I've read that Google has something called 20% time. What this means is that you get to spend 20% of your time doing whatever you want -- as long as it is in the interests of the company. Gmail was one of those things that originated as a part of 20% time.
Think about it.
Imagine if you could spend 1 day out of your week working on whatever you want. For me, it would be leadership development. For some odd reason, I have this fascination with personal and professional development, leadership, management, mentoring, and productivity. I can read book after book on it in the hopes of one day providing that kind of service to help others. In my spare time, I am a beta "mentor" for Modern Guild and I attempt to pass on sound advice to undergraduate students that definitely have more going for them than I did when I graduated from college.
Unfortunately for me, I'm on what I call 99.9% time. 99.9% of the time I spend doing things that probably make sense for everyone else but me.
So the question becomes, "How can I focus more of my day working on the stuff that I would do IF I actually did have 20% time?"
The reality is that I spend the good part of a day thinking about how I can get through it in order to spend the rest of my day hanging out with my son and doing the things that I find intellectually stimulating. That also means going to bed after midnight which I used to do anyway when I was working for a big firm and getting paid a heck of a lot more money. (Insert whine with cheese here). But that's neither here nor there.
The advice that I give to others that will actually listen to me is to not spend your day waiting to do the things you love to do after hours. Do the things that exploit your strengths because that it how you will get into a state of flow. I do think that that there are a sh*t ton of people that are spending time in their day just accepting what they have to do during the day to get a paycheck. That is not a good way to live. If you are a halfway motivated person, you'll go crazy -- trust me.
I don't have any answers (which has become more of the norm lately)-- except for a quote by Steve Jobs- "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
Think about it.
Imagine if you could spend 1 day out of your week working on whatever you want. For me, it would be leadership development. For some odd reason, I have this fascination with personal and professional development, leadership, management, mentoring, and productivity. I can read book after book on it in the hopes of one day providing that kind of service to help others. In my spare time, I am a beta "mentor" for Modern Guild and I attempt to pass on sound advice to undergraduate students that definitely have more going for them than I did when I graduated from college.
Unfortunately for me, I'm on what I call 99.9% time. 99.9% of the time I spend doing things that probably make sense for everyone else but me.
So the question becomes, "How can I focus more of my day working on the stuff that I would do IF I actually did have 20% time?"
The reality is that I spend the good part of a day thinking about how I can get through it in order to spend the rest of my day hanging out with my son and doing the things that I find intellectually stimulating. That also means going to bed after midnight which I used to do anyway when I was working for a big firm and getting paid a heck of a lot more money. (Insert whine with cheese here). But that's neither here nor there.
The advice that I give to others that will actually listen to me is to not spend your day waiting to do the things you love to do after hours. Do the things that exploit your strengths because that it how you will get into a state of flow. I do think that that there are a sh*t ton of people that are spending time in their day just accepting what they have to do during the day to get a paycheck. That is not a good way to live. If you are a halfway motivated person, you'll go crazy -- trust me.
I don't have any answers (which has become more of the norm lately)-- except for a quote by Steve Jobs- "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
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