A Bill Gates they attribute various work methods, discoveries, events or facts (positive or negative). We focus on the first case: one of the tycoon’s great secrets would be the application of the Technique of the four cubes.
The goal: time management.
Cal Newport, a professor from Georgetown, has analyzed the work of Gates since his appearance in the technological arena, in the 1970s. Newport indicates that Gates applied the technique of deep work, based on an anecdote told by his partner, Paul Allen, and reviewed by Walter Isaacson.
According to this, Gates fell asleep at his desk, “in the middle of a line of code.”
“After dozing off for an hour or two, I’d open my eyes, squint at the screen, blink twice, and pick up exactly where I left off. It was a prodigious feat of concentration.” Isaacson wrote in 2013.
Newport points out that it is a perfect example of “deep work.”
Where is this? In “professional activities performed in a state of concentration without distractions that push their cognitive abilities to the limit (which then) create new value, enhance your skill, and are hard to duplicate.”
“Allen’s mind fluttered between many ideas and passions, but Gates was a serial obsessive.”
The inspiration of Bill Gates in the Technique of the four cubes
Based on this theme, the writer Omar Itani built the Technique of the four cubes. That is, observing, analyzing Bill Gates, he established this rule.
Itani sends out The Optimist newsletter every other Sunday, for creatives curious “about success, personal growth, and intentional life design.”
Let’s go to the four cubes.
According to this, the available working hours are divided into four cubes, dedicating 25% of the time to each one.
The cubes are:
- What I want to do.
- What I have to do.
- What I need to do.
- What I can do.
Thus, the person is dividing his work and his way of life, day by day. Without major complications, in order to be increasingly proactive.