“The Current Me Would Be Disgusted With Myself at 20”: How Bill Gates Rests
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes that work stamina can be achieved through quality rest. Here are the techniques the billionaire uses to keep his mind sharp and fit
About sleep and weekends
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is known for his hard work. He started the company when he was 20 years old. The billionaire assures that in those years he devoted the maximum amount of time to his business. “I didn’t have a single day off from 20 to 30 years old,” the 66-year-old entrepreneur said more than once in various interviews. Not a single day. On working days, especially at the very beginning, when the company was just getting on its feet, he was in the office until the evening, took a short break, and then returned to work for a few more hours. “I really didn’t believe in the weekend. I didn’t believe in vacations," Gates said.
The entrepreneur said that he had worked in such a schedule for ten years, and then his attitude to rest changed. “When I turned 30, I couldn’t even imagine how I did it,” he admitted. “By that time, my behavior had become more natural, and I fell in love with the weekend.” Now Gates believes that the key to creativity and productivity lies in a good rest. “Now I have a lot of rest. I am 20 years old so disgusted with the current me,” he said.
In his youth, the billionaire also did not particularly care about sleep. “We were sure that if you work on a piece of code, then you need to finish the work, you don’t have to think about sleep,” Gates recalls the early days of working at Microsoft. The entrepreneur considered sleep to be synonymous with laziness. Over the years, he has revised his habits and now sleeps at least seven hours to feel good the next day. Gates is sure that people need from seven to eight hours of sleep per night. “Sleep greatly improves our evolutionary fitness — we just don’t realize how it does it,” says the billionaire. Gates also likes to take a “nap” break no later than 3:00 p.m. “It promotes creativity, improves the state of the cardiovascular system, and also helps to prolong life,” he said.
About different ways of meditation
The billionaire uses several methods to relax. For example, in the evening before going to bed, he always washes the dishes. For Gates, this is akin to meditation, which, by the way, he actively practices. He tries to meditate as often as possible. Usually two or three times a week for about ten minutes. The entrepreneur notes that meditation for him has nothing to do with religion or mysticism: “These are my few minutes when I learn to pay attention to the thoughts in my head and look at them from the side.”
Gates also came to meditate with age. “When I was in my twenties, I thought of meditation as something to do with reincarnation. I didn’t buy into it. But now I understand that meditation is just an exercise for the mind, like a sport for training muscles", explains the billionaire.
Gates has several favorite activities that allow him to gain strength and inspiration. For example, he loves tennis very much. “For as long as I can remember, I have always loved playing tennis. I’ve been playing it all my life", Gates admits. In 2017, the billionaire played in a charity match with Swiss tennis player Roger Federer. “I wouldn’t say that it was my easiest tennis match, but it was very cool,” the Microsoft founder recalled.
Gates is also good at bridge (a card-based intellectual team or pair game), he considers it a good workout for the mind. “My parents taught me to play bridge, but I started to really enjoy it after playing with Warren Buffett. It requires a combination of strategy and teamwork,” says the entrepreneur, adding that “this is the best exercise for the brain.”
Reading also helps the billionaire relax. He likes to read an hour before bed, even if it’s late. “It’s part of the process of falling asleep,” Gates said. He reads about 50 books every year. According to research company Pew Research, this is ten times more than the typical American reads. “On average, I try to read a book a week and always take a whole bag with me on vacation,” the billionaire points out.
“You won’t get old as long as you keep learning,” Gates says. In his opinion, each book teaches something new or helps to look at things differently. “Reading fuels a curiosity about the world, which I think has helped me move forward in my career and work,” Gates points out.
About the schedule of the day and nutrition
In the morning, Gates warms up on a treadmill and watches various training courses at the same time. He is interested, for example, in geology, meteorology, oceanography and history. In the morning schedule of a billionaire, there is also always time for reading the news. He usually prefers business publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. The main principle when choosing news, analytical articles or blog entries is the degree of usefulness for his work, health, fitness or personal development. For example, he is interested in health news because this is one of the areas that his charitable foundation focuses on.
In general, the entrepreneur breaks each day into five-minute intervals. By the way, in this he is similar to the founder of Tesla and SpaceX - Elon Musk does exactly the same. In order not to forget his thoughts and ideas, Gates regularly takes notes in a notebook.
At the same time, Gates, who has many habits aimed at maintaining mental and physical health and vigor, ignores the principles of proper nutrition. For example, he loves Diet Coke so much that he drinks three or four cans of it a day. “About 35 pounds (16 kg) of aluminum can be harvested from these cans per year,” Gates wrote in 2014.
He usually has chocolate flakes with milk for breakfast, but he can often skip breakfast altogether. And for lunch, the billionaire prefers sandwiches. As he admits, his favorite dish is the most ordinary cheeseburger.
Source: Forbes, Business Insider, CNBC, INC.com, The Seattle Times, Time, New York Times.