founders and executives, time with her senior team, testing beauty products, teaching a class at NYU, working on a book called 'Single Happy Female,' managing three rental properties, and creating social media content. She lives in Newark, New Jersey, and takes the light rail to Newark Penn Station before the PATH into Manhattan.
Her morning starts early, but not in a polished, influencer-style way. Cruel said she often opens Instagram or the New York Times app first thing and sometimes sends early DMs to her team. She also said she wishes she scrolled less in the mornings and would rather meditate or journal.
Exercise is part of the routine, but not every day. Cruel said she goes to the gym about three times a week and trains at Rise Fitness, where she does barbell work such as squat, deadlift, and bench press days. On those mornings, she gets up by 5:30 a.m. to make a 6 a.m. class.
She keeps breakfast simple: one egg, egg whites, and some kind of carb, such as an English muffin or Dave's thin multigrain toast. She said eggs matter because if she skips them, she starts munching all day.
The commute is where the work really starts. Cruel said she often reads and marks up a printout of her book on the train, or checks email and plans the day. She is a big to-do list person and has recently been using Post-its to separate work tasks from side tasks.
The setup is basic, but it is also the kind of system founders recognize: reduce the noise, keep the list short, and move the work forward. Cruel said she likes the rule that a daily to-do list should have about five items, and she rewrites whatever is left for the next day.
For leaders, the lesson is not glamour. It is discipline. Cruel's day shows how much modern senior roles depend on personal systems, clear priorities, and a willingness to keep several revenue-adjacent or career-building projects moving at once.
Founders who get this right move faster. Whether you are running a magazine or a startup, the playbook is the same: protect your mornings, limit the list, and make sure your calendar serves the work instead of swallowing it.
