Business leaders and entrepreneurs that regularly get a good night’s sleep may have less time to make decisions, but the decisions they do make are better, according to Jeff Bezos.
That’s why the billionaire Amazon founder does what he can to get eight hours of shut-eye a night.
Read more: Why this chief executive is paying his employees to sleep more
While some entrepreneurs claim to only need four hours sleep a night, Bezos says eight hours is the amount he needs “to feel energised and excited”. And he believes it leads to better results for Amazon shareholders.
“If you shortchange your sleep, you might get a couple of extra ‘productive’ hours, but that productivity might be an illusion,” he said in an interview for Arianna Huffington’s recently launched wellness business, Thrive Global.
“When you’re talking about decisions and interactions, quality is usually more important than quantity.
“Making a small number of key decisions well is more important than making a large number of decisions.”
For Bezos, the idea of finding “harmony” between work and home life is more useful than the concept of work-life balance.
“I prefer the word ‘harmony’ to the word ‘balance’ because balance tends to imply a strict tradeoff,” he said.
“In fact, if I’m happy to work, I’m better at home – a better husband and a better father.
“And if I’m happy at home, I come into work more energised – a better employee and a better colleague.”
Editor
Eloise is an experienced business journalist and editor, who has held senior editorial roles at SmartCompany since 2014. Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on LinkedIn, and Twitter at @ellykeating.
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