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How Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe CEO and mom, starts her day

To find out how 23andMe founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki juggles it all, we asked how she begins her day.
/ Source: TODAY

To understand Anne Wojcicki, you need to see her in action. But good luck keeping up.

The 43-year-old founder and CEO of 23andMe is also the mother of two small children, a real estate investor and owner of Bumble, a kid-friendly cafe. She rebounded from her recent divorce to Google co-founder Sergey Brin into a relationship with former Yankees player Alex Rodriguez.

So Wojcicki knows a thing or two about work/life balance. "You can't do it all, and for me part of it is that acceptance that there's just choices you have to make. And I think it's also really good for my kids to see that, you know, the family is core. But what you do and your impact on society is really important."

This week TODAY is highlighting the stories of women on the cutting edge who are not only making a difference in their respective industries, but who are having a real impact on the world.

To find out how she juggles it all, TODAY asked Wojcicki how she begins her day as part of our ongoing Morning Routine series.

What time do you wake up?

I almost always wake up exactly at 7:30. It's something about the time, my kids wake up, we all sleep in bed together and wake up. I try to sleep in, but it's 7:30.

Snooze or no snooze?

No snooze; I have not set an alarm in years. Ever since Wall Street, I haven't had to set an alarm. 7:30 for some reason is that magical time.

What is your coffee routine?

I drink a lotta coffee. I love coffee. So I wake up, I'm a hardcore French press coffee — black coffee with cream. And that's it.

Anne Wojcicki's morning routine
Anne Wojcicki rides her bike to work every day, rain or shine, as part of her exercise routine.Stephanie Siegel / NBC News

Would you say that you are a morning person?

I'm unusual in the capacity that I'm a both morning person and a night person; I like to stay up late and I actually like to wake up early.

What is your typical breakfast?

I actually don't eat until I get to the office. So I get to the office — if I wake up at 7:30, I have coffee and then I probably don't really eat breakfast until 10:00, 10:30. And then, I have eggs with avocado.

What's your guilty pleasure breakfast?

I don't really have — ever since having kids, I haven't had any guilty pleasure breakfasts, 'cause I kind of just eat it all. So in some ways, maybe every day is just a guilty pleasure that I just am constantly indulging. But I exercise a lot, so that's been part of the routine.

I work out — probably three or four days a week in the morning. And then I always bike to work. Rain or shine, I always bike to work and I always bike home.

Anne Wojcicki
Anne Wojcicki takes a morning meeting - with plenty of coffee.Stephanie Siegel / TODAY

My ideal breakfast buddy would be...

My children. My children are a lot of fun to eat with.

Is there a particular song or a band that you listen to to kick-start your morning?

I'd say we're relatively incompetent with music, so I will listen to anything — I have friends who send me music and tell me, like, "This is what you should know about." So I tend to listen to that. But otherwise, Spotify is my best friend.

Any morning shortcuts that you swear by?

The morning shortcut I swear by is my kids sleep in their clothes for the next day. So that then they don't have to get dressed in the morning.

Do you have any mantras or rituals?

If I have any rituals, it's around my — I'm — I'm pretty religious about my type of coffee. I really love coffee with good cream. I kinda hate it when people give me milk.

What's your least favorite part of your morning routine?

Trying to get a tired child in the car.

What's one thing people would be surprised to learn about your morning routine?

I think people would be surprised to learn that my morning routine is just so normal. It's just like everyone else's morning. Like, you have children, they don't wanna wake up. You have to feed them, you have to get 'em out, they don't wanna go to school. And I have to go to work to read my email to see what's going on in the day. I think that's relatively normal.

And lastly, what's the one thing that you have to do every morning before it can really begin?

I feel like my morning begins whether I want it to or not. So I mean, I like my coffee, but I think that's the thing with having small children, is you wake up in the morning and the morning kinda starts whether you want it to or not. And so, by the time we've successfully got to school, I'm in full swing.