Bill Gates Productivity Tips

Take steps to make it easier to sleep well.

• Avoid caffeine, alcohol, or other drugs for several hours before bed
• Set a regular bedtime
• Drink some warm milk or herbal tea, or have a light snack
• Try a screen-free activity like meditation or reading
• Eliminate as much noise from your bedroom as possible
• Keep your bedroom dark
• Don’t linger too long in bed. It’s better to do your lounging on the couch and head for bed only when it’s time to sleep.

• Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that there are two kinds of labor: productive and unproductive. The productive one generally adds value to the materials which he works upon, of his own maintenance, and his master's profit. However, a man grows poor by maintaining a multitude of menial servants who add to the value of nothing.
• Benjamin Franklin put forth his own "to-do" list in 1791, stating that one should start the day asking what good shall be done and end the day evaluating what was accomplished.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, machines moved production from handmade in the home to factories. A frenzy of producing more goods more quickly became a kind of national pastime.

Low-wage factory workers, many of whom were children, toiled in unsafe conditions for decades before labor unions put measures in place to protect workers from the excesses of the push for productivity.