Ray Kroc’s Blackboard Technique – Get Better Sleep & Destroy Stress in Seconds

Ray Kroc’s blackboard technique is a visualization method Ray Kroc used heavily whilst building McDonald’s. 

Like any other entrepreneurial venture, Kroc was bombarded by a series of problems on his quest to greatness.

In his book ‘Grinding It Out’, he explains the approach he developed towards the never-ending streams of challenges which demanded his attention.

“I learned then how to keep problems from crushing me. I refused to worry about more than one thing at a time, and I would not let useless fretting about a problem, no matter how important, keep me from sleeping.”

— Ray Kroc

Even in the mid-1950s before the importance of sleep was widely accepted, Kroc intuitively knew it was incredibly important to guard this sacred time.

His reasoning was based on not wanting to disappoint the customers he would meet in the morning.

When times get tough, many entrepreneurs choose to cut out sleep in order to have more ‘productive’ hours of work.

Even entrepreneurship juggernauts like Elon Musk have famously endorsed working 80- to 100-hour weeks while squeezing in little sleep.

Musk is known to sometimes sleep in his factories as opposed to going home.

Recently he changed his mind, stating that not getting enough sleep causes him pain.

“I’ve tried [to sleep] less, but…even though I’m awake more hours, I get less done,” Musk said. “And the brain pain level is bad if I get less than six hours.”

It’s now obvious that to thrive as an entrepreneur you need to get enough rest.

How To Do Ray Kroc’s Blackboard Technique

Here is the advice directly from Kroc.

“I would think of my mind as being a blackboard full of messages, most of them urgent, and I practiced imagining a hand with an eraser wiping that blackboard clean. I made my mind completely blank. If a thought began to appear, zap! I’d wipe it out before it could form. Then I would relax my body, beginning at the back of my neck and continuing on down, shoulders, arms, torso, legs, to the tips of my toes. By this time, I would be asleep.”

Kroc explains how he got the method from a hypnosis book.

The method works because it teaches you how to clear unwanted thoughts from your mind.

These pestering thoughts lead to sleepless nights.

Trying to solve complex problems before sleep is counterproductive.

You don’t have full conscious awareness to use proper logic, and you can’t rely on your subconscious to give you solutions.

Our brain waves shift as we go to sleep from Beta to Delta, but if we stay up trying to solve problems we disrupt this process.

This creates a feedback loop of destruction.

We struggle to sleep because we stay up trying to solve problems.

We then get bad sleep and are not energized the next day, thus solving problems becomes even more difficult.

Entrepreneurs and high performers must learn how to quickly ‘let go’ of their problems by creating psychological distance.

Sleep time is sacred, and you should guard that time with vigilance.

Ray Kroc’s method was so effective that people were routinely shocked by his ability to perform at a high level.

“Others marveled that I could work twelve or fourteen hours a day at a busy convention, then entertain potential customers until two or three o’clock in the morning, and still be out of bed early, ready to collar my next client. My secret was in getting the most out of every minute of rest. I guess I couldn’t have averaged more than six hours of sleep a night. Many times I got four hours or less. But I slept as hard as I worked.”

Kroc like Musk was sometimes able to get away with sleeping 4 hours a day.

He trained himself to get into a deep REM sleep quickly, and hence did not need as much time in bed as most people.

It’s not advised you sleep so little, but developing your own form of sleep time ritual is key.

The ritual can be a visualization like that of Kroc. It could also be doing a set routine such as turning off your lights at 10PM or taking a shower before bed.

Consistency is what allows your body to fall asleep quicker.

Do this, and you will be one step closer to living and dying well.