Eric Schmidt, whose internet price is hovering round $45 billion, is aware of what it takes to climb the company ladder in Silicon Valley, having spent a decade as CEO of Google. But the key to his success will not be racking up limitless hours within the workplace.
As an alternative, Schmidt credit a deceptively easy behavior, one he calls a game-changer for anybody looking for significant productiveness positive factors: Put aside just a few undisturbed hours every weekend for reflection, and seize a pen and paper. No screens allowed.
This strategy, which Schmidt revealed throughout a latest interview on The Gstaad Man Podcast hosted by Gustaf Lundberg Toresson, traces again to his mentorship by the late nice Invoice Campbell, legendary coach to tech’s most influential leaders.
“You work really hard during the week, as hard as you can—you know, 12 hours, 14 hour days, whatever—and on the weekends, when you’re at home or with your family or whatever, carve out a few hours to think,” Schmidt stated on the podcast. “Turn off the phone. You’re not texting. You’re not looking at Instagram and so forth. And think and write down your assessment of what you did last week, and then what you need to do next week to address the things you forgot to do last week.”
He insists this straightforward observe will be transformative as a result of it helps you observe specializing in accountability. “It’s a good trick because it forces you to take charge of your next week. Like, ‘Oh, I forgot that I have a sales problem over there,’ or ‘I forgot I was supposed to call this person,’ ‘Oh, I didn’t have this proposal and I had this idea but I didn’t get to it.’ And that usually works pretty well,” he stated.
This observe isn’t about squeezing extra duties into the weekend. It’s about utilizing downtime to recalibrate. Schmidt stated he finally discovered his optimum workweek to be about 63 hours—not the 80-plus-hour marathons of his youthful years—which simply goes to indicate that extra time on the desk doesn’t at all times result in higher outcomes. “You hit declining marginal productivity,” he stated on the podcast, including that an excessive amount of “slaving away” can truly erode outcomes.
He additionally makes clear that reflection isn’t just for CEOs or entrepreneurs. Anybody, from engineers to junior employees, can profit, particularly in a world saturated with digital noise and the ever-present threat of distraction. In an period the place “attention has become a form of currency,” he stated, the necessity to carve out considerate time whereas unplugged from our cavalcade of digital distractions has by no means been better.
In accordance with Schmidt, adopting this weekend behavior might help you catch small issues earlier than they develop into massive ones, and allow you to keep centered on essential issues. As Schmidt notes, “writing things down equals clarity”—and that readability is what retains the world’s strongest leaders not simply busy, however efficient.
You’ll be able to watch the complete Gstaad Man episode that includes Eric Schmidt beneath:
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to assist with an preliminary draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the knowledge earlier than publishing.
