In 1948, 3M started their “Time to Think” program, which is still going strong. It allows employees to spend around 15% of their work week on their own projects. Art Fry and some coworkers created Post-Its in that 15%. Sure, at 3M, you’ve got access to amazing labs and a few thousand brains, but it goes to show that having structured non-structured time can make for huge results.
Google took it 5% further with their 20% program, first announced in their 2004 IPO letter. This is the one we’ve all heard of. One day a week of a Google employee’s time can be spent inventing new products or improving existing ones. Gmail, AdSense, and Google Suggest (among others), were born out of 20% projects. Of course, depending on your source (Google it), this program may or may notreally exist the way it used to.
Either way, the idea of formally offering freedom to innovate has spread and taken many forms. The LinkedIn [in]cubator invites employees to pitch new ideas to executives each quarter. Winning ideas are given a budget and 3 months to be brought to life. Companies everywhere have adopted Hackathons (now for tech and non-tech folks alike) to generate and prototype lots of ideas in a short time span. The concept has even spread to classrooms. Because who knew—kids have ideas, too.
So what about you?
You’re a creator. You make stuff. But are you blocking off protected time to work on your projects and business and ONLY work on your projects and business? Yeah. It’s tough. We’ve been there. No judgment.
Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about the inner-workings of, well, work. From launching our Small Product Lab to writing on various productivity-related topics. Recently, Balint Erdi, who wrote a post for us on the Gumroad blog a while back, said something in passing that got our gears turning:
Every Friday is the day I work on my Gumroad product. My version of the Google 20%. It’s 20% today. One day it will be 40%… 100%…
Balint worked it out so he spends Fridays working on his Ember.js book. He works in 25-minute chunks (following the Pomodoro Technique to improve his book and work on new ideas.
What I find very important is to take hold of ideas and write them down, as they can lead to more ideas. And having more ideas mean it’s easier to pick a fixed number of good ones out of them.
So every Friday is dedicated solely to that project. And it works.
Will it work for you?
Sure—if you can commit.
The Onion wrote an op-ed with a now well-known, super sarcastic headline: “Find The Thing You’re Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life” So hilarious it hurts, right? Don’t let it get you down. If your hobby is creating the stuff you love to make, try treating it more like a part-time job with the possibility of going full time. You might call it a jobby. Or you could call it a quest.
You just have to start with 20%.
If you’re:
- Working full time: Spend two hours a day (early mornings or evenings) and stick to it. If at all possible, adjust things so you can take Friday off (four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days). You deserve it.
- Working part time: C’mon. You have time. Orange is the New Black can wait.
- Freelancing: It’s all about time management—the ultimate freelancer’s challenge. Set aside time just for your project/products, and don’t let any emails or meetings or check-ins get in the way.
As for Balint, he’s a consultant/coder M-Th, and a writer/editor at the end of every week. For now.
The internet is brimming with tips for how to successfully pull off the 20% rule. Before you spend 20% of your day lost in that hole, here are our tried-and-true top three:
- Set up a special space. You don’t sleep a little bit in the bathtub (hopefully), so don’t try to work a little bit on a couch and expect to get a lot done.
- Figure out your time management style and begin to break your bad habits.
- Set goals and deadlines. This is a job now. Be a tough boss and an eager-to-please employee.
Gumroad exists to help creators make a living doing what they love. On top of your incredible talent, it’ll take hard work, devotion and patience. But we’ve seen it done. And we can learn from those who’ve gotten there.
So make sure your side gig doesn’t get sidetracked. And most importantly, believe in yourself.
What’s worked for you? We want to hear about it. Still on the struggle bus with some of this stuff? Maybe we can help.