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might stretch beyond clean plates
Billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have both said they do
the dishes at home.
Research suggests that there may be creative and emotional benefits
to mundane chores like dishwashing.
The low-tech tasks can help people — even billionaires — be more
mindful.
Bill Gates’ house is worth a cool $125 million. Jeff Bezos cashes
in $1 billion a year in Amazon stock to fund his dream of sending
people to space with his rocket company, Blue Origin.
Clearly, both these guys could afford to hire someone to do the
dishes for them.
But both billionaires still insist on scrubbing plates
themselves.
“I do the dishes every night. I’m pretty convinced it’s the
sexiest thing I do,” Bezos joked in a 2014 interview.
“I do the dishes every night,” Gates similarly revealed on a
Reddit AMA the same year.
Are they crazy? Is this a plot for these titans of the universe
to stay humble?
While neither billionaire revealed the thinking behind his dish
scrubbing, science suggests there are good reasons even the
busiest, and richest, among us might want to do mundane chores —
and why those of us who can’t get rid of them might want to rethink
them.
Chores as meditation
Though it might be hard to believe at first, research shows that
everyday tasks like loading the dishwasher and hanging out the
laundry can be serious happiness boosters if done in the right
way.
One study taught volunteers to view doing the dishes as a chance
to practice mindfulness by focusing on the present and the
sensation of the suds, the warm water, and so forth.
After just six minutes of scrubbing, the meditative dishwashers
reported feeling 27% less nervous and 25% more inspired.
This probably sounds crazy to the great many busy professionals
out there who would be thrilled to spend a little less time on
housework, but the study isn’t just one loony outlier. Meditation
teachers have long insisted that focusing on mundane tasks can
illuminate your inner beauty and calm the mind.
And if meditation teachers are too woo-woo for you, Wharton
School professor and best-selling author Adam Grant has made a
similar argument, explaining why, despite much hectoring from
enthusiasts, he has never bothered to adopt a formal meditation
practice.
He hasn’t started sitting on special pillows or listening to
apps because he doesn’t need to. He can, and does, practice
mindfulness as part of his everyday life.
“Mindfulness, as my colleagues and I study it, does not depend
on meditation: It is the very simple process of noticing new
things, which puts us in the present,” he writes.
Chores as creativity booster
Now imagine you’re a billionaire running a philanthropic juggernaut
or one of America’s most dynamic companies. Imagine the constant
decisions, the cognitive demands, the jam-packed schedules, the
endless worry about the future, Any brain, no matter how
extraordinary, would need a break from that. Doing the dishes
provides the perfect opportunity to let all that fall away and be
fully present.
But that’s not the only benefit of regular sink duty. Working that
sponge can be an opportunity to focus on the now, but it can also
be a chance to relax and daydream. And creativity experts say it’s
just this sort of loose mind-wandering that allows the brain to
make some of its most innovate and unexpected leaps (which is why
so many good ideas come to us in the shower).
So not only do Gates and Bezos get to slip in a bit of
mindfulness rinsing plates, but their nightly chore is also a
valuable spring of creativity.
A takeaway for us non-billionaires
The point here isn’t, as the tabloids would say, “Billionaires,
they’re just like us!” I would happily hand off dish duty to a paid
professional in a heartbeat. But while no billionaire interview is
going to make me like loading the dishwasher, Gates’ and Bezos’
devotion to the dishes does nudge me to rethink the many household
tasks I can’t get rid of.
You may hate folding laundry or tidying toys, but the fact these
superrich entrepreneurs hold on to such chores is a reminder that,
if we get in the right mindset, these mundane jobs can be valuable
opportunities for mindfulness or creativity.
That truth probably won’t make you jump for joy next time you
roll up your sleeves to tackle a pile of dirty plates, but it
should at least start you thinking about whether you’re getting the
most out of the chores that most of us aren’t able to
outsource.
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