The Health Diaries

Why Strava’s CEO Tries Not to Work Evenings or Weekends

‘When I’m at work, I want to be fully focused on work. And when I’m home, I don’t let my work bleed over.’

There are many ways to live a healthy life. The Health Diaries is a weekly series about the habits that keep notable people living well.

The first thing James Quarles wants you to know is that he’s both a CEO and a family man. Quarles has been at San Francisco-based Strava, the social networking website for athletes, since May 2017. He leads 175 employees, who work in offices around the world to help turn Strava into a community-focused tool for bringing people together. According to recent data from Strava, the app adds 1 million new users every 30 days.

Quarles loves his work, but he’s also deeply committed to his other job: being a dad to three kids. His wife also works a busy job that involves a lot of travel, and Quarles says they’ve committed to sharing the parenting load 50–50, which means he’s become obsessed with life hacks and efficiency tricks for parents.

Quarles shares with Elemental his varied schedule, his love of avocados, and the reasons why he doesn’t work on evenings or weekends.