Eric Schmidt, whose web 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 shouldn’t be racking up limitless hours within the workplace.
As an alternative, Schmidt credit a deceptively easy behavior, one he calls a recreation changer for anybody in search of significant productiveness positive aspects: Put aside a couple of 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’re employed actually onerous throughout the week, as onerous as you possibly can—you understand, 12 hours, 14-hour days, no matter—and on the weekends, if you’re at residence or with your loved ones or no matter, carve out a couple of hours to assume,” Schmidt mentioned on the podcast. “Flip off the telephone. You’re not texting. You’re not Instagram and so forth. And assume and write down your evaluation of what you probably did final week, after which what it’s worthwhile to do subsequent week to deal with the stuff you forgot to do final week.”
He insists this straightforward observe might be transformative as a result of it helps you observe specializing in accountability. “It’s trick as a result of it forces you to take cost of your subsequent week. Like, ‘Oh, I forgot that I’ve a gross sales downside over there,’ or ‘I forgot I used to be alleged to name this individual.’ ‘Oh, I didn’t have this proposal, and I had this concept, however I didn’t get to it.’ And that normally works fairly effectively,” he mentioned.
This observe isn’t about squeezing extra duties into the weekend. It’s about utilizing downtime to recalibrate. Schmidt mentioned he finally discovered his optimum workweek to be about 63 hours—not the greater than 80-hour marathons of his youthful years—which simply goes to point out that extra time on the desk doesn’t at all times result in higher outcomes. “You hit declining marginal productiveness,” he mentioned on the podcast, including that an excessive amount of “slaving away” can truly erode outcomes.
He additionally makes clear that reflection is not only for CEOs or entrepreneurs. Anybody, from engineers to junior employees, can profit, particularly in a world saturated with digital noise and the ever-present danger of distraction. In an period the place “consideration has turn into a type of forex,” he mentioned, the necessity to carve out considerate time whereas unplugged from our cavalcade of digital distractions has by no means been higher.
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 issues down equals readability”—and that readability is what retains the world’s strongest leaders not simply busy, however efficient.
You’ll be able to watch the total 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.
