Six-page narrative memo
A written memo read silently at the start of the meeting, in place of slides
Instead of a slide deck, the person proposing something writes a memo of up to six pages in full sentences and paragraphs. The meeting opens with everyone reading it in silence, often for half an hour, then the discussion starts with the whole room holding the same context. Writing this way is slow for the author, and a good memo may go through days of drafts and colleagues poking holes in it. That is the point: the effort moves from the audience to the writer, and the arguments have to hold up without a presenter talking over the gaps.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Jeff BezosDoes it
Amazon and Blue Origin founder · Six-page memos and eight hours of sleep
Meetings at Amazon and Blue Origin open with a six-page narrative memo, then a silent study hall of about thirty minutes. Slides, he thinks, are built to persuade: easy for the author, hard for the audience. A memo, he thinks, does the reverse.
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #405 transcript: Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin“Meetings at Amazon and Blue Origin are unusual. … For 30 minutes, we sit there silently together in the meeting and read.”
Lex Fridman Podcast #405 transcript: Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin (opens in a new tab) · 14 Dec 2023
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under productivity or focus.
- ProtocolFREE, no cost
Environment design
Change the room instead of relying on willpower
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 5 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Time blocking
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deep work blocks
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deliberate wandering
Unplanned, inefficient exploration kept on purpose as the counterweight to efficiency
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Digital declutter
A 30-day break from optional tech, then reintroduce deliberately
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Hard thinking before lunch
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
Protocol entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.