Over the last seven-plus years since founding 1440, a news and knowledge platform for 4,500,000 intellectually curious individuals, I’ve been laser-focused on two goals:

• Consistently deliver a world-class product to our audience.
• Build—and retain—a phenomenal people culture that prioritizes curiosity, innovation, and humanity.

As a first-time founder and CEO, I’ve been committed from day one to building a company that doesn’t get bogged down by the challenges that so many growing companies face—meetings overload, slower turnaround times, and innovation stagnation—for fear of its impediment on our ability to deliver on these two priorities.

So, we’re getting ahead of it.

Over the years, I’ve meticulously studied hundreds of founders and CEOs, absorbing their lessons (and warnings) about building long-term, sustainable businesses. Their insights have helped shape our company’s operating principles. As a team, we discuss how these learnings can inform the foundations of our own company.

One principle we’ve adopted for ourselves to combat the aforementioned growing business challenge: Bill Gates’ Think Week—the idea of deliberately setting aside time for focused thinking.

The concept is simple: Gates would retreat to a secluded location, immerse himself in books and research on topics of interest, and give himself over to it 100%. The week would be prescheduled, so nothing could get in the way of this priority.

I began reflecting on how a similar practice could benefit us at 1440. I adapted the concept for the entire team, and I am happy to report that the results have been nothing short of transformative.

We implemented our first Thinking Week in December 2023 as an experiment: a full week where all meetings were canceled, allowing employees the space to step away from their daily routines and think more strategically, outside of the tight structure of our usual days. The initiative was so well received that it has become a quarterly tradition.

Here’s how it works for us.

Unlike a corporate retreat or a structured brainstorming session, Thinking Week is flexible, and employees decide how they want to spend their time. Some might immerse themselves in research, others might reflect on processes and workflows, and some might use it to catch up on long-overdue projects that require deep focus. Regardless, we welcome the learnings that only come from letting the mind wander.

As a fully remote workforce, this is not about closing down the office. Some people decide to go somewhere quiet, while others just carve out time at home. The goal is to get away from the daily grind and think differently about the company and our everyday work. While most people approach Thinking Week as an independent undertaking, we reconvene as a team afterward to discuss the insights and ideas that emerged.

Since implementation, we’ve uncovered incredible ideas, optimizations, and breakthroughs that have significantly moved the business forward.

One of the most striking examples that drove measurable progress came from our sales team who used their Thinking Week to analyze various advertising strategies and emerging trends across multiple industries. They then used those findings to inform changes to our advertising strategy, leading to a 39% increase in ad engagement. This increase, when annualized, essentially covered our entire company’s salaries for the year.

Another significant outcome emerged from Human Resources, which took a deep dive into industry-leading benefits programs, benchmarking against companies known for taking great care of their teams. Coming out of this research, they introduced enhanced employee benefits, including preventive body scans and a $500 annual contribution to each employee’s 529 college savings plan for their children.

The overall impact on the team has been entirely positive. In addition to the innovative ideas that emerge, Thinking Week is a definitive expression of how deeply we trust our team. This is already critical in a remote team, but it reconfirms that trust to know that this extends to a full week of unstructured, independent time.

Most importantly, we’ve found that the outputs from Thinking Week have directly contributed to further achieving our two main goals of consistently delivering a world-class product to our audience, and building—and retaining—a phenomenal people culture that prioritizes curiosity, innovation, and humanity.

For companies looking to foster innovation, break free from routine, and unlock the creative potential of their teams, the concept of Thinking Week offers compelling advantages. By intentionally creating space for deep thought, businesses can generate breakthrough ideas that lead to lasting success.