Jeff Bezos’ shocking remark: ‘I’m not as productive as you might think I am’
Simply being the founder of one of the biggest companies in the world would necessarily put Amazon’s Jeff Bezos into the most productive category of them all. However, the man himself begs to differ. In fact, he says his habits are far from ideal, especially when it is morning. He said, “I’m not as productive as you might think I am.” In short, the day does not start in an ideal fashion. He is certainly no early bird out to get the worm in terms of industriousness, but having said that, he makes sure that waking time is extremely early every morning.
During a Lix Fridman podcast, Bezos said, “First of all, I get up in the morning and I putter. I have a coffee … and just slowly move around.” That is not all, he then prefers to pick up his smartphone and just scroll. He then picks up the newspapers, chats with his girlfriend and thereafter, heads to the gym.
Is that a good thing or a bad way to spend your morning? Well, it certainly seems to go with the philosophy that he follows in his professional life.
And this philosophy even goes to the extent of stopping him from blocking meetings for a certain time at the office. These happen and go on as per no fixed timeline and can easily stretch on and on. Everyone is encouraged to let their minds “wander” during the discussion. All the people in the meeting interact animatedly, discuss the topic threadbare and out of this churn a number of important points are derived that may well be actionable. This “wandering mind” philosophy is what Bezos swears by as it allows everyone to brainstorm and dissect new ideas. After all time constraints generally do tend to throttle creativity.
A number of studies have backed this kind of slow morning schedule indicating that it actually allows a person to get into the swing of things in a proper fashion. For instance, Geir Berthelsen, founder of the World Institute of Slowness said that slow morning routines … can actually result in increased energy, creativity and focus, reported the Wall Street Journal in 2019.
