I'm the president of Signal. I love dance music in the mornings, night yoga, and acting like a tourist — here's a day in my life.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal, based in New York and Paris. It's been edited for length and clarity.

In July 2006, I accepted a job offer at Google that brought me into tech after an arts and humanities education. I climbed the ladder at Google to found Google's Open Research Group, working on issues related to measurement, privacy, and AI.

In 2016, I cofounded the AI Now Research Institute at NYU, the first university-based research institute to examine broader social and political economic considerations surrounding AI.

I next joined the Federal Trade Commission as Lina Kahn's chief AI advisor, where I stayed for under a year. After that, I joined Signal because I had met its founder, Moxie Marlinspike, 10 years ago on a smaller open-source project called WindSignal.

When Signal became its own foundation in 2018, I joined the board and became its president in September 2022.

Here's what a typical day looks like.

I wake up between 5:30 am and 6 am

First, I grab a protein drink and take a shower. I then make my coffee. I have an AeroPress with a hand grinder, and I make a very strong brewed coffee with cardamom.

While my coffee is steeping, I do little tasks around the house, like taking out the trash. I put on some dance music to get the energy moving in the house. I also practice yoga every day, with no exceptions; it's my non-negotiable.

I sit down wherever I'm working that day, which is always from home as we've always been a remote company, and go through emails and notifications. Signal messages are our main platform for communication, so I start pulling things into my to-do list to better understand what I'm facing that day.

One day doesn't necessarily look like another

I'm based between New York and Paris. Depending on my other engagements, I travel about half the time.

My morning routine is usually no more than an hour and a half. I don't really think of it as a sacrifice to keep my morning intact. I'm not "being disciplined," I'm practicing a consistent and helpful ritual that supports me over time.

I open the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and any new briefings from the AI Now Institute. Recently, I've been closely examining the brass tacks and implementation details of AI agents, as they're being rolled out and pose a significant privacy threat to Signal.

I'll also examine some of the broader security and privacy concerns surrounding AI systems in general, engaging with the work of people like Heidy Khlaaf, the research director at AI Now.

I've been writing a book about AI, with a focus on privacy, in bits and pieces in the mornings, too.

I meet with my EA daily whenever we can make it work

We also have a heartbeat meeting, which is a sync meeting for my office to check in on everyone's current projects, ensure that everything is moving forward, and that communication lines are clear.

We have weekly meetings with bigger updates, and we monitor the progress with different clients, addressing any bugs that arise.

Since Signal Gate, we've had numerous conversations with people who are reaching out to understand Signal's capabilities and how it differs from competitors like WhatsApp or iMessage.

I have a brunch smoothie around 11 am or noon

I have a particular smoothie recipe that's high in protein and low in the glycemic index.

I eat snacks throughout my workday, such as brown rice, a boiled egg, kimchi, or a baked yam with avocado and arugula — something fairly simple to keep the nutrition going.

I have a meeting block between 2 pm and 9 pm

Afternoons are the busiest time for talking and catching up. I join a weekly leadership meeting and schedule one-on-ones. I'll also talk to our chair and board.

Our email inboxes are vacant because we use Signal. We do use email for scheduling, and people can email us on different lists or reach out to us directly, but they're primarily where our administrative staff, my EA, and others manage scheduling with the outside world.

Given that we're dealing with very sensitive topics, we prefer Signal Desktop or Signal Mobile with video for calls across our entire organization.

I eat dinner between 8 pm and 10 pm

I love to cook, so between meetings, I'll do little bits of prep work. Whenever I'm done, I can have a very nice dinner ready to eat. After dinner, I'll clean up a bit and listen to some music, a podcast, or an audio service that reads academic papers to me.

I enjoy podcasts with smart people and listen to a lot of them — mainly in tech, geopolitics, science, and business. I've been listening to Amy Westervelt's podcast "Drilled," which examines the history and state of climate science and the oil industry's relationship with it.

I usually do night yoga, even though it's not always advised to do yoga after dinner. That's the only time I have available.

I also check my phone throughout the night, making sure to answer any incoming messages. I'm not a purist, but I do feel the weight of the responsibility to make sure my people get a reply and that I'm not missing something.

I typically go to bed around midnight

The moment that makes me feel most drained is any moment that involves attempting to do a quick admin task, such as logging into a new account, checking a dashboard, or downloading a conference app, or the like, that then turns into an hour of debugging some redirect loop or a broken two-factor process.

Suddenly, it's been an hour, and I'm on the phone with some Kafkaesque AI-bot customer support, and I haven't even started the "real" work that the admin task was supposed to let me commence.

Why, I ask myself at this point, does so much tech insist on being so shitty?

My weekends are fairly normal

Unless there's something truly urgent, I'm not pedal to the metal all weekend. It's more casual, and I'm less connected to the day-to-day heartbeat of business.

I love cooking, so I'll do some grocery shopping and go to the farmers' market. I slow shop to see what's available and how pretty the market is.

I read a lot on the weekend, and I have personal projects and personal scholarship that make me really happy when I can get some space to dig in.

I often do a yoga workshop on the weekend. I also love dancing and hanging out with friends. Sometimes, I go to the opera.

Paris is a glorious city, and so is New York City. Walking out the door, you feel like you unwrapped a special package. I sometimes act like a tourist and explore.

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