As CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has a packed schedule. But
you'll hardly ever catch the e-commerce mogul burning the midnight oil.
Bezos makes it a point to get a good night's sleep.
"Eight hours of sleep makes a big difference for
me, and I try hard to make that a priority," he tells Thrive Global.
"For me, that's the needed amount to feel energized and excited."
Adequate rest not only leaves Bezos invigorated for the
day to come but allows him to continuously make sharp, thoughtful choices
without suffering from decision fatigue. That's what can happen when choices
become harder as a day goes on and you deplete your finite store of energy.
"Mostly, as any of us go through our lives, we
don't need to maximize the number of decisions we make per day," Bezos
explains. "Making a small number of key decisions well is more important
than making a large number of decisions. If you shortchange your sleep, you
might get a couple of extra 'productive' hours, but that productivity might be
an illusion."
Your work can suffer when you're tired. "When
you're talking about decisions and interactions, quality is usually more
important than quantity," he says.
found a link between adequate sleep and effective leadership,
pointing out that all four of the most common leadership behaviors associated
with high-performing teams were hindered by a lack of sleep.
As CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has a packed schedule. But
you'll hardly ever catch the e-commerce mogul burning the midnight oil.
Bezos makes it a point to get a good night's sleep.
"Eight hours of sleep makes a big difference for
me, and I try hard to make that a priority," he tells Thrive Global.
"For me, that's the needed amount to feel energized and excited."
Adequate rest not only leaves Bezos invigorated for the
day to come but allows him to continuously make sharp, thoughtful choices
without suffering from decision fatigue. That's what can happen when choices
become harder as a day goes on and you deplete your finite store of energy.
Amazon's first
employee shares what he learned from Jeff Bezos Amazon's
first employee shares what he learned from Jeff Bezos
"Mostly, as any of us go through our lives, we
don't need to maximize the number of decisions we make per day," Bezos
explains. "Making a small number of key decisions well is more important
than making a large number of decisions. If you shortchange your sleep, you
might get a couple of extra 'productive' hours, but that productivity might be
an illusion."
Your work can suffer when you're tired. "When
you're talking about decisions and interactions, quality is usually more
important than quantity," he says.
Science is on Bezos' side. Researchers for the Harvard
Business Review found a link between adequate sleep and effective leadership,
pointing out that all four of the most common leadership behaviors associated
with high-performing teams were hindered by a lack of sleep.
Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon.com
Matthew Staver | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon.com
One study found that after being awake for more than 17
to 19 hours, participants' performance slipped to that of someone with a blood
alcohol content of 0.05 percent. For reference, in many U.S. states the legal
BAC is 0.08 percent.
While other successful business magnates, including
Arianna Huffington and Bill Gates, join Bezos in making sleep a priority,
there's another camp of successful people who do the opposite.
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi typically clocks only around
four hours a night and Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey's packed schedule
leaves him between four and six hours a night. President Donald Trump wrote in
his 2004 book "Think Like a Billionaire" that he sleeps just four
hours per night.
But for most people, it seems, forgoing sleep, like
trying to multitask, doesn't pay off.
0 comments:
Post a Comment