Doaa Aref, CEO and co-founder of Chefaa: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Doaa Aref (LinkedIn), CEO and co-founder of pharma delivery platform Chefaa. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I’m 37 years old and I consider myself a businesswoman, not an entrepreneur. The wordentrepreneurship implies that what I do has an element of innovation — doing something that’s never been done before. What I did was take a service that already existed in some form offline and took it online.

I was Chefaa’s patient zero. In 2017, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to gothrough surgery to remove the cancer and do chemotherapy sessions after that. This completely changed my lifestyle — how I ate, the medication I took, and much more. I also got to talk to many other cancer patients and learned about all the challenges they faced — finding the drugs they need, sticking to this new lifestyle that comes with the illness, and managing their condition. Then, I started visualizing the solutions to these challenges — a unified application to help out cancer patients and others.

Tens of mns of Egyptians are struggling with chronic diseasesand those who aren’t areprobably living with someone who is. Such patients do not have the luxury to dispense medication or make major changes to their routines to accommodate their illness. This is where Chefaa comes in — a patient-centric pharma service for those living with chronic diseases and conditions. Through our application, patients have access to pharma products that may not be available in their immediate vicinity and they can receive advice from licensed pharmacists. The application also has a reminder service that helps patients stay on top of their medication schedules.

I’m a morning person, but I’m not part of the 5am club. I wake up at 8am and start my daywith a simple routine of personal care and prayer, and after that I get to my emails. First, I read through all the lengthy emails, like newsletters — including Enterprise — and then I identify all the tasks I can delegate and I delegate them. That way, when I start working at 10am, I have a clear to-do list with three major items that I have to complete by the end of the day. I might end up doing more, but if those are done, I’ll be satisfied.

When it comes to my responsibilities, I break them down into three main pillars: First ofall, there’s the day-to-day stuff — the work emails and the meetings. For a startup, that very often entails putting out fires, because the scene is rarely stable. Second, comes all things investment, be it keeping current investors up-to-date on our activities or maintaining open channels with potential investors. Finally, I have to always keep up with all things pharma. I need to always be in the loop and know all the new trends and current market needs.

My work is my life, but I still manage a work-life balance. I’m very serious about not workingovertime. I know from experience that if I work more than nine hours a day, I will not be as productive the next day. By working in bursts of 50 minutes, followed by 10-minute breaks and using Notion as my second brain, I stay organized throughout the day and get my tasks done on time. That being said, when I’m not working, I often switch off by doing activities that don't relate to the core responsibilities of my job, but help me grow professionally. I also love spending time with my dog and two cats after I wrap up work.

I live by the 10-3-2-1 rule, which means that 10 hours before I go to bed I don’t consume anycaffeine, three hours before I don’t eat anything, two hours before I don’t expose myself to any digital screens, and one hour before bed, I don’t allow for any distractions. That way, I always fall into deep sleep right away and wake up the next day fully charged, ready to take on the next battle.

I always advocate for reading as much as you can. The two constants that never leave mydaily schedule are praying and reading — the keys to growing spiritually and intellectually. The books I mainly gravitate towards are those that teach me about business.

YouTube is my social media platform of choice and I always dedicate a chunk of my time to watching videos that provide me with tips and tricks on how to be more productive and how to work smarter, not harder. I think of myself as a lazy person and I firmly believe that it’s the lazy people who figure out the quickest way to get things done.

I love learning about business from television. I just finished Netflix’s Inside Bill’s Brain:Decoding Bill Gates, and I’ve watched the show Silicon Valley several times. Sometimes I feel like the region is a bit delayed when it comes to business trends, so watching this show felt like I was peeking into the future. And even though this one’s a comedy, I feel like The Office gives interesting insight into office dynamics in a way I really enjoy. I also recommend Marcus Lemonis’ The Profit, which taught me how to accept advice from a mentor.

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