Is Hand-Washing Dishes a Secret to the Success of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates?
One of the best parts of being rich is the ability to pay other people to do the chores you don't like. Who among us normal folk hasn't stared down the barrel of a day spent at the laundromat, or at the prospect of wrestling a fitted sheet onto a mattress, or at a deep sink of sticky dishes, and wished they could wave a billionaire's magic wand to make someone else deal with it?
There are at least two tech geniuses who don't mind the loathsome dish-washing chore: Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. "I do the dishes every night. I'm pretty convinced it's the sexiest thing I do," Bezos has joked, while Gates once claimed an affinity for the same task in a Reddit AMA.
You'd think that tech guys would appreciate that dazzling modern invention, the dishwasher. Or maybe they're just trying to sound humble in the press. Billionaires, they're just like you! But at least one study has demonstrated that the chore can calm the washer down and increase inspiration-as long as one approaches the task the right way.
In a 2014 experiment at Florida State University, subjects were asked to read a passage about practicing mindfulness while dish-washing; it preached the virtue of concentrating on one single task. After six minutes of suds, they reported their inspiration increased by 25 percent, and nervousness was reduced by 27 percent. It turns out the secret to enjoying the task is reframing it as an enjoyable, special activity in the first place.
Plus, as Inc. points out, there's always that concept that we get our best ideas during the most mundane of tasks, a shower. So maybe Bezos and Gates are onto something! Or at the very least, you can tell yourself that you're boosting your creativity next time you're scrubbing grease off a pan.
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