Gratitude journals, Surrender Sundays and family huddles: The breathtakingly cringe admissions by property developer Tim Gurner who branded Aussie workers ‘arrogant’ – and said he wanted to see unemployment soar to 50 per cent

Controversial property developer Tim Gurner has given an insight into his incredibly regimented daily routine, involving a 5am wake-up, gratitude journaling, breath work and 10 minutes with his children during a family huddle every morning.

The Rich Lister, who has an estimated fortune of $990 million, is no stranger to making headlines.

He sparked global uproar in 2017 when he claimed that Millenials should forgo smashed avocado on toast if they wanted to be able to buy a home.

Last year he stoked further controversy when he said the pandemic had made workers arrogant and lazy, adding that he wanted to see unemployment skyrocket to 50 per cent to create more productive workers.

Now Mr Gurner, 52, has revealed how he does ‘the same thing every day’ after rising between 5.15am and 5.30am – depending if he makes his 9pm bedtime.

‘Straight away, I go downstairs, and get my lemon water and Celtic salt. Then I grab my coffee,’ he told the Australian Financial Review. 

‘I do a gratitude journal every morning. It’s something I started about four years ago. 

‘[I include] the things I’m grateful for, which on the positive days is not that effective, but on the days you’re not feeling so great is actually a really, really important thing for me to do.’

Controversial property developer Tim Gurner has given an insight into his incredibly regimented daily routine, involving a 5am wake-up, gratitude journaling, breath work and ten minutes with his children (pictured with his wife Aimee)

The Rich Lister, who has an estimated fortune of $990 million, is no stranger to making headlines

He also tries to squeeze in 30 minutes of emails before his children rise but it is unclear how he fits that in with his gratitude journaling.

‘Straight after that, I’m straight up into the gym,’ he said.

‘I spend about 15 minutes doing stretching, mobility work. Then I do about 45 minutes of strength training. I do strength training on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. Then I do cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

‘And then I have what I call Surrender Sunday on a Sunday.’

Mr Gurner, who revealed he has not drunk alcohol for almost 18 months, said he was ‘very focused on recovery and anti-ageing’. 

‘I have got a PEMF bed, which is a pulse electric magnetic field bed, with a red light therapy that comes over the top of my body and a red light on my face,’ he said. 

‘I do that for about 20 minutes while I’m doing breathwork.’

After his morning gym session, he has a 10-minute ‘family huddle’ with his wife Aimee and their three children before he gets them ready for school.

Mr Gurner sparked global uproar in 2017 when he claimed that Millenials should forgo smashed avocado on toast if they wanted to be able to buy a home

Mr Gurner (pictured with his wife Aimee) measures everything he eats so it amounts to exactly 2,900 calories a day, including ‘The exact same numbers of fruits and vegetables’

His working day begins at 8am and he restricts himself to just 2,900 calories each day and eats the exact same fruits and vegetables.

‘I have lunch at 1 o’clock, 3.30pm is a bit of breath work and downtime,’ he added. 

‘It’s pretty regimented, and I’d say, quite boring for most people. I do the same thing every day.’

Mr Gurner ‘wants to live to 500’, according to one of the staff at his Melbourne-based anti-ageing wellness clinic, Saint Haven.

While you don’t need to be a billionaire to join the exclusive club, with fees costing $23,000 a year, you do need to be wealthy and to pass a five-stage interview process. 

Since his father died of cancer, Mr Gurner wants to live the best and longest life he can, to the point that it’s become ‘an obsession’, he told the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Good Weekend Magazine in September.

He gets a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) injection every morning and takes 40 tablets a day, including boron, taurine, creatine and peptides he says the Russian military invented in the 1980s to protect soldiers from radiation. 

At home there is circadian lighting which displays what would be the colour of the sun at different times of the day.

It’s orange first thing in the morning, then yellow for most of the day, and back to orange before sunset. 

From 7.30pm until he goes to bed, Mr Gurner wears goggles with red lenses to block blue light. About one-third of all visible light is considered blue light, with most of it coming from sunlight, but smartphones and LEDs also emit blue light.

Some studies have found that blue light can affect your sleep and potentially cause disease. 

The quest for eternal youth doesn’t take a break when he goes to bed, though. He sleeps with a Chilipad – which has also been recommended by Oprah Winfrey’s sleep doctor – to keep the bed at 18 degrees. 

Before going to sleep, he also tapes his mouth shut to ensure he only breathes through his nose. 

He told reporter Tim Elliott that ‘mouth-breathing is very bad … it’s changed the structure of our jaws’.

Mr Gurner’s desire to live a long and prosperous life goes back to setting up his first business more than two decades ago, and the traumatic event that followed almost immediately after. 

He started My Well Being, which offered yoga, massage, pilates and personal training, when he was just 21. 

But six weeks later, his father died from  multiple myeloma. 

He became terrified of dying and ever since has lived his life trying not to get sick and die. He said his goal became, ‘How do I live the best life possible with the least risk possible for as long as possible?’

Mr Gurner also has the phrase ‘flow of life’ tattooed in Morse code on his left arm. 

His aim for longer life isn’t just a personal obsession for him and other multi-millionaires looking for ways to spend some of their money, though.

He also firmly believes living longer would benefit the whole country.

‘If we can extend everyone’s age by 20 years, that would be the best thing for the economy,’ he said. 

‘Twenty years more taxes and spending, plus all the savings you’d make in the health system. All those gains you could redirect to poverty alleviation.’ 

In between making a name for himself with his views on the price of smashed avocado toast and his desire to live a long time, Mr Gurner accused Australian workers of becoming ‘arrogant’ after Covid.

‘We need to see pain in the economy,’ he told the Australian Financial Review’s Property Summit a year ago, adding that he wanted to see unemployment rise by 40 to 50 per cent.

‘We need to remind people they work for the employer, not the other way around.’

Mr Gurner took particular aim at tradies, claiming productivity had dipped since the pandemic.

‘People decided they didn’t really want to work so much through Covid and that has had a massive issue on productivity,’ he said.

‘Tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. They have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years and we need to see that change,’ he said.