1: In the 1980s, Microsoft founder Bill Gates began secluding himself for a week each year, cutting off communication to dedicate time solely to reading and thinking.
He called it “Think Week.”
It was his time “to be creative and push his thinking with new depth and breadth,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life.
“It allowed him to exit the demands of an average day on the job,” Sahil notes, “and train his sights on the bigger picture.”
2: While dedicating a week may seem daunting, Sahil adapts the idea with what he calls a “Think Day.”
Each month, he sets aside one day dedicated to reading, learning, journaling, and thinking.
‘In a speed-obsessed world, the benefits of slowing down are extensive, according to Sahil.
He spends eight hours in one-hour focus blocks, taking walks in between.
Like Bill, he secludes himself so he can step back from the day-to-day rush of professional demands. He sets an out-of-office response and shuts down all his devices.
“By doing this,” Sahil writes, “we create the free time to zoom out, open our minds, and think creatively about the bigger picture.
There are five tools required for a Think Day:
A journal, a pen, books/articles we’ve been wanting to read, secluded location (at home, rental, or outside), and thinking prompts to spark our minds
3: To make these days productive, Sahil also shares eight thinking prompts he finds powerful:
Prompt 1: If I repeated my current typical day for one hundred days, would my life be better or worse?
Prompt 2: If people observed my actions for a week, what would they say my priorities are?
Prompt 3: If I were the main character in a movie of my life, what would the audience be screaming at me to do right now?
Prompt 4: Am I hunting antelope (big important problems) or field mice (small urgent problems)?
Prompt 5: What are my strongest beliefs?
Prompt 6: What would it take for me to change my mind on them?
Prompt 7: What are a few things I know now that I wish I’d known five years ago?
Prompt 8: What actions did I engage in five years ago that I cringe at today? What actions am I engaged in today that I might cringe at in five years?
The benefits of a “Think Day” include:
- Restoring our energy
- Noticing things we missed
- Being more deliberate with our actions
- Focusing on the highest-leverage opportunities
- Moving slow to move fast
“Give it a shot,” he tells us, “and experience the benefits of intentional solitude.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: If I repeated my current “typical day” for 100 days, would my life be moving toward or away from the future I really want?
Action: Block one Think Day on my calendar this month, gather a journal and a few good books, and work through several of Sahil’s prompts so I can notice what I’ve been missing and choose my next highest-leverage actions.
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