Why Jeff Bezos holds 'messy meetings' at Amazon: 'I believe in mind wandering'
Billionaire Jeff Bezos has a unique way of boosting his own, and colleagues', productivity and it is called ‘mind wandering’.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, takes a different approach to scheduling the working day compared to many other executives. Instead of filling his schedule with back-to-back meetings and strict time blocks, Bezos prioritizes giving himself and his teams enough time for creative thinking. He believes in allowing space for ideas to develop and discussions to unfold naturally, rather than adhering strictly to a rigid schedule.
In an episode of Lex Fridman Podcast in 2023, he said, “I don’t keep to a strict schedule,” and added, “My meetings often go longer than I plan for them to, because I believe in [mind] wandering.” He even dubbed it as “messy meeting.”
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No specified time allocation was given to them in terms of minutes and hours. It was all kept spontaneous. He explained, “When I sit down [in] a meeting, I don’t know how long the meeting is going to take if we’re trying to solve a problem.”
In these meetings, he highlighted the most important aspect - wandering. He said, “The reality is we may have to wander for a long time ... I think there’s certainly nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with a group of smart people and spit-balling and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas, and then solutions to the objections and going back and forth.”
He recognised this habit may not be widely appreciated by many and some would even call them “inefficient” and prefer the ‘time blocking’ technique, but he said it is backed by studies that show this specific way of holding meetings may actually help increase productivity, creativity and even happiness.
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Time blocking indicates scheduling everything and allocating time for each activity, even mealtimes to get through the day and efficiently accomplish tasks. However, Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos says this strategy, according to some studies, may leave employees stressed out.
Psychologist Jill Suttie indicated in an article, “The trick is to know when to set your mind free,” CNBC Make it reported.
For Bezos it is crucial to let minds wander to better consider the benefits and pitfalls of ideas and if he finds them acceptable, he gets others involved too to add value via group brainstorming sessions.
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He explained to Fridman, “I will often say, ‘Look, it is going to be really easy for you to find objections to this idea, but work with me….’”
To further motivate the team, he would add, “Let’s get started on that. It’ll be fun.’”
