1. He doesn't stop learning
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1975 when he and a friend called Paul Allen decided to start their own software company - now the trillion dollar worth company Microsoft. In his early years, Gates loved learning so much that he went to sit on classes he wasn't signed up for. Although he has never publicly divulged his IQ, the billionaire scored 1590 out of 1600 on his SATs in 1973, which translates to having an IQ of 151.45. This means that Bill Gates is technically a genius since he is smarter than 99.96% of the population.
2. He is a big reader
According to Gates, he has a pretty simple way on how to broaden his knowledge and understanding of things, and that is through reading. Gates spends an hour everyday on reading and finishes 50 books per year. In an interview with New York Times, he said that reading is one of the best ways that he learns, and has been since he was a kid. He further said that books continue to fuel his curiosity, and help him see things differently. Bill Gates is also a very fast reader, with a record of reading 750 words per minute or 150 pages per hour, with a 90% retention rate, according to a Netflix documentary.
3. He is conservative and frugal
Bill Gates has been famously know to fly coach, or still use the economy class on planes until 1997, even though his net-worth was already known to be in the double digit billions at this time. Despite his overwhelming wealth, Gates was seen to be wearing a $10 Casio watch during an event in 2014, as he says he has no interest in flaunting cash through jewelleries. Also, the former richest person in the world doesn't have the most sophisticated wardrobe either. Gates wears a default outfit of simple V-neck sweaters, over a collared shirt, often in a shade of purple, when attending events and meetings at Microsoft.
4. He invests in the future
Bill Gates is known to have a very good foresight ability, as proven by his 2015 Ted Talks event, warning the world, that a global pandemic would be the biggest threat to humanity, and not wars. Because of Covid-19, Gates says that travel and office work won't probably go back to a pre-pandemic level in the future just yet, and that Microsoft itself will soon be having a hybrid work model, with only a third of employees physically going to work. Even years before the pandemic happened, the billionaire philanthropist had already invested $10 billion to help the development of drugs and vaccines, such as in Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which helped deliver drugs to very poor and developing countries. The Microsoft founder also takes a very aggressive approach to investing, with 60% of his assets invested in equities.
5. He gets 7 hours of sleep every night
In the early days of Microsoft, Gates did a lot of hardcore all-nighters, sometimes multiple nights in a row to complete projects and meet deadlines. He soon realized that this was a very unhealthy stunt, with him operating on caffeine every single day, limiting his ability to concentrate, which led to poor decision-making skills. Eventually, Gates decided to have 7-8 hours of sleep everyday, with him sleeping at 12 am most days, and waking up 7 in the morning. He said that having at least 7 hours of sleep makes him more creative and happy the next day.
6. He runs everyday
After waking up, Gates spends an hour each morning running on the treadmill. He does this exercise while watching DVDs from the Teaching Company's Great Courses series. On some mornings, he would learn about geology or meteorology; and on others, it would be oceanography or US history. Gates believes that investing in your morning routine is one of the most powerful ways to take ownership of the day, and improve your overall well-being.
7. He takes down notes all the time
Although Bill Gates' routine is jam-packed with business meetings, events and interviews, the billionaire keeps track of his plans and ideas by jotting down notes all the time. Gates has often stated that note-taking is one of his most important habits. The founder of Microsoft writes down all the important information on a characteristic yellow sticky notes to jot down ideas and things that he remembers during the course of the day. Gates believes that any idea that comes across our minds, should not go to waste and should be be written down to be processed later on.
8. He uses timeboxing to manage his time
According to an article by Telegraph, Gates breaks down his tasks into small chunks, sometimes in 5-minute time boxes. Timeboxing, a famous method also used by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is when a person sets aside a specific amount of time to get a particular task done. For example, you can set 20-minutes of time to answer 5 emails, or one hour to finish writing an article. This tool keeps you from getting distracted and wasting too much time, and will also ensure your productivity levels are kept high. Doing this has proven to increase Gates' productivity throughout the years.
9. He chunks his time into topics
The billionaire philanthropist has extensively taken the importance of scheduling time for project management and thinking. He will block off 2-weeks every quarter to work on product design and also divide his time between his Foundation work and Microsoft work. Gates is proactive about focusing in specific topics at a time, as it keeps his creativity and curiosity going. He also believes that it is extremely tiring and unproductive to shift your focus from one topic to another in a single block of time, which is why he decides to creatively split them.
10. He takes advantage of snippets of time
We all have these little moments in a day such as in-between meetings, waiting for a doctor's appointment, waiting in line for mostly anything, where we can take better advantage of, by still making it productive. Gates will always have a book in hand and will get a quick read in-between meetings, or whenever he has an extra minute. At present, the default thing that people do whenever they get a spare amount of time is to browse through social media and just get lost in these infinity pools such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram from minutes to hours. Bill Gates believe that every single minute of time is important and should not go to waste, which is why he has a list of productive tasks to do whenever he gets the snippet of time to do them.
Opmerkingen