How to run a Think Week

What Bill Gates does#

Since the 1980s, Bill Gates has gone away alone about twice a year for a week of reading and thinking. Early on it was his grandmother's house; later, a secluded cabin in the Pacific Northwest.

• Total isolation. In the Microsoft years, a caretaker brought simple meals and was his only contact.
• No normal work. No meetings and no operational decisions. Just reading, thinking and writing.
• Lots of input. Microsoft employees at any level could submit papers on technology, strategy or product ideas. He took 100+ papers per week (112 in one 2005 week the WSJ reported on), and wrote comments in the margins. A junior engineer could get an idea in front of the CEO this way.
• A written output. He ended each week by writing down his conclusions.

The famous result is the 1995 memo "The Internet Tidal Wave", commonly credited to a Think Week. It turned Microsoft toward the internet, one of the biggest strategic shifts in its history. One good decision was enough to justify every week he ever spent.

Who else does it#

The same idea comes in different sizes: a year, a week, a Friday afternoon, 2 hours a day.

Cal Newport calls the bigger versions "grand gestures" in Deep Work: a dramatic change of place that signals to your own brain that this thinking matters.

What they all have in common#

1. Separation. A different place, and nobody can reach you.
2. A question. Go in with a few big questions, not a to-do list.
3. Input. Reading, notes, material. Not just staring at a wall.
4. Output. A memo, a decision, a finished draft. Something concrete comes out.

What to expect#

• Days 1–2: restless. You'll want to check your phone and your work. That's normal; push through it.
• The middle: ideas start connecting.
• The end: a few clear decisions, not a perfect plan. One good decision is enough.

Questions worth bringing#

These four questions connect this week to the rest of the course:

1. Of everything I want, which 5 matter most? Which 20 will I stop doing, even though they're tempting? (Chapter 1)
2. With AI, what has become cheap (writing, coding, doing)? What's still rare (taste, judgment, trust, relationships)? Put my weeks into the rare stuff. (Chapter 5)
3. Where am I choosing comfort when the right move is uncomfortable?
4. Out of my 4,000 weeks, how many are left? What would I regret not doing?

The output: one page#

• 3–5 decisions
• What I'm stopping
• The first step for Monday