Become an Innovative Powerhouse
Achieve the impossible: Few hours a week at a time.
Achieving the impossible takes about 8 hours each week.
Spending 20% of your time learning will create impressive results. 20% of your time comes out 8 hours per week if you work a traditional 40-hour job.
In 2003, Google implemented 20% time (building off of 3M’s 15% time) as a way of having employees spend 20% of their time on any project which led to interesting results.
From 3M’s 15% time, the Post-It Note was created.
From Google’s 20% time, Gmail and Google Maps were developed.
For self-improvement, we can choose to learn for 8 hours per week, we can master any topic and accomplish any goal. The idea behind 20% time helps create consistency and the building blocks for a system to learn anything where your passion, curiosity, and interest collide to create effortless improvement to excite you daily.
To use 20% time, you need 3 things:
A topic
Clear goal
At least 3 Small steps to accomplish each day.
Schools in the US have implemented a similar approach. In Grosse Pointe, Michigan, South High School, each Friday is set aside to allow students to pursue projects they feel passionate about. Students are graded by blog posts documenting their work and a final presentation at the end showcasing their work. These projects are student driven.
“Early in the school year, students choose a topic, select a mentor, and spend the rest of the year researching and pursuing their goal. They need to produce a product or achieve a goal at the end of the school year.” - Nicholas Provenzano, English teacher at Grosse Point
Say you work in retail and are interested in the visual effects people use in YouTube videos or designs on products.
Spend a few hours each week developing those skills and posting your work for others to see. Posting your work online is daunting, but it’s a great way to receive feedback and guidance on your learning process and build connections with people in similar community.
Here’s an example of 20% time to learning Graphic Design:
Topic: Graphic Design
Goal: Learn graphic design and make cool work like the ones you see in videos and stores.
Small Steps: At the end of each week, post your graphic design to social media (Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to get feedback and connect with people.
Consistently publish your work for others to see. It gives you a deadline to publish your work and practice regularly.
Steve Jobs had it right when talking about the road to success.
Fail Early, Fail Often, Fail Forward.